We read blog after blog about all the things we should be doing as marketers, and yet there are some absolute do-nots that should be remembered always.
I’m Email Cleansing
I’ve been doing a clean out of my house, my desk, my followings and my emails. Since marketing relies on constant learning, I’ve had a habit of subscribing to many lists for inspiration. Only now, the obscene volume of emails I receive is becoming a distraction more than an inspiration. Also, important emails that I need to receive get lost in the haystack and it’s time to get real on unsubscribing to email lists.
There are at least 3 companies that I’m almost attempted to name and shame (but due to integrity cannot), who I have unsubscribed to more than once. I am still receiving their emails. Every time I re-unsubscribe to their email list I feel a little bit of serious dislike growing. And when I have to re-unsubscribe again, that feeling gets stronger. Now when I receive one of their emails and I hit the delete button, there’s an internal voice that says something like, “STOP SENDING ME F***ING EMAILS!!!”
Will I ever be buying from these companies? No!
How Do You Know If This Is You?
So how do you know if you’re one of these businesses that is sending unwanted emails? The answer is testing. Send yourself an email and try to unsubscribe and see what it sends you. If you’re smart, you’ll be using a system that asks your customers why they are unsubscribing with questions that will yield answers you can learn from.
Is This the End of Your Relationship?
When someone has unsubscribed to your list does that mean they are lost forever? Of course not. However, seducing your customers back needs to be a strategised process with particular messaging. You win no hearts by bullying your customers into staying with you by making it hard to leave.
Here’s a couple of simple ideas on how to invite them back.
1. Create a Facebook Campaign from the List
Lets assume that you have a segmented list of all the emails that unsubscribed from you. You can upload these emails to Facebook and create a custom audience with this list. Then you can market directly to this list with ways to resubscribe. It might be a special offer, or just a reintroduction after a period of time. You might also make sure your most special blogs are marketed to them through these Facebook campaigns. Of course, you can also use these custom audiences for marketing to Instagram.
When you are running this campaign, make sure that they have a way of resubscribing to your email list.
2. Write a Personalised Invite
Send them a personal email after an extended period of time (long enough for them to miss you) with some particular messaging like, “We know that you unsubscribed to our email list in June of last year and we’ve missed you. Rest assured we have not resubscribed you to our email, however we just wanted to extend a friendly hello to see how you’re going. In case you’ve missed us, here’s a link to what we’ve been up to (link to blog).” Then you would make sure that an option to re-subscribe to your list is on your blog.
Remember, it’s illegal and unethical to send people emails who haven’t asked for them, so you need to be careful. A personal email (not one sent from your email marketing system) is a bit laborious, so it depends on whether you think your previous email recipients are worth saving. You might be better tasked with obtaining new subscribers. This will differ depending on your business type and target market.
If you’ve been asking people why they’ve unsubscribed you will be able to target a particular segment that is more relevant. For example, if someone ticked “I don’t want to receive these emails because I receive too many emails in general” it indicates they didn’t particularly dislike your content, but were just doing a clean out and may be interested in joining again later. If, however they ticked something like “I don’t want to receive these emails because the content is not relevant to me” then it’s fair to say these subscribers aren’t worth saving.
3. Go Old-School
Yes, I’m a digital marketing specialist, however, I can also crush it old-school when necessary. A personal invite to resubscribe with an offer can be really effective. You might send postcards, or something a bit different so you stand out in the mailbox.
4. Sparingly Use Mobile
When someone unsubscribes you can set up a system that sends them an SMS just to be on the safe side. Again you might contact them by saying, “You recently unsubscribed to our email list. If you didn’t mean to do this please resubscribe here: (link to sign up)”
Most people find SMS very personal so please be careful with this. You need to keep your mobile messaging to a minimum to make sure that you’re not being invasive.
Summary
Mostly, clients are shy about the idea of contacting their customers. Businesses are often too wary about sending people too much. However, customers who like your product and/or service are happy to hear from you. People want to be sold to for the most part, but only the things they want to buy. This is why targeting is so important when you’re marketing to your customers. When you know what they want, you won’t be giving the hard-sell, you’ll be helping them out.
However, when a customer decides they don’t want to hear from you anymore you absolutely must adhere to it. Aside from the fact that it’s not legally or ethically okay, it really irritates them. Just because a customer doesn’t want to receive your emails doesn’t mean they don’t want to buy from you. It might just mean that they prefer to follow you on social or go to your website on their terms. We discussed some strategies to help you reconnect with your customers if they do decide to unsubscribe, so let that be your focus.
