How to Cut Your Email Marketing Churn

January 31^st 2012 Sally Ormond email copywriting, Email marketing

When you employ email marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy, you are bound to experience some level of churn (the number of subscribers lost over a period of time).

Your churn can come from a number of reasons:

Unsubscribers who are bored of your emails
Those who no longer require the information you send
Those clearing out their inbox and you just happen to me on their ‘cut’ list
Emails bouncing back
Spam complaints

It’s a fact of life and all businesses will experience it to some degree. You’ll never escape from it completely, but you can take steps to reduce it.

1. Trust and honesty

The strongest relationships are built on trust and honesty. So, when someone signs up for your emails, make sure you tell them what they will receive and when - and stick to it.

If you provide a range of products or services, it may be an idea to offer your subscribers a choice as to which email they would like to receive. That way, they’ll only get information on something that’s important or relevant to them and therefore are more likely to remain on your mailing list.

It’s also important to reassure them about your privacy policy and have a clear link to its page.

2. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy

The easier you make the opt-in and opt-out process the better.

Although you don’t want to lose anyone from your list, making it difficult to opt-out won’t win you any fans.

3. Ooops

The chances are that at some point something will go wrong. When it happens apologise - this could also be a good time to get some feedback on your communications. Find out what they like or don’t like and revisit your strategy to see if there is any way you can improve it.

4. Encourage engagement

A lot of your subscribers won’t read your newsletter. Many of them will never click on a link, so what can you do to tempt them to interact?

Well, an occasional great offer could so the trick - perhaps you could place them in a prize draw in return for their views on your emails.

You will always experience some level of churn, but these tips will help you reduce it.