When it comes to email marketing, senders are required to include a simple way for recipients to unsubscribe. Also known as the CAN-SPAM Act, this requirement states that your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of receiving future messages. Many companies will include an unsubscribe link at the bottom of an email and stop there. But here is where you can take it a step further and take a negative action to a positive. The CAN-SPAM Act allows email marketers to create an avenue for recipients to opt out of certain types of messages, as long as the option to fully unsubscribe is present. Utilizing the preference center within your email marketing platform can help you to retain subscribers, grow your reach, and gather valuable feedback.
The preference center allows subscribers to control what emails they receive. They have options so they may only unsubscribe to a certain topic area or from a specific sender profile. For example, they may choose to receive your monthly newsletter but are not interested in your sales emails. Email frequency is one of the biggest reasons recipients choose to unsubscribe, so why not let them control that? When subscribers are receiving content they want, they are more likely to engage which in turn makes your outreach more successful.
Additionally, just because someone doesn’t want to receive your emails, doesn’t mean they don’t want to interact with your organization in any capacity. You can use the preference center to encourage subscribers to engage with you on other channels such as social media or a blog. With this, there is a chance for you to maintain contact with the subscriber and therefore, not a complete unsubscribe or loss.
Finally, you can customize your preference center to collect valuable feedback as to why people are unsubscribing. There are several ways you can do this, including an optional survey or providing an option to contact your organization directly. While you may find that not everyone is inclined to tell you why they are unsubscribing, you may be surprised at the amount of feedback you receive when direct communication is provided. This candid feedback can help your team understand how you could improve your email marketing efforts, whether it be the messaging, frequency, or other reasons why recipients are unhappy with your emails.
Unsubscribes are an inevitable part of email marketing. We have all done it. However, allowing the subscriber to have control of what messages they receive can positively impact your outreach efforts. Utilizing the preference center within your email marketing platform allows you to ensure you are targeting the right people with the right message at the right time.
About Conexus Solutions, Inc.
Conexus Solutions, Inc. provides small and mid-size life sciences companies with sales and marketing operations support. This includes implementation and ongoing support of Veeva CRM, Veeva Vault, Salesforce Sales, Service, Marketing, and Health cloud, content creation (CLM, approved email, etc.), data science and insights, a multi-level help desk and hardware depot support.
