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Even if you have the best newsletter in the world, some people will want to stop receiving it. Make this process as simple and effective as possible. In other words, make it easy for readers to express their wish to unsubscribe, and make sure this wish is honored quickly.
The speed of response is just as crucial as processing the response at all. Readers are used to automation and assume that an unsubscribe request will be honored immediately, and at least before the next issue of the newsletter is sent out.
If your software, service or management system cannot achieve this level of immediacy then it might be time to move to one that can. Otherwise you open yourself to accusations of spam and a flood of (potentially abusive) "unsubscribe" emails, as people assume their initial unsubscribe request has not been fulfilled.
There's also another reason why you need to leave departing readers with a favorable impression of your efficiency - not all of them are leaving for good.
People's work or private interests may only change temporarily, or they just want to stop their email inflow while they're on vacation. Let them leave with the best impression possible and they're more likely to resubscribe later.
Most list hosting services and software packages provide automated unsubscribe features which are perfectly adequate for addressing this issue. The unsubscribe request is usually made either by sending an email to a specified address or more usually by following a website link.
Whichever option your service or software supports, it's always advisable to offer subscribers a catch-all email address they can use to request a manual unsubscribe.
Should an online form not work, for example, then the reader has an alternative. If you provide no alternative communication route, you risk frustrated and angry subscribers.
Why help people get off the list?
You may ask why you want to make it easy for people to stop receiving your newsletter. Well, making life difficult for people is not normally a fast track to a good relationship, and does little to inspire trust.
These are people who want to leave your newsletter. Suppose they remain subscribed simply because unsubscribing is too onerous a task. Do you think they're reading your email? I didn't think so.
If you do make it difficult to unsubscribe, then there are two things that can happen:
1. Despite all the hurdles, the subscriber manages to get off your address list. They are now an ex-subscriber whose parting memory of your newsletter is a negative one.
As a result, they are now less likely to resubscribe later (maybe they only wanted to unsubscribe while on vacation). They may also tell friends, colleagues, online forums, discussion lists and others about their experiences. Your newsletter suffers.
2. They give up trying to unsubscribe.
Great, you have retained a subscriber. But what kind of subscriber? You're now paying to send an email to someone who is probably going to delete it unread. They, too, may tell everyone about your newsletter's administrative inadequacies.
You may even find yourself accused of spam and if you make it too difficult to unsubscribe, then you may be breaking anti-spam laws. At the least, they'll clog up your customer service with (possibly abusive) "unsubscribe" mails. Your newsletter suffers.
Some argue that more subscribers means more earnings from (CPM) advertising, so these "unwilling" subscribers do still have value if that's your business model. But only in the short-term.
Most advertisers want to see measurable results (clicks, action, whatever). Your unwilling subscribers won't be reading your mails or clicking on advertisements. So the results will be lower than those of your competitors with sound unsubscribe practices. Your advertisers may complain. Maybe they'll want their money back.
Your rates and reputation will be affected. Your newsletter suffers.
Let me be clear...making it difficult for people to unsubscribe means your newsletter suffers in the long run.
When people want to get off your address list, leave them with a positive memory, not a negative one.
Manual unsubscribes
Some people ignore whatever unsubscribe instructions you provide, and simply send an "unsubscribe" message by hitting the "reply" button in their email software.
It doesn't matter how easy or how obvious you make the formal unsubscribe process, you will still get these manual unsubscribes. Some people may not be able to get your technology to work, some may simply be lazy, some may just be confused.
There are publishers who respond very negatively to such unsubscribe requests, ignoring them, pointing the senders to the unsubscribe instructions or even abusing the senders for their ignorance.
The best course of action is simply to take people off your distribution list as quickly as possible. Drop them a polite note to let them know you've done this.
This means you need to monitor your newsletter-related email addresses and ensure the reply-to address on outgoing newsletter issues is active.
The number of manual unsubscribes can be minimized through easy and prominent unsubscribe instructions. These should normally be appended to the bottom of each newsletter issue, which is where people are conditioned to seeing them (most services and software do this automatically).
If you have a website, provide obvious instructions there too.
Use the manual unsubscribe requests to find clues as to how well your formal unsubscribe process is working. If, for example, many AOL readers are asking to be unsubscribed by hand, then it may be that the web link you provide to your unsubscribe form is not formatted correctly for the AOL email interface.
For more on the role of departing subscribers in your email marketing, read the managing unsubscribes section of the Email Marketing Reports site.
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