I unsubscribed to an email list I was probably on for at least 5 years today. Not because they sent me anything annoying or anything, just that my shift has focused away from their content focus. After I confirmed my desire to leave their list they send (as per usual) a confirmation email saying Goodbye and that I am no longer on their list.
Just like our thank you pages and 404 pages are an opportunity to keep the reader engaged, I believe the unsubscribe process could be a goldmine way to not only re-engage patrons but remind them of the original reasons they joined the list in the first place.
I was on this list for at last 5 years – imagine if they reminded me of that!
Imagine if they showed me the years of value that I received and showed me some upcoming items I may be missing.
Another great thing to do is to survey me with useful questions as to why I left – I am not longer interested? I am interested in a subset of their data – can they send me emails just on that?
Minimum – most websites have a basic unsubscribe sequence:
- you click the unsubscribe link / button
- you get forwarded to a web page that either confirms the unsubscribe (yeah) or argh, makes you jump through some hoop to really unsubscribe
Blinklist alludes here to a second chance – but there is no direct and obvious call to action to give me any reason to re-subscribe!
Target – remind me of why you are so awesome, which may trigger why I joined your community in the first place! :
- for sure you have to confirm that I have unsubscribed, but then show me some of your most popular articles
- show me some of your most popular lead magnets
- do you have a YouTube channel – show me the most popular videos
- you get the gist – show me what i am missing by leaving this community!
Outstanding – this would involve having marketing tools that really tracks how each subscriber interacts with your digital platforms:
- remind me me of the years / months / weeks of value you have sent me in the past
- present to me some articles you think i would enjoy (using personalization because you have been tracking my opens and clicks and website page visits)
- highlight some lead magnets that you think i would like
- provide a direct call to action to re-subscribe and give me more options as to how to receive the email – e.g. a weekly digest instead of daily or vice versa.. subscribe to receive certain article categories ….some type of freebie so I feel I ‘owe’ you my email again…