We recently covered how to discover the external reason, i.e. not caused by the email itself, for a peak in unsubscribe rates in one of your email marketing lists. Identification of cause is only the first step. You must now come up with a plan of action to redress the problem. 

First the good news; not doing anything immediately is a valid plan of action. If the cause is temporary and likely to have been removed by the next campaign, then the problem is over. Do not forget to monitor the results of course.

In the event that the cause is one which will not go away you need to identify the precise metric, or combination, that are unsubscribing. The sort of thing you might discover is that subscribers of advanced years with an above average level of disposable income have opted out. The place to look for cause is in those companies dedicated specifically to people of advancing years.

Has there been a series of high value products at an offer price you will find hard to match for any length of time? If your company is efficient then it is probable that these offers will not last for long.

The next thing to do is come up with a response. If the offers from the other company are time limited and will have ended by the time of your next email marketing campaign, you might feel it best to monitor the returns for that one.

On the other hand if the risk to your high value subscribers is too great then  a response is bestter. The first thing to do is to put all those with a similar combination of metrics in their own segregated email marketing list. It might be worthwhile to have two: one with high value subscribers, the other with those who are less so.

An offer at cost in the next campaign to the first group will steady their loyalty, a facet never to underestimate, and for the second, a little less generous one. 

There can be any number of reasons for a peak in unsubscribes. It is infrequently that the design of email that is at fault.