In today's privacy and spam-obsessed marketing environment, how you handle opt-outs can be the most critical part of you email program. Every time you send, you could lose a potential customer. There are many reasons for this, but the good news is if you strive to build relevant, smart-targeted emails and properly manage your opt-out process, you can reduce spam complaints, improve deliverability, achieve higher open/click rates, gain consumer insights and increase the return on your overall email program.
We'll go into more detail about how to manage opt-outs in a longer article next month. But there are several ways to lower overall unsubscribe rates for your email campaigns that every marketer should be considering today:
- Update subscriber lists frequently with fresh, preferably opt-in, email addresses. Fresh lists perform better and have a higher deliverability rate based on better open and click performance.
- Conduct more analytic research on the consumer data collected and use it to apply more relevance. If you know your email recipient is female, don't send a male-oriented message. If you know your email recipient is vegetarian, don't send a coupon for $10 off at the local steakhouse. Use analytic variables to switch the messaging around based on subscriber preferences.
- Make sure your creative is strong, with a clear call to action. What do you want the consumer to do? Also, make sure the subject line is catchy. This is very important. It's the first thing email recipients see besides the From name. If the subject line is irrelevant, an unsubscribe (or spam button click) is sure to follow.
Jason Vosu is campaign operations production manager for Minneapolis-based digital marketing software-as-a-service provider Outsell, LLC. Reach him at jason.vosu@outsell.com.
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