As a marketer, you know what works well in your business space. You implement several strategies in such areas to boost your brand value. But, have you ever thought about its after-effect or flaws? Email marketing is one such area which comes with hundreds of tactics, but at the same time, the result can be really daunting if you don’t follow the best practices.
You may spend tons of time and money on building your subscribers list which consistently sees a drop in the number without even notifying you. And, you might be wondering why it’s happening to your business. You are not the only one to face this problem. It’s absolutely normal to lose email subscribers once in a while. Generally, an unsubscribe rate of around 0.5% isn’t bad either. But, when you cross this rate, you may have reasons to worry.
Fortunately, we are here with tried-and-tested tweaks that will help you reduce the unsubscribe rate to a greater extent. So, why don’t you give these tips a try?
Table of Contents
“Quantity Does Not Equal Quality in Email Marketing Space”
Are you annoying your subscribers with too many emails? It can be one email per day or worse, multiple emails scheduled at different hours. Nobody likes to see an overflow of emails in their inbox, be it relevant or not. So, exaggerating your brand with several promotional contents is a sure way to lose a considerable number of subscribers.
Solution: There isn’t any hard and fast rule for email frequency. Sending one or two emails in a month is acceptable. But, it solely depends on the subscription type. If users sign up for a monthly subscription, you cannot bother them with more than one email per month. It’s well understood!
Similarly, if they subscribe to your page to receive interesting contents or registered for a free trial of your product, you can send them up to three emails in a week. Try not to exceed this limit as it does more harm to your brand value in the long run. Also, don’t make it too less so that the users may forget your brand as a whole!
“Subject Lines Are Powerful Enough to Make or Break Your Email Campaign”
Subject line forms the most crucial reason for opening the email other than “From” address. Whether you are trying to sell a prospect, connect with an executive, or just get a reader’s attention, these lines influence whether or not your emails get opened. In fact, 47% of email was opened entirely because of the subject line. But most of the organizations take this line for granted and dump it with promotional text that users are tired of viewing.
Image Source: Chadwick Martin Bailey Consumer Pulse
Solution: Pay more attention to your email subject line. Test different statements to determine what resonates best with your audience. This method is commonly known as A/B testing in marketing space where you compare two versions of the same thing (here it refers to subject line). You can either try some email providers online or do it yourself by segmenting the list. Send a different version of the subject line for a diverse group but with the same email body. Identify which line performs better. You can take the liberty of creativity and come up with the compelling line that sparks curiosity in the minds of the receiver.
But remember to keep your subject line simple and short because the number of words matters a lot!
Image Source: Retention Science
The study by Retention Science found that subject lines between 6 and 10 words deliver the highest open rate, making 8 an ideal number. If a subject line is too long, the texts will not be visible completely, and your reader will not know what that email is all about. This ignorance will gradually decrease the size of your email list.
“Well-Displayed Message Is Sure To Hit the Goal”
Sorry, but this is the truth! People leave your email list if they find it hard to read your message in their device. It can either be the text, images or other elements in your email body. Also, there are certain cases where an email prompts the user to open another browser to view its content. It does very little, hardly anything to boost your brand value. As some subscribers don’t have enough time to do all these things, they end up unsubscribing from your email newsletter.
Solution: Before hitting the send button, you should preview the email on as many devices as possible (of different size) to ensure it works perfectly. Mainly, most of the users open the email on their mobile devices. So, optimizing your message to fit into a small screen is today’s necessity. And, it’s easier too.
- Along with the subject line, pay some attention to the pre-header text as well.
- Get to the point right away and keep your content short. You got only 3 seconds to prove your brand’s worth!
- Keep call-to-action (CTA) or other clickable buttons large enough so users can actually click without zooming in. (44×44 pixels is the standard minimum for touch-friendly buttons)
- Also, keep your font large enough so that readers can view it without having to stress too much.
- Make your image small and data-effective, so it does not consume much of your data plan and loads quickly.
Besides, test your email on every email server and browser as it looks different in different screens. Take the time to check all your emails everywhere. Specific marketing automation tools help you to create as well as test any email quickly. Make the best use of them.
“A Visually Appealing Relevant Content is An All-Time Topper”
A plain boring content is not going to entice your readers for a long time. To keep them occupied, you have to try visually appealing content that is capable of generating more number of leads. Now, that does not mean including your brand logo or splashing colors on to it; it is much more than that.
Solution: Don’t worry! You don’t have to hire or outsource any graphic designer to help you out in this area. You can find hundreds of email templates online that are easy to use and customize. Take advantage of those templates and create a luring email that looks pretty in devices of every size. Also, you can try GIF or video contents and see how it works for your audience. But always keep it relevant. You know what your goal is, now define the right strategy and decide your audience before crafting a content. Make sure your content offers value each time to reduce the number of unsubscribes drastically.
Also, at the same time, give higher priority to personalized emails. With hundreds of thousands of emails sent out every day, this tactic makes your email stand out from the crowd.
Image Source: Experian Marketing Services
The study by Experian Marketing Services revealed that emails with personalized subject lines would have 26 percent higher unique open rates when compared to non-personalized ones. So, try to personalize the email body or subject line with the right recipient name always. It increases the open rate as a whole.
You Should Also Know!
Have you ever heard of an unsubscribing survey? It is one of the best and suitable ways to learn why people unsubscribe from your email newsletter. Your subscribers will have opinions, and they will be happy to share it with you. So, move on to create your own exit survey that requests the readers to fill out the form where they can mention their reason to leave. Also, ask them if there is anything that would make them stay. Later, you can use this result as a starting point to focus on the issue that was bugging your users without your notice.
Besides, keep a simple opt-out option in every email so that the users don’t have to struggle while unsubscribing from your list. It will create a positive brand image and also saves your time from people who do not wish to receive what you offer. You can also provide them with the selective opt-out options that let the people stay on some email lists while removing themselves from others. It will eventually help you to lower the overall opt-out rate.
Final Thought
So, now you know the common email faux pas that may be the reason why people chose to move out of your list. It’s time to pay heed to those slipups and follow the well-tested strategies mentioned in this write-up. Also, keep your email marketing strategy relevant and educate yourself about the current best practices in the market. It helps you to maintain a list of quality subscribers who are happy to receive your email.
