Now is an opportune moment to look at those who unsubscribe from your lists. After all, I believe the EU might well have known of the risk of Brexit but seemed to do little about it. You should not make the same mistake.
There are two specific times to try and reduce your unsubscribe rate:
1/ when there is a sudden increase, and
2/ all the time.
Let’s deal with aspects of the spike first of all. The good news is that you have the have all the tools and metrics available to discover why and resolve any issues.
The first thing to accept is that there is always a reason for an increase. Do not dismiss it as ‘one of those things’ and hope it will go away. Find out why.
Discover whether the spike is limited to one particular segmented list, a proportion or across all your email marketing lists. If it is just the one then check if there is any other metric they share. Remember that some will unsubscribe normally so look for something that is common to a number, perhaps those you would not normally expect to be clicking the box at this time.
If, for instance, you have a number who live in the same area there might be a factor specific to that location that has generated the spike. Perhaps a local competitor has just set up with some startling offers that were too good to refuse. And, thankfully, too good to continue with.
If there is no additional metric that is common then look to what is common to the group. You’ve segmented the list on certain criteria. If you chose Metric A, C and F and you had another list which contained B, D and F then look to that one to see if there was a small increase in unsubscribes in the Fs in that list, and so on.
It is likely that a combination of specific metrics is an indicator of a higher unsubscribe rate: for instance, those of a certain age who have been on your list for six or more campaigns, and who complete irregularly. Now we have something to work on.
It is unlikely that customers will unsubscribe after one or two marketing emails which did not interest them. If there were three or four then there might be a slight tendency towards clicking the box. Have those who unsubscribed failed to complete on the last half-dozen campaigns? If so, you might well have a clue as to the reason.
It is probable that the cause will be as easy to discover in such circumstances. We will cover other scenarios in later articles. But, of course, your work has only just started.
Merely discovering the reason for your problem is not a successful resolution. All you’ve found is something that needs to be addressed. Now you have to do something about it. Are you going to respond to the threat of the new company setting up in the home town of your subscribers. Or is it likely to go away once the budget for their opening is exhausted?
More to come in later articles.
