- [Instructor] Have you ever tried to get your number
off an aggressive sales person's list?
It can feel downright frustrating
but it doesn't have to be that way with email.
The best brands understand that a happy
and engaged member of their audience is far better
and less expensive than one that's not.
Some brands use shady practices like no unsubscribe.
Some senders don't offer an unsubscribe,
particularly if they're not sending newsletters.
So there's no way to stop the emails.
A broken unsubscribe link.
Sometimes the unsubscribe link is actually broken.
Some senders hide the link in light colored text
or send the unsubscribes to a complicated page
that confuses them into keeping their subscription active.
And then there's the desperate unsubscribe.
Some senders just get annoyingly desperate,
making their subscriber navigate the gauntlet
of pleas to keep you on the list.
The typical customer's reaction is to stop trying
and mark the email as spam already.
Guess what that does to the health of your list
and the ability for your future emails to get delivered?
Here's an important thing to understand.
Unsubscribes are not necessarily a bad thing.
People unsubscribe for a lot of reasons,
and it may have nothing to do with you.
Regardless of the reason,
it's actually better for your marketing
that they're not on your list.
Here's the damage
that an unengaged audience member can cause.
They drag down your email performance
because they're not opening or clicking your messages.
They're unsubscribe could actually give
your email metrics a boost.
For some email service providers,
you pay for every email contact in your list,
so an unsubscribe can actually save you money.
Make unsubscribing easy and clear
by using large and prominent text.
Offer the option to update their preferences instead.
This gives your subscribers the control
to make choices about the type and frequency
of emails they receive from you.
Give them other ways to stay in touch.
Just because they unsubscribed
from your emails doesn't mean
that they don't want to hear from you ever again.
Maybe they just want to clean their inbox.
Offer them the chance to connect
with you on social media, for example.
Use a single opt-out when they unsubscribe.
The best practice here is to confirm online
after they click to unsubscribe.
There's no need to send them another email.
And once every year or so,
I encourage you to send your inactive contacts
a re-engagement campaign and encourage them
to update their preferences or unsubscribe.
Some brands find that sending a special deal
or a coupon encourages re-engagement.
If they continue to be inactive,
it's time to clean your list and delete them.
Remember, it's not necessarily a bad thing.