Studies show, one of the top reasons cited for unsubscribing from email is irrelevant content. If you’re looking for a way to decrease the amount of unsubscribers, then it’s time to focus on maintaining your subscribers' preferences.
Giving the option for people to indicate their preferences will allow you to tailor everything from content to frequency for your subscribers. The more tailored a message, the better results your email or campaign will receive, which means increased ROI for you!
Start by having subscribers fill out a preference form as soon as they sign up for your email program. When creating this form, the first thing to keep in mind is that it should be short and concise.
The preference form should also be set up so that depending on the answers one gives, they will be dropped into different target groups, enabling them to receive customized messages from you, instead of being “blasted.”
Over time, your subscribers’ needs and preferences are sure to change. To ensure that you are maintaining preferences on an ongoing basis, be sure to include a link to your preference form in every email you send. Allow people to update their frequency, profile information, and interests as they wish. To take this even further, incorporate routine, short surveys into your regular mailings to collect feedback on your communications.
To create an effective preference form gather key information, such as:
Type of mailings
Are they interested in your newsletters, event promotions, or legislative updates? Maybe they’ll want to join every list, but maybe they’ll want to be on just one. Either way, let them pick! On the form, make the title of the publication linked to a brief description that includes the type of content the email will include and the frequency – that way they know exactly what to expect.
Frequency
Another top reason cited for unsubscribing is that people felt like they were receiving too many emails. Subscribers may not want to receive your newsletter on a weekly basis. Provide a chance in which these subscribers can dictate how often emails are sent to them. Give people an option to sign up for the regular communication or a digest version to control frequency. Once the frequency rules are created, make sure you stick to them!
Topics
There’s no better way to figure out the content of emails and future events than to find out what type of topics your subscribers are interested in. Use this chance to find out what topic areas they’re most interested in reading about.
Format
This could possibly be one of the most important pieces of information you can gather from your subscribers. Find out how they want to be communicated to. Is it through text message or a mobile-friendly email layout? Customize the delivery of the message and subscribers will be more likely to open, read and take action.
Overall, you must start gathering information on your subscribers to ensure you are delivering a customized email experience to each and every one. By gathering preferences and placing subscribers into their preferred lists, if a subscriber unsubscribes, they will only be doing so from that specific type of email, and not all of them. Hopefully, though, they’ll be happy that you took the time to hear what they really want to hear about, and be a happy subscriber for a long, long time!
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