Here’s Why People Unsubscribe From Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective means for communicating with potential and current customers. But your unsubscribe rate could be an indicator of poor email performance. Industry data shows varying average unsubscribe rates by industry-for example, media/publishing companies experienced the lowest average unsubscribe rates in 2015 at 0.06%. On the other hand, real estate and construction companies had the highest unsubscribe from email rates last year at 0.3%. With more enhanced email intelligence, you can experience fewer unsubscribes by delivering more personalized content and targeted offers to your contacts.

Here are a few more things to consider about why your unsubscribe rates might be dipping as you investigate your email intelligence options.

You Have Poor Database Targeting

Are you sending the same email messages to each and every contact in your database? Why not leverage the unique behaviors and interests of each contact to send them more personalized messages based on customer segment and other demographics? According to GetResponse, 42% of marketers don’t use segmentation in email campaigns, and 33% of email marketers don’t optimize their emails.

Research shows that segmented email does outperform untargeted sends. Data from the Lyris Annual Email Optimizer Report found that 39% of marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates and 28% experienced lower unsubscribe rates. Enhance your customer database with list segmentation to send more customized subject lines, offers, calls-to-action and other marketing messages that will best resonate with each segment.

You Lack Mobile-Friendly Email Design

With the influx of smartphones, mobile-friendly email design is non-negotiable for email marketers in 2016: 53% of email is now opened on a mobile device, up 500% from 2010.

Emails that aren’t mobile-friendly are difficult to read on a hand-held device due to extremely small font sizes, long email copy or unresponsive images. A mobile-friendly email is easy to read on both a desktop or laptop and a mobile device. According to Constant Contact, you can make your emails more mobile-friendly by incorporating:

• Simple email layout or single column template
• Minimum of 14 point font for body text and 22 point for headlines
• Up to three images (at the most)
• Strong contrast of colors, like dark text on a light background

By making these simple updates, you can reduce unsubscribe rates and keep your prospects better engaged.

When was the last time you cleaned your email list? Good email hygiene is the key to improving deliverability. Get started with a free email address validation report now!