Making it easy for your contacts to unsubscribe is essential.
In this article, we’ll look at best practices for managing your email unsubscriptions.
Legal obligations
It is mandatory in France to provide your contacts with an easy way to unsubscribe.
Every email sent must include an easily accessible unsubscribe link.
It must be possible to unsubscribe with a single click and without logging in to an account.
Unsubscription requests must be processed quickly, and recipients must be removed from the email list within 10 days.
1. Best practices to make unsubscribing easier
Properly managing unsubscribes is essential for improving campaign deliverability, as it helps to avoid complaints.
In addition to the legal obligation, a clearly visible unsubscribe button will increase your recipients’ trust in your brand.
Providing a visible unsubscribe link is important. Indeed, if the unsubscribe link is hidden, recipients who want to unsubscribe will look for other ways to stop receiving your emails if they can’t find the link.
They might use the “Report as spam” button instead of unsubscribing.
If clicks on the “Report as spam” button exceed a certain threshold, the sender’s domain may be considered a spammer by the email provider, and it will then be difficult to get out of it.
Discover some Spam words that might get you into the spam folder here
However, a high unsubscribe rate will also have an impact on your deliverability.
2. How do you collect your emails?
The collection type used can have an impact on the unsubscribe rate. Some campaigns generate more unsubscribes than others, such as co-sponsoring.
In fact, co-sponsoring, which consists of sponsoring a collection campaign without highlighting your brand, often comes as a surprise when the recipient receives your emails. They might not even be aware that they’ve subscribed to it.
Alternatively, natural collection or co-registration are collection methods that generate fewer unsubscribes.
3. Are your subject line and content appealing?
It takes about 2 seconds for your recipient to decide whether or not to open your email.
As the subject line is one of the first things your recipient sees in their inbox, it’s important to spend time on it.
Go for a catchy, bold subject line.
To achieve this, we recommend:
- Keep sentences short (5 to 7 words maximum), so the recipient can directly understand what your email is all about.
- Avoid overly promotional language, such as “free”, “buy”, “promotion”, as this may scare the recipient away.
- Don’t write your entire subject line in capital letters, as the recipient may identify it as spam.
- Use action verbs (“take advantage”, “compare”, “become”…): the email subject line is like a Call To Action, so using these verbs can encourage recipients to open the email.
Learn more about the display name in our article
4. Segment your databases to offer targeted content
Segmenting your databases is an efficient way to avoid unsubscribing.
It allows you to offer targeted, customized content based on selected criteria.
You can segment your databases according to criteria such as age, gender, geographic location, interests, purchasing behavior, etc.
By tailoring your emails to each segment, you’ll be able to offer relevant content, which will increase your recipients’ engagement.
And your unsubscribe rate will drop automatically.
5. Customize your email campaigns
Customization is a great way to engage your recipients.
In fact, customized emails generate a 119% higher click-through rate than regular emails, according to activetrail.
There are several ways to personalize your emails. You can use the recipient’s name, include offers based on previous purchasing behavior, and recommend products based on your recipient’s browsing habits.
Personalized emails show your recipients that you’re catering to their needs.
It’s a great way to build a stronger relationship with your recipients.
What to do when a contact unsubscribes?
The first thing to do is to ask your recipient why they’re unsubscribing.
You can then use this information to adapt your email frequency, content and targeting.
When unsubscribing, you can provide alternatives, such as choosing another type of message. For example, you can suggest subscribing to a newsletter, new products, types of products or interests, or to subscribe to your social media channels.
Finally, when a contact unsubscribes, it’s important to take into account their choice and remove their email address from your emailing list.
