3 Ways To Feed Your Audience Their Preferred Fare

“Who gets too much email?”

I asked that question recently when presenting to a group. Not surprisingly, nearly every hand in the room shot up into the air. Participants broke into impassioned dialogue about overflowing in-boxes, spammers and unsubscribes. Once I regained control, I spent the next 15 minutes talking about the effectiveness of email marketing to cultivate prospects.

Wait, what?

I’ll take a leap of faith here and assume that you’ve recently unsubscribed to a newsletter or three. Upon clicking the unsubscribe link, you’re taken to a page which may say simply “you’ve unsubscribed.” With relief, your response is likely selecting the next marketing email in your in-box, to take the same action.

Tips to avoid email unsubscribes

When done well, email marketing allows you to feed your audience exactly the content they want, at the cadence they choose. In addition, it allows you to know who viewed, as well as who engaged with, your content.

Rather than standing by passively watching your warm lead walk away, try raising the bar on your email marketing subscription process. Email marketing services provide functionality to personalize the signup and unsubscribe process. Try these three techniques to offer an improved user experience for your subscribers:

1. Enter: Brand personality

While there’s certainly merit in getting to the point, creative branding on your “Unsubscribe” page can move a subscriber to pause briefly for consideration. That momentary pause may be all that’s needed to stop the unsubscribe frenzy. Use it wisely.

By humanizing your brand, you can engage current subscribers sufficiently to capture their attention. You may then offer subscription alternatives, gain insights on why they wish to unsubscribe, or redirect them to connect with you on social media instead.

Predictably, the two most common reasons for unsubscribing are email frequency and content that’s not of interest. Both concerns are easily addressed by enabling subscribers to cater preferences to their needs.

2. Too much is too much 

Some people love hearty all-you-can-eat buffets; others prefer light fare or tapas portions. If the reason for unsubscribing is too many emails, your response must be bold and impactful to retain the subscriber.

Offer alternatives for reduced email frequency which illustrate that you understand and want to meet their needs. The Daily Sip offers a weekly option in place of a daily one.

Another approach to the frequency issue is catering your mail time to meet the needs of your subscribers. Ask when they’d like to receive emails, such as only on the weekends.

3. Are you sharing vegan content with a meat-loving audience?

If you’re actively emailing, you probably share content on various topics or categories. Show your subscribers respect by offering them the control to select the types of information they’re interested in. The gluten-free subscriber should be able to de-select from your email series on baking with phyllo dough while still receiving grilling tips.

Providing subscribers the opportunity to pre-select the content they are interested in at initial sign-up can reduce future unsubscribes. A link on your email footer to manage preferences cares for current subscribers. 

Want to learn more about more effectively using email marketing to reach your customers? Review our other blog posts or sign up for a free email marketing trial.