Moving the unsubscribe link: results
Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on April 29, 2008
Early days yet, but here's how doing this changed unsubscribe rates*:
Unsubscribe rate last issue (with unsubscribe link up top): 0.54%
Average unsubscribe rate for the previous five issues (with no unsubscribe link up top): 0.26%
It wasn't an A/B test and it's a small list. So I'm not going to claim statistical validity until the pattern continues (and maybe the last issue was just not up to usual standards). But the anecdotal suggestion is that it caused unsubscribes to rise.
Which is great, if true.
Every unsubscribe is potentially one less spam report.
Every unsubscribe is one less person likely to get annoyed at me and my website when getting another email.
Every unsubscribe is one less unwanted email cluttering up the airwaves and inboxes of this world.
*calculated as the number of reported unsubscribes as a percentage of total emails "received" (sent minus bounces).
Related post: Time to move the unsubscribe link?
(P.S. Please tell me what content you want on this blog - take the poll)
Tags: email marketing, unsubscribe links, list management, email deliverability
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10 Comments:
Curious - do you have access to feedback loop data? I'd like to see how that compares to opt-outs...
By 
, on
29 April, 2008
Unfortunately not (it would be interesting, because changes in spam complaints is the other half of the story). Although in this particular case, it probably wouldn't tell us much because most subscribers are on corporate addresses. Very few use typical webmail and consumer ISP addresses.
By 
Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on
29 April, 2008
Interesting,
I've always thought it a good idea to have the unsub link at the top, but are you not worried about mis-clicks by putting it so close to the 'web version' link?
By , on
01 May, 2008
That's a good point. In my case it's not an issue because it's not a one-click unsubscribe. After the first click, you reach a web page where you confirm the unsubscribe or you can retract if the click was an error.
By Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on
02 May, 2008
Hi Mark,
Your post in early April prompted us to experiment. I was surprised by these two numbers though:
19 complaints where unsubscribe link was at bottom of email
24 complaints where unsubscribe link was at top (and bottom)
This was for approx. 5,000 emails asking customers to take part in a feedback survey about their recent contact (complaint).
Number of unsubscribe requests with unsubscribe link at top: 32
Number of unsubscribe requests with link at bottom: 23
The number of unsubscribes are higher than previous months (estimate by 20%) but there is no change to the click-thru rate, and the final response rate is a couple of percent lower.
We're going to continue our trials...
By Dan, on
07 May, 2008
Thanks for sharing the data Dan. Very interesting. No surprise that the unsubscribe rate went up. But wouldn't expect complaints to rise, too. They "should" go down, which others have reported...hope you can let us know the results of your further testing...
By Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on
07 May, 2008
If you want true ease, put it in both places.
By , on
07 May, 2008
Carrying on our trials - splitting our emailing into 2 versions:
9 complaints where unsubscribe link was at bottom of email
10 complaints where unsubscribe link was at top (and bottom)
This was using the same email as 2 weeks ago to approx. 3,500 (different) emails asking customers to complete a survey.
Number of unsubscribe requests with unsubscribe link at top: 30
Number of unsubscribe requests with link at bottom: 19
The click-thru/response rate was slightly higher where unsubscribe was at the top (about 2%)...
By Dan, on
28 May, 2008
Thanks for sharing Dan. Given the increase in unsubscribes, do you feel happy about adding an unsubscribe link to the top?
By Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on
28 May, 2008
Yes - we're going to continue leaving the unsubscribe link at the top - although our mailings aren't a traditional newsletter type mailing.
We're emailing to customer lists to take part in a survey, the unsubscribe is only so the user doesn't receive a reminder email 7-8 days later. From our perspective we don't mind if the contacts are asking to be removed because they wouldn't be contacted again (we're the survey company not the end-user). If that makes any sense?!
By Dan, on
28 May, 2008
