People who receive your email might at some point lose interest and want to unsubscribe. When they do, don’t take it personally, but don’t give them a hard time about it, either.
If you’re using any of the major email marketing platforms, you’re aware that you can put recipients in groups so perhaps they don’t want to hear anymore about your freight forwarding product, but are interested in your warehouse management services.
When people receive an email from you, there is a button towards the bottom that lets them manage their email preferences. Some take the user straight to the page for management, others email a link to prevent unintentional or fraudulent unsubscribes.
If there is one, or two, or maybe a handful of choices that lets someone continue to receive some kind of communication, they might scale back from the firehose of messages to something more metered.
Recently, I went to unsubscribe from a publication, and after doing so, they took me to a page asking me if I wanted to subscribe to any more of their lists:
Don’t make someone trying to unsubscribe make a choice like this when they’re done.
I mean, really. Can you hear my scream from here? I’ve just tried to extricate myself from a single list that I thought was overused, and you give me *this* on the way out the door?
This is the way to do it right. Kudos, Expedia, while we may not be in touch with each other as frequently, you’ve at least shown me some consideration in how to handle our separation.
How you part company and the options you give your reader keeps the door open to future communication.
The best part? They’re giving me an alternative to hear from them less frequently, but to still remain in touch.
As you evaluate your company’s use of email to communicate with customers and prospects, be sure to carefully weigh not only how you communicate with them, but if they want to part company, how you handle your goodbyes. Done properly, you might still have a chance. Done improperly, you’ll potentially lose them forever.