How to deal with High Email Unsubscribe Rates on your E-Commerce Store?

E-commerce and email marketing go hand in hand. In fact, if you’re like most e-commerce marketers, you’re wisely investing in email marketing already. But in spite of all the good work you do, all your hard labor would go in vain if people start unsubscribing from your list.

Unsubscribes are a part and parcel of email marketing efforts. If you have an email list, you need to be benumbed by the fact that people will choose to opt-out from your list. However, if more people are unsubscribing than signing up each month, you need to be alarmed.

We’ve already talked about how to approach leaving customers in our previous blogs focused on ways to recover abandoned carts and how to reduce high bounce rate. In this blog, we’ll deal with reducing unsubscribe rates — a key performance metric for online stores.

Defining Unsubscribe Rate

In email marketing, unsubscribing refers to customers removing their email address from a company’s mailing list to avoid receiving any further emails or communications.

The unsubscribe rate is another important e-commerce key performance indicator that calculates the percentage of people who decide to quit an email list.

Unsubscribe rate can be calculated by dividing the number of individuals who unsubscribed by the number of emails delivered. An opt-out rate of less than 1% is considered within the industry standard.

Dealing With Unsubscribe Rate

Unsubscribe rate is one of the most important and one of the most unpleasant KPI that marketers have to deal with during every email campaign. It helps evaluate your email campaign’s success as well as gauge customers’ interest in your products and promotions.

If you see your unsubscribe rate climbing, it may be time to reconsider how your brand uses emails. If you feel that your buyers do not want to hear from you via email or are not attentive towards your marketing efforts, here are some strategies you can use to improve engagement –

Use an updated email list –

• An updated mailing list means that you’ll only communicate with individuals who are interested in receiving emails from you.
• Replenish your list with fresh lead as new subscribers are rather open to new offers and special promotions.

Test your email timings and frequency –

• The timing and frequency of your emails speak volume about the entire email campaign’s success.
• A/B testing your emails will enable you to optimize the timing, frequency, content, and style of your emails and maximize performance.

Segment your audience –

• Irrelevant emails are the prime reason people choose to opt out of a brand’s email list.
• Use real-time data on buyer behavior to segment your target audience into appropriate groups so that they receive emails that appeal to them.

Create value –

• Your goal should be to deliver valuable, unique content to your subscribers so as to earn their respect and trust.
• Remember, even a single spammy mail can hamper your brand’s image beyond repair.

Personalize every email you send –

• Studies reveal that emails with personalized subject lines have higher open rates than emails with non-personalized subject lines.
• Use customer data to personalize every email you send out and employ action-driven personalization to drive email results.

Optimize for mobile

• Taking mobile devices into consideration during the design process is a smart choice for today’s marketers.
• Email opens on mobile are shooting up and so your emails should be readable and look good on all devices.

Let customers take over the reins

• One way to make your customers feel more comfortable is by letting them choose how, when, and what to hear from you.
• Offer them options to pick the frequency of emails, topics of interest, or a simple ‘take-a-break’ alternative to lower your opt-out rates.

Place a noticeable unsubscribe link

• Keeping the unsubscribe option open not only helps you in avoiding spam complaints but also creates a positive image for your brand.
• Keep your unsubscribe link in a noticeable spot to give customers the option to opt out in case they no longer want to receive updates from you.

A successful e-commerce business greatly depends on a high-performing email list. As an e-commerce store owner, email campaigns are an integral part of your marketing strategy and hence you need to make sure you’re doing it wisely.

Try to win your customer over with valuable emails. Use the right research, information, and marketing strategies to design campaigns that customers can’t help but admire!