Adestra

Building a list of opt-in subscribers is clearly a vital part of a successful email marketing campaign but do not underestimate the importance of getting your unsubscribe process right.

Allowing ‘opt-out’ is not a nice-to-have, it is a legal requirement. You probably know this but have you actually tried to unsubscribe from your campaign? Does it work how you would expect as a subscriber?

OK, making your process super clear could increase unsubs short term but is there any value in forcing people to stay on your list?

Make it difficult for people to leave your list and risk:-

1. Blacklisting and fines

2. Increased ‘mark as spam’ and complaints

3. Brand and recipient relationship damage

4. Reduced email deliverability for your account overall

5. ’Clouding’ of your results making it difficult to learn from previous results

So what should you do?

1. Make the opt-out process consistent with your opt-in process.

2. Keep the branding, terminology, style and positioning consistent

3. Make it clear what the recipient will be opted out from

4. Consider offering multi-level unsubscribe at multiple levels i.e.campaign/project/workspace for complex campaigns  An ‘email us’ call to action is appropriate for opt-out at the top level only i.e. “Email us to be removed from   all future marketing communications”. 

Otherwise unsubscribe should be web based and just one-click away from the  email.Do not force login or navigation through pages to unsubscribe. This is now a legal requirement for US email  marketing.

Consider using a preference centre to allow customers to change their area of interest rather than unsubscribe where appropriate. Look for opportunities to cross-promote other parallel brands/campaigns within the   unsubscribe process. One lists loss could be another’s gain
 
Key theme: It really is quality not quantity!

Rob Hunter, Client Strategy Consultant

 Leading email marketing agency Adestra announces further appointments to its market-leading Client Strategy team. Two marketing specialists have been added to strengthen the team providing an unrivalled pool of knowledge for their digital marketing clients to tap into. 

Steve Kemish, Client Services Director says:  “No other ESP can provide the level of expertise and advice for emarketers – we’ve invested in attracting the right experts to help clients strategically improve their email marketing for the long term. It goes way beyond day-to-day advice and improving effectiveness/ROI for each campaign, and can include enhancing online brand perception, systems interoperability, linking with websites, and refining the process in a multi-channel environment.” 

“We’re delighted to have Rob and Reena onboard, who bring significant marketing experience to the team, both client-side and agency.”

 Rob Hunter, appointed as Client Strategy Consultant, has a background in online marketing and website analysis for RM. He has significant online marketing experience including management of email marketing, search engine marketing, online advertising, web analytics and website usability. Rob has also worked in project management positions and has experience working on key cross-divisional projects to generate offline sales leads from online activity. Rob has a wide range of hands-on skills to help clients get the best possible value and ROI from their online marketing.

 
Reena Mistry also joins Adestra as a Client Strategy Consultant with over four years’ direct marketing experience, both off and online. Most recently working as Account Manager at a leading digital agency for one of the UK’s largest mobile phone networks, she was tasked with helping to deliver optimum ROI on email campaigns – and she now aids Adestra’s clients to achieve the same. Whilst working client-side, she has developed and managed email and direct marketing programmes and was part of the team that won a coveted Revolution Magazine Digital Marketing Award.