Email Zen: letting go

Back in 2002 I wrote an article entitled Let them go!, which explained why you should make life easier for people who want to get off your email list.

Five years later, and providing a simple unsubscribe experience that works is more important than ever. That's because people who can't easily get off your list find alternative ways to avoid your emails. And one of those is to press the "this is spam" button.

More spam complaints equals more problems getting your emails delivered equals poorer results.

So there's an onus on all email marketers to ensure that the unsubscribe process is as intuitive, quick and sensible as possible.

Stefan Pollard's new article describes some of the things you shouldn't do when it comes to helping people leave your list. And some of the things you can do to make it a positive experience.

He also adds his voice to a growing clamor for a universal unsubscribe button that standardizes the unsubscribe process.

By coincidence, Joshua Baer takes on this topic too. He offers a cogent explanation of how a universal unsubscribe button implemented by webmail services and email software would restore user trust in that much-maligned process. And add another layer of legitimacy to professional marketing emails, helping recipients distinguish between spam and the real stuff.

Since the success of email marketing depends largely on the quality of the relationship between sender and recipient, anything that improves a cornerstone of such relationships (trust) is worthy of support from marketers.

More on managing unsubscribes | Tags: email marketing, unsubscribe links, list management

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