Unsubscribes Are Good For You

Posted by Justin Premick

I can see your eyes rolling now.

It’s true, though…while you don’t like to see a subscriber leave your list, any information you can get about why he or she unsubscribed is well worth the subscriber lost.

Remember, connected to that email address is a person who was once interested in your business, but has since lost interest, become offended, or found something else s/he feels is better than what you’re offering.

The more you can learn about what people are thinking when they opt out, the more you can improve future email marketing campaigns.

When People Unsubscribe, Ask Them Why

As part of your unsubscribe link, ask the subscriber why he/she is leaving. At AWeber, users can request unsubscribe feedback by enabling Notifications on their List Settings page:

When a subscriber opts out, he/she is presented the following feedback form:

If he/she chooses to provide feedback, it is automatically emailed to the user.

So What Can You Glean From These Comments? Are They Useful?

On his blog, AWeber user Steve Pronger discusses recent unsubscribe comments that he received and how he is using those to improve his mailings.

This is a great example of how to take lemons and make lemonade — Steve ultimately concludes that going forward he needs to “make sure [his] subscribers understand the “value” in [his] recommendations.”

Read Steve’s post here.

Anyone managing a mailing list should take advantage of unsubscribe feedback to improve your mailings — and, of course, reduce future unsubscribes.

Tags: unsubscribes

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29 Responses

Ben
November 6th, 2006 at 1:16 pm

Thank you for this useful post.

Could aweber please consider allowing clients to include a "good bye" message on the page that subscribers opt out?

Such a page would allow us to give subscribers alternative options. For example, for a weekly newsletter, we could tell subscribers how to sign up for a monthly version that will give them the best of what we have to offer without as many newsletters to look through each month.

I think such an option would be extremely valuable.
Steve Seltzer
November 6th, 2006 at 4:35 pm

I second Ben’s suggestion. Basically, a customizable "good bye" message would function as an exit popup (pretty much a thing of the past as popup blockers are pretty much everywhere nowadays).
MaryAnn Diorio
November 6th, 2006 at 5:55 pm

Great post! Thanks!
Josh Day
November 7th, 2006 at 2:49 pm

A farewell message is a nice way to send people off as well as hitting them up one final time for alternatives, or even directing them to a blog. Adding this option would help a lot of us out. Thank you.
Wholesale Distributor Sources
November 7th, 2006 at 3:24 pm

Justin,
Very good post to be so short and sweet and thanks to Ben for the suggestion as it’s worth it’s weight in gold!

It made me remember wondering why aweber didn’t offer the "good-bye" page function when I signed up and here’s why. I used to run an "in-house", basic email list program when I had a small number of subscribers. It had the function of creating a regular html landing page for a cancelling subscriber. I simply had it offer a cheaper, scaled down version of my membership service and it landed me 5-10 new memberships a month at $9.95 each!

Also, for Steve’s comment about an exit pop-up…you don’t need any pop up window for a "good-bye" page. It needs to be nothing more than a regular html page. Actually nothing different than what they show now…only with the option for us to customize it a bit. GREAT idea Ben! Thanks for bringing it up as I had forgotten about how important that is. It’s basically free money and costs nothing extra to offer these people something one more time. You have nothing to loose!
Justin Premick
November 7th, 2006 at 4:16 pm

Ben,

Thanks for your suggestion regarding the "unsubscribe or change details" page. We’ll be happy to consider it as a possible feature addition to AWeber.
Ben
November 8th, 2006 at 11:23 am

I’m really glad that others can also see the value in a good bye message. Thanks, Justin, for considering this suggestion for development.
Steve M Nash
November 10th, 2006 at 5:03 am

I also think those unsubscribe feedback forms are useful,
and never understand it when an email publisher doesn’t
utilise it. I don’t always fill them in — sometimes there
are no words to explain the frustration! — but I have
filled some of them in, and I have received useful feedback
too.

A customisable version sounds like a good idea too.
Chris Lockwood
November 10th, 2006 at 6:29 pm

The reason some turn off the feedback is that so many of the comments people leave are rather useless, like "stop sending me mail" or "cancel my subscription" or other redundant comments.

Still, I’m glad aweber gives us the option of using it and I agree that it would be nice to be able to customize that goodbye page. I know someone who does quite well offering his unsubscribers a gift- many of them end up buying from him in the future.
Martin Russell
November 13th, 2006 at 4:20 pm

I thought that if I ticked the Confirmation box I would get an email every time someone subscribed to me - so I didn’t want to do that.

Have I got it wrong?

And if not, is this is only way I can turn on the unsubscribe comments, by getting subscribe emails?
Justin Premick
November 13th, 2006 at 4:36 pm

Chris,

I understand. There will always be some people who fill it out for the sake of filling it out, or who use it to simply vent frustration.

It’s ultimately a question of learning what you can when an unsubscribe comment is useful, and simply deleting and moving on when it’s not.

Martin,

The Confirmation checkbox applies to both new subscriber notifications and unsubscribe comments.

If you check the box you will receive an email for each new subscriber, and you will receive an email whenever someone unsubscribes and leaves a comment.
Martin Russell
November 13th, 2006 at 6:51 pm

Justin,

Can you split up the confirmation stuff then because I want the unsubscribe comments, but not the email for all my new subscribers.

Just a comment for the future I suppose.
Keith
November 14th, 2006 at 7:38 am

I agree with everyone - need a customisable unsubscribe page and also to be able to separate the confirmation emails for joiners and leavers - I do not want hundreds of joiner emails just to see the odd unsubscribe comment.
Ranko Magami
November 14th, 2006 at 5:16 pm

I’ll second or third or whatever it is this below…

Can you split up the confirmation stuff then because I want the unsubscribe comments, but not the email for all my new subscribers.

Just a comment for the future I suppose.

I’d love to get the unsubscribe comments just not 1000’s of emails a day of somebody subscribed.. over and over again. Can those be split?
Please!

Ranko
Justin Premick
November 15th, 2006 at 11:30 am

Thanks to all for your feedback on this. We’ll be happy to take a look at how those notifications are set up.

Don’t forget that you can use rules/filters to handle those incoming messages and assign them to appropriate folders so they don’t all sit in your inbox.

For example, you could set up two rules based on subject line - one for new subscriber emails and one for unsubscribe comments, and have them directed to different folders.

Unsubscribe comment emails always contain the phrase “This Lead Unsubscribed” in the subject, so if you set up a folder/rule for those, you can easily see when you have new unsubscribe comments.
Steve Seltzer
January 21st, 2007 at 3:33 pm

Justin,

Does Ben’s suggestion have a chance of getting implemented:

"Could Aweber please consider allowing clients to include a "good bye" message on the page that subscribers opt out?

Such a page would allow us to give subscribers alternative options. For example, for a weekly newsletter, we could tell subscribers how to sign up for a monthly version that will give them the best of what we have to offer without as many newsletters to look through each month.

I think such an option would be extremely valuable."
Justin Premick
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:33 am

Steve,

I have passed Ben’s suggestion along to our development team as it does contain value. We are continually enhancing and developing the AWeber service to better serve your needs.

As a result, we are at any given time working on a number of enhancements with more to come, and so please understand that I can’t comment on the likelihood or timeframe of a specific suggestion to be implemented.
Martin Aranovitch
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:33 am

Very good post!

Just today I unsubscribed from someone’s list and left them feedback as to why I left, then someone unsubscribed from my list and told me why they left (it was actually a very positive and constructive comment, so I agree with the idea that as much as it pains me to lose a potential customer, their feedback can help me improve the business and attract many more good customers, thus helping to offset the loss!)

I agree with previous users. I too would like to see a customisable farewell message for unsubscribers.
david schlussel
May 8th, 2007 at 11:09 am

Justin,

I just want to add my name to the petition to upgrade the priority of enhancing the unsubscribe page with: ability to go to a lower traffic list, offer direction on the kind of feedback we’d like, remind them why they joined in the first place, offer them a sweetener to stay.

there are lots of freelance developers out there that could be brought on temporarily to get this kind of thing rolling

thank you
Ron Killian
November 5th, 2007 at 9:00 pm

I am guessing the interface has changed since this entry was posted, as I can not find this setting anywhere. I must be missing it. Where is the setting to gain feedback from un-subscribes at?
Justin Premick
November 6th, 2007 at 9:06 am

Ron,

The interface has changed, yes. I’ll update the screenshot

That option is still located at the bottom of the "List Settings" page of your account, but it’s now labeled "Notifications" rather than "Confirmation."
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January 27th, 2008 at 8:12 am

[...] Unsubscribes Are Good For You? That’s the title of a blog post by Justin Premick at AWeber Communications. He makes the good point that an “unsubscriber” used to be interested in your messages, and they have changed their mind for a reason. By inquiring on your unsubscribe page the reason for the unsubscribe, you may glean useful data to help you improve your email marketing messages. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
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February 7th, 2008 at 9:50 am

[...] As Justin has said before, sometimes unsubscribes are good for our email campaigns, when we allow the subscriber to leave comments. They can provide feedback on ways we might not be engaging subscribers who have not unsubscribed yet — and who may not at all if we use the feedback others have provided. Other Feedback from Your Subscribers [...]
Viola
February 10th, 2008 at 11:07 am

Justin, I enjoyed reading all the posts for this suggestion. I would like to use it also. It is a great idea and something that aid me in getting organized and staying that way. Thanks.
» Why Do People Unsubscribe? An Audio Discussion - AWeber Blog
March 6th, 2008 at 11:34 am

[...] As we noted in our talk, you can and should ask your unsubscribes why they’re leaving. If you’re not, then naturally you’re not going to have any idea why they’re opting out. [...]
Bob
March 7th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

this is a great feature.
looking forward to more new features from aweber
Chris
March 7th, 2008 at 2:54 pm

I’ve yet to see a useful comment in the "Why are you unsubcribing" box. Of the very few who fill it out, they say things like "don’t want more email" which is rather obvious.
Justin Premick
March 7th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Hi Chris,

I get a lot of those too for our own lists - but I also come across a lot of interesting comments that have led to positive changes in our own lists.

I’ve also found that occasionally people will submit comments/questions through that form that I would have expected them to contact support with. However, in looking through our records it becomes clear that they didn’t contact support.

In those cases, the unsubscribe form actually serves to engage that person further, possibly generating (or saving!) a sale.

There are certainly some comments that you can’t really do much with, but in my mind the 2 seconds I spend on those is more than made up in a single useful comment.
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May 7th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

[...] Trying to learn why people unsubscribe by asking them. [...]

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