E-mail List Churn: Four Ways to Retain Subscribers
Any e-mail list is going to suffer from a degree of churn. Subscribers may grow tired of receiving your campaigns, find that your newsletters are no longer pertinent, or simply lack the time to read and absorb your content.
Though some opt-outs cannot be avoided, if you take a proactive approach, you can reduce the number of subscribers exiting your e-mail list. Here are four tactics:
1) Offer reduced frequency. The best e-mail campaigns let subscribers decide how often they want to receive messages from your company. Some of your customers might enjoy your content but not the rate at which you're sending it.
To keep subscribers who, say, want to receive special holiday promotions but don't care for daily newsletters, give them a choice of frequency. Offer a weekly or monthly digest-version of your newsletter in addition to daily or weekly updates.
2) Give a choice of newsletters. This ties in with the above suggestion. If you're segmenting your e-mail lists properly, you can let your subscribers decide which newsletters they want to receive. For instance, one subscriber might want to be on the list to receive a flowers-only newsletter but not necessarily on the general garden center list.
Where do you give your customers these options? Right when they're on the verge of opting out. When they click on that “unsubscribe” option link and go to your opt-out page, list all your newsletters with checkboxes next to them, asking customers which ones they still want to subscribe to.
3) Send a reminder e-mail. Send occasional reminders to your subscribers asking them to update their information regarding which e-mails they'd like to receive and how often. A heads-up e-mail asking subscribers to update their choice of newsletters and frequency will not only stop some customers from unsubscribing, but it will also remind them that they opted in, that they’re still receiving e-mails from you, and that they shouldn't hit the spam button when your newsletter shows up in their inbox.
4) Send out surveys. Use frequent surveys to gather more information from your customers. Short, snappy surveys can help you build up a list of customer traits and interests—data that can be used for better list segmentation.
You can also use surveys to gauge the usefulness of your e-mail campaigns. Ask your customers directly if the information you provide in your newsletters is helpful or how it can be improved in any number of ways. The very nature of e-mail marketing is constant change, so use your survey answers to keep customers interested in what shows up in their mailbox.
As stated earlier, a degree of list churn is unavoidable. But some turnover can be prevented relatively easily. While many e-mail marketers focus on getting new subscribers, it is often cheaper and more effective in the long term to keep your current ones happy. So instead of expecting customer opt-outs as a foregone conclusion, be proactive and set up a contingency plan, using opt-downs, frequency choices, and surveys to keep your finger on what customers want from the e-mails you send.
Andy Shore is a marketing and social media expert at Benchmark Email, an e-mail marketing service.
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