Successful Email Marketing: How to Avoid Newsletter Unsubscriptions

Newsletter cancellations are frustrating, especially when you invest countless hours in designing and content creation for your mailings. There are many reasons to unsubscribe from a newsletter, but three main reasons can be identified:

• Changing Interests: A shift in interests is one of the most common reasons for unsubscribing. People's opinions and interests change constantly. What's interesting now may be irrelevant in six months. That's normal. There are many reasons for a loss of interest, such as having their need for information satisfied, solving a problem, or changes in life circumstances.

• Wrong Timing: The art of email marketing lies in providing your subscribers with the information they want when they need it. If they hear from you too often or too rarely, they may feel neglected. No one wants to be bombarded with irrelevant information—not even your newsletter subscribers. If you pester your customers with emails, they will quickly click the unsubscribe link. However, if your customers wait in vain for a message from you, they may feel unappreciated and turn away from you as well.

• Poor Appearance: You don't get a second chance to make a first positive impression—not even in email marketing. Users' browsing behavior, characterized by quick assessments, applies to emails as well. Within seconds, the user decides whether to engage with your newsletter content or dismiss it as irrelevant. A dull presentation, poor design, or confusing layout is detrimental to click rates. If the user doesn't like what they see at first glance or can't find the desired information promptly, they'll delete your newsletter without hesitation.

How to Draw Positives from Newsletter Cancellations

You're convinced that your email campaigns are perfectly optimized for your target audience. Yet, many subscribers are unsubscribing from your newsletter? Don't panic, a certain unsubscribe rate is natural. However, with an unusually high unsubscribe rate, you should investigate the causes.

Fig. 1: Every newsletter must provide the option to unsubscribe

Unsubscribes can help you identify and rectify weaknesses in your email marketing strategy and make your offering more customer-focused. The content and topics you find relevant for your target audience may not always be genuinely useful for them. Often, they have specific needs that you have not adequately addressed.

To halt the unsubscribe trend, you need to find out why your subscribers are unsubscribing from your newsletter. Our tip: Integrate a survey into your automatic unsubscribe function, which appears when the user clicks on the unsubscribe link.

Besides obtaining concrete reasons for unsubscribing, such an approach has the advantage of leaving a positive impression on your soon-to-be ex-subscriber. You convey the message that they and their opinions are important to you. Just because they unsubscribe from your newsletter, it doesn't mean they are turning away from your company entirely. They can still be customers with you, purchasing products or using services, but without receiving emails.

The following options have proven successful in the survey:

• No interest

• Newsletter too frequent

• Newsletter too rare

• Content not relevant to me

• Technical issues

• Other

For the "Other" option, you should include a text field where the user can share their personal reason for unsubscribing. This gives them the chance to tell you exactly why they are opting out of your newsletter. For you, it means further optimizing your mailings to be more targeted.

How to Avoid Unnecessary Unsubscribes

The survey aims to keep future newsletter unsubscribes as low as possible. Ideally, it should rarely be needed. To achieve a low unsubscribe rate, you should take additional measures. The following specific steps are recommended:

Step 1: Discover Interests

You need to know what specifically motivates your target audience. Only when you understand what interests your subscribers, can you cater to them. The simplest and most effective way is to ask regularly and directly. Which topics are of particular interest? How frequently would they like to hear from you via email? These and similar questions should be posed to your subscribers.

A good time to ask these questions is shortly after newsletter signup. You can ideally integrate such a survey into a welcome series. It is also a good idea to ask your subscribers about their preferences every six to twelve months. A giveaway or discount code can encourage participation in the survey. This approach reduces the risk of missing changes in interests.

Step 2: Group Your Subscribers

Segment your newsletter subscribers. Dividing your recipients into specific target groups is one of the most powerful tools for successful email marketing. There are various classification criteria, including age, gender, interests, customer duration, and order frequency.

Target groups can be structured differently and largely depend on your business and the thematic focus of your emails. If you offer a general welcome series, you should distinguish between "New Subscriber" and "Existing Subscriber." This welcome series should only be sent to newly registered subscribers.

When sending tailored offers, your target groups should be as specific as possible. Categorizing by age and gender might be too generic in some cases. Suppose you run an online shop for fitness equipment. Your range includes all popular sports from aerobic stepper to circuit training. Not all your female newsletter subscribers aged 25 to 34 are interested in yoga and, consequently, in yoga mats. Sending a newsletter presenting the new spring/summer yoga pants collection and popular yoga mats may lead to high scatter losses. At this point, you should narrow down your target audience by adding the criteria "purchased a yoga product" to "age" and "gender."

Step 3: Personalize Your Newsletters

Now you know what has influenced previous subscribers to unsubscribe and have segmented your current subscribers into different target groups. You've completed the analysis process. The next step is to implement these insights effectively.

Personalization means sending specific emails to certain subscribers, not writing in a familiar tone. Studies show that personalized emails are more successful than "anonymous" mass emails.

In principle, you should refrain from sending all subscribers the same emails. Otherwise, the scatter losses can be substantial. This practice also creates the perfect breeding ground for dissatisfaction. Depending on the subject of the mailing, you should use different levels of personalization. For example, a low level of personalization might include:

• Welcome series

• Unsubscribe form

Other newsletters should have a high level of personalization. These include emails such as:

• Sending exclusive offers

• Birthday mailings

• Cart reminders

Step 4: Be as Specific as Possible

Every email should have a clear message. Less is more in email marketing too. Don't overload your newsletter. Choose only a few news items or offers per mailing. Texts should be clear and get straight to the point quickly.

This is especially true for online shops. If your newsletter subscribers expect the latest offers, present them directly without much digression. Your subscribers have little time and interest in reading a "long story." Short teaser sections are completely sufficient here.

Depending on the company and the subject of the mailing, longer, more personal texts are also possible. Especially young companies that are still at the beginning of their brand and customer development phase can benefit from this approach.

What We Can Do for You

Are your subscribers leaving your newsletter? You don't know why and want to find out the specific reason for unsubscribing? Then contact us. We offer specific assistance for individual campaigns as well as support for your entire email marketing strategy.