I’ve gone through a series of “unsubscribe” rants in the past few months.
There is just too much email in our inboxes today. How do you really stand out, as a business and advertiser, from the crowd.
Let’s analyze
Scenario 1 – I always read:
* Groupon local deals — saving money is good, and I regularly purchase groupons for things we would do otherwise: movies, specifically.
* Advanced Fiction eZine from Randy Ingermanson — because there is nothing but good information
* Christian Audio — looking for killer deals on audiobooks/free audiobooks
* Moleskine product updates — I love, love, love my moleskines. I am tempted to buy a new one every time I get an email. Temptation bad for me, good for the company.
* Writers Digest — deals, valuable information, industry news
* RELEVANT magazine — great articles, catchy headlines, relevant news (guess the name isn’t a misnomer.)
Scenario 2 – Lately, I’ve unsubscribed from:
* Horse&Rider
* LinkedIn groups
* Pinterest/Twitter notifications (I’ll deal with those in their own websites, not in my email inbox)
* Spotify “new music” emails (Don’t need notifications – happy to keep up with pop culture enough)
* Office Depot rewards (not rewarding enough…)
* industry groups (will not name for fear of hurting feelings) that I don’t have time for, have outgrown (no shame in that for the organization – should be a point of pride), or have found to be stressful and/or unreliable.
Which ones I delete most of the time (thus, not open) but don’t unsubscribe because I want to at least check out the headline first:
* Christianity Today, Family Fiction – industry news
* Groupon Getaways – I try not to open these, because they are tempting! (who doesn’t need a vacation?)
* Groupon Goods – usually never things I truly “need.” I’m trying to be frugal and responsible, here, Groupon!
* Publisher Weekly – industry news
* Directv – sometimes have news, deals or tips I might use as a customer (but I’m really close to making this one disappear all together.)
* my credit union enewsletter – every now and then has good information, relevant to me as a customer
* industry groups (will not name for fear of hurting feelings) that I don’t have time for, have outgrown (no shame in that for the organization – should be a point of pride), or have found to be stressful and/or unreliable.
What have we learned? All of this is very personal – but there are some universal truths:
* if it saves people money, could be free – I’ll open the email
* if the product is killer and I might want another – I’ll open to see if you have new, better products!
* if it is of extreme value – I’ll open the email
* value/interest differs from one person to the other – if you lose someone because they don’t find that item of value/interest, don’t fret. There are other people in the world wide web who will find that of value/interest. Seek them out! Always stick true to your ideal customer.
* The businesses that are successful in this are also successful in every other area: industry leader, trusted blog/website, known for savings and value = you can’t shortcut the work. Do the work. Be indispensable to your clients. Reap the rewards (rewards for enews = high open rate, low unsubscribes, high click through rate.)
* SCENARIO 1 – I chose to subscribe in the first place
* SCENARIO 2 – I am on the email lists because of a prior purchase or I was forced to give my info for something I want. LESSON: Voluntary is always better.
* SCENARIO 3 – I am on these list for a combination of the first two reasons (voluntary subscription, purchase) and these stay on these lists because I plan on continuing to be a customer/consumer. That’s a good place to be for you as an advertiser – because you might dazzle me with just one email and turn me into a scenario 1.
Another observation – if I open my email inbox after a few hours and see two or three from the same company, I seriously consider unsubscribing, no matter what. Consistency is good, but you tread a fine line. One or two a week is really fine with me unless I signed up for your newsletter knowing it was daily. (i.e. If I end up on your newsletter from purchasing a product, don’t send me more than one or two a week.)