Did you ever subscribe to a newsletter, only to decide later that you no longer want to receive the emails? The same happens to your own subscribers too, I guess.

Let’s look at the main reasons why people unsubscribe:

• The newsletter content is irrelevant to them

• They feel that information has been repeated over and over via various newsletters

• They are dissatisfied with your brand, product and/ or service

• They have been getting way too many emails from you, too often

• They are simply no longer interested in your communication – they have moved on in life

If you want your email marketing to be successful in the long term, understanding why people decide to opt out of your newsletter can help you make your readers WANT to hear from you.

The most important best practice is to be upfront about how often they can expect to see your email newsletters appearing in their inbox. This is because anyone would feel motivated to unsubscribe when your emails begin popping up just a little too persistently. 

Of course, the trick is in knowing how often is too often.

Consider offering several options for email frequency via your subscription form. For instance, offer a weekly digest, a monthly summary or a bi-monthly newsletter.

But even if you put forward your best efforts, email opt-outs are for most campaigners, a daily occurrence. And so you have to make sure you are prepared to give your readers a proper send-off if they decide to leave your list. 

A common pet peeve among users is when they are made to search for hidden unsubscribe buttons or jump through hoops to get their name off your list. It’s better if you make this process as simple and polite as possible as business integrity and the law demand that you always give people a clear channel to opting out.

Make sure your unsubscribe features are easily accessible and when someone unsubscribes from one of your mailing lists, also send them a reassuring confirmation email that they have been successfully unsubscribed.

GraphicMail’s TriggerMail is an advanced autoresponder service for your email marketing campaigns which sends an automated email to a client when he or she performs any action (such as clicking your unsubscribe link) that you have marked as a trigger.

We also give you TriggerMail reports on who opened, clicked, forwarded or unsubscribed from your autoresponders. So when an individual unsubscribes from your email newsletter, TriggerMail can follow-up automatically.

If you’re not familiar with TriggerMail, watch this video to get up to speed. It’s a tool that can really enhance your email marketing campaign.

To keep your email marketing in order with unsubscribe triggers; just click on the "Autoresponders" tab on the "Subscription Form" menu, and follow the text directions from there.