To stay or go. That is often the question on email subscribers’ minds.
Your job is to eliminate the question from their mind by providing such worthwhile content, the decision is never contemplated.
In this article, we look at seven tips to make sure your email series subscribers don’t unsubscribe during the series.
#1: Don’t Send Too Much, Too Soon
You are excited that someone signed up for your email list, and the person is all set to start receiving your email series.
But, did you properly plan your series? If you have too many emails set up to go out closely spaced together, you may be setting the stage for a mass unsubscribe.
To avoid email fatigue, you want to make sure you’ve set an appropriate time span between emails in your series.
According to Smart Insights, email marketing benchmarks are a good guide to base your success on. You can see how your emails compare to others in your same industry.
When you look at benchmarks, you can take note of where you fall. If you are higher than average, odds are you are sending too much, too soon, or you’re sending the wrong content.
How can you avoid the unsubscribe? Tell people when and what they’ll get when they subscribe to your list. Set their expectations for them. For example, “Subscribe for tips and specials sent to your inbox once a week.”
It’s a good idea to send your emails on the same day every week. This sets a routine for subscribers and keeps them anticipating your weekly news.
Don’t change the frequency of emails without informing your subscribers.
Test your frequency options with your email series subscribers. This will also help determine the right amount of emails to send in an y given period.
#2: Plan Interesting Content
Another reason you might lose email series subscribers is because you are sending boring content, or you aren’t sending them what you said you would.
Today’s email marketing is for the customer. Don’t bore them to death with self-promotion.
Your goal is to educate your customer, provide interesting and humorous content, specials and content they find valuable.
Anything else, and you might as well not send the email.
A good rule of thumb is to provide promos, offer tips, give advice, and link to how-to videos.
#3: Hone Your Onboarding Series
Another way to make sure your email series subscribers don’t unsubscribe is to develop a compelling onboarding series that reaches past your customer’s first week and through the first several months.
For example, upon their initial sign up, send a welcome email. After the first purchase, send a thank you email, and follow it with another email that includes tips on how to use what they just bought.
Then, send another email inviting the subscriber to follow your social media accounts.
Account for each action your subscriber takes and recognize them for the action. In the long run, this will also help you personalize your email series even more, thus boosting engagement and reducing unsubscribes.
#4: Personalize Your Emails
When you personalize your emails, they are 26% more likely to be opened, and they deliver 6x higher transaction rates.
Use the data you have about your customers and send them emails that pertain to their interests and purchasing history.
Relevancy is key to keeping them on your list.
#5: Send Mobile Friendly Emails
If your emails aren’t optimized for mobile, turn off your series right now and fix them.
Mobile optimization is vital for your email subscribers. More than half of all emails are read on smartphones.
With those statistics, you can’t afford to send emails that aren’t responsive to screen size.
What’s more, email driven sales are higher when they originate on a mobile device.
If your emails can’t be read easily on a mobile device, you’re just asking for unsubscribes.
Either use your email software’s responsive templates, code your own, or hire someone to do it for you.
The other thing to avoid is text heavy emails. Many businesses send out emails with one large image with text. Your mobile subscribers can’t see this text even if the email is mobile friendly.
Think text and images.
#6: Monitor Your Competitors
Don’t lose your email series subscribers to a competitor who is doing it better.
Your subscribers will leave you if they find a competitor with more valuable email content, better prices and discounts.
It’s up to you to monitor what your competitors are doing. Subscribe to their email lists so you know exactly how you stack up.
#7: Be Flexible
So, your email subscriber’s interests have changed. They no longer want to receive all of your emails, but they might be willing to receive some of them.
Perhaps your subscriber had young children, and they were receiving emails tailored to their young family. No longer needing your information, they click unsubscribe.
What they don’t know is that you also cater to families with teens. So, when they click unsubscribe, you offer the option to leave the first list and join a diffrent list for families with teenagers.
Be flexible with your email lists and let your subscribers change their interests and focus.
Additionally, you can let them unsubscribe from portions of your list. For example, you send three emails per week with specials. That’s too much for your customer. Offer them the option of an email digest once per week with all info included.
Again, you meet your customers’ needs head-on and provide the flexibility they need to stay subscribed.
To Conclude
Now that we’ve looked at seven tips to make sure your email series subscribers don’t unsubscribe during the series, it’s important to remember that your subscribers asked to join your list.
This is why it’s so important you not only meet their expectations, but you exceed them.
If you do what you promised, you make it harder for them to “break up” with you by unsubscribing from your email list.
While email is one of the very best ways to reach your customers, it can be a blow to your self-esteem to see your unsubscribe rate skyrocket.
Don’t lose another group of subscribers.
Make sure you are testing on an ongoing basis and providing your customers with the best content possible.
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Image: Pablo Garcia Saldana
