When you're working to grow the email list for your business and you see a few different people unsubscribe each time you send out a newsletter, it starts to feel a bit disheartening. It can be difficult to generate those leads, so why are they unsubscribing? What's wrong in your email marketing strategy that's making them want to opt-out of your list?
It's important to remember that while it may be disappointing to see these contacts leave your email list, especially without making a purchase or service inquiry, it's not necessarily a bad thing. There are things you can learn from unsubscribes, but there are also reasons to be grateful for them.
Let's talk more about why email unsubscribes aren't the end of the world.
1. They're cleaning up your email list.
Over time, email lists grow stale. Not everyone who ends up on your email list is going to turn into a customer. They might have been interested in your lead magnet only, they might have wanted to learn more information about your company but decided not to buy, or they might honestly have zero idea how they even ended up on your email list to begin with (hey, we're all a little forgetful sometimes).
When people unsubscribe, it's because they weren't likely to convert into customers anyway. And an email list full of unqualified leads isn't going to help your business at all. So instead of being disappointed with unsubscribes, keep in mind that they weed out the unqualified leads so that you can focus on nurturing the leads that will actually turn into paying customers.
2. They're improving your conversion rates.
As we mentioned in the last point, when people unsubscribe, it's because they probably weren't going to make a purchase from your company anyway. Keeping them on your email list can actually skew your analytics, like click-through rates and conversion rates.
A good number of your qualified leads could be clicking through, meaning your messaging is on target for the people who are actually interested in buying. But the subscribers who aren't qualified, and who are never going to click that "Buy" button are making that click-through rate and conversion rate look even smaller than they really are.
This is why many businesses will even unsubscribe people from their lists manually. If you go through your list and see that there are people who haven't opened an email from you in three to six months or more, you're better off removing them instead of waiting for them to unsubscribe themselves. Although this may shrink your list initially, you'll be happily surprised at your overall analytics for your newsletters.
3. They're saving you money.
Now, this might not always be the case, but there are many email marketing providers that have their payment plans based on the number of subscribers to whom you're sending emails. If people who aren't interested in your business unsubscribe, they're doing you a favor. They're saving you money so that you're not marketing to people who don't really want to receive information from your company.
For example, you might pay $50/month for an email list with 3,000 emails, but if enough people unsubscribe to drop you down below that 3,000 email threshold, it could drop your monthly payment down a good bit. Imagine saving $15-20 a month, just because some people (who weren't going to be a customer anyway) decided not to get your emails anymore. It's a win-win, really.
But when you see your email unsubscribes increase unusually (i.e., a large amount of unsubscribes higher than your typical average), that's when you might want to revisit your email marketing strategy to see if something's broken.
Here are a few reasons people might be unsubscribing that you actually do want to fix.
1. Your lead magnet and email marketing strategy are not cohesive.
If someone downloads your lead magnet to get added to your list, but then your email marketing covers a completely different array of topics, they might become confused and uninterested in your business. After all, they downloaded a lead magnet about one thing, but your company is sending emails about something totally different. That's not at all what they signed up for.
You want to make sure that your lead magnet and email marketing strategy go well together and make sense. This is the best way to grow your email list with interested, qualified leads, and nurture them along the way through your email newsletter.
2. Your email marketing content is dull.
Maybe you need to revisit your email marketing strategy as a whole. What types of content are you sending out? How does it appear visually? Are your newsletters graphic-heavy or text-heavy?
Are the graphics well done, or do they look like an amateur has created them? Is your text actually informational and educational, or is your audience getting absolutely nothing from being subscribed to your newsletter?
These are important things to consider. If you're focusing more on actually generating the leads and you're creating poor content once they're on your email list, you need to revamp this strategy. Your email marketing is meant to nurture those leads, to help them become more and more interested in your business until they finally make a purchase. If you're sending out emails just to send them, with no rhyme or reason, and no strategy, you're not going to nurture anyone, and they're all going to unsubscribe.
Your email marketing is an important part of your digital marketing strategy. If you see a couple of unsubscribes from each newsletter you send out, don't sweat it. These people weren't going to become customers anyway, so they're helping you to focus on the ones that will.
However, keep a look out if that unsubscribe rate increases to determine if there's anything in your strategy that you actually do need to fix. If you're unsure, contact us and we'll help you analyze your email marketing strategy.
Written By: Doug Milnor
