According to Loren McDonald, "Email consumers control their destiny—choosing when to opt in and when to say adios." This means your unsubscribe page needs to be easy to find and easy to use. And, in a best-case scenario, making this option as user-friendly as possible might keep them from leaving at all. "Many of your subscribers who click the unsubscribe link just want some aspect of the relationship to change," McDonald explains. He suggests some options that might help them choose to stay:

• Offer an unsubscribe/preference page that allows subscribers both to opt out and change preferences. The functionality should enable users to change their email address and profile, along with frequency, format and channel.
• Offer a subscription to another newsletter that may have more relevance for them. Provide a list of those you offer, and let them switch if they’d like.
• Provide contact information that customers can use for the immediate resolution of problems like pages that don’t load, or error messages.

Finally, "an unsubscribe link in an obvious location should lead to a well-designed, branded page that explains exactly how to unsubscribe, thanks the user for his/her patronage, and completes the unsubscribe process quickly for those who really do want to leave," McDonald advises.

By showing you care to subscribers who want to opt out, you may just keep them.

And the DMA’s member guidelines require opt-outs that are easy to find, easy to understand and easy to act on. For details on the DMA’s Commitment to Consumer Choice go here.

MarketingProfs. Click to read the article.