Email unsubscribe rates are a natural occurrence in any business that uses email marketing. But even though it’s natural that you’re going to have people unsubscribe on a regular basis, it’s not a nice feeling.

It’s important to keep customer retention as high as possible, and to reduce the unsubscribes as much as you can if you want long term success for your business. It is said that it can cost five to twenty times more to find new customers than to please the ones you have. Ideally you want your unsubscribe rate to be at maximum 2 percent, but even lower than that is better.

Here are four tips for reducing email unsubscribe rates:

Tip #1 – Audit Your Email Funnels

Make sure your readers are getting the content they signed up for. Some things to look for and take care of in your funnels are:

• Are your readers in the proper segments?
• Are you emailing consistently?
• Are your emails long enough, or too long?
• Is your content providing enough value?

Tip #2 – Create a Content Plan

We always talk a lot about content plans for blogging and marketing but creating a content plan for your email messages often falls by the wayside.

Create a good mix of relevant and fun content, plan your promotions, and set a schedule for your emails. Having a plan and knowing what you’re going to mail each day takes a lot of stress out of doing daily mailings.

My friend Angela Wills runs a membership called the Email Practice Club* where she helps you develop your email content plan and gives you prompts to work with so that you do know what to send each day.

Tip #3 – Give Value in Every Email

That doesn’t mean you have to give away the farm in every email, but do provide value to your readers every time you hit the send button. Focus on meeting your needs and how you can create a win-win environment so that both yours and your readers needs are being met.

You can also incentivize your subscribers to continue reading and engaging with you. Things like giveaways, free downloads, or subscriber only offers and discounts can help retain your readers. But don’t do this every time! You want to mix up your free gifts and discounted offers and include them in random emails rather than training your readers to expect it every day.

Tip #4 – Stay engaged and follow up with your audience

There is a huge tendency – and I speak from experience because I’ve done this too – to ignore your readers and customers once they’ve signed up for your newsletter or mailing list.

The whole point of email marketing is to build a sustainable list with an active audience. It’s a long-term communications strategy, not a “churn and burn” sales opportunity.

Keep up with your audience by sharing tips and information from your own experiences with them and letting them get to know you. Providing content and asking for feedback also helps you get to know them and their needs at the same time. Talk TO your people – and yes, they really are your people if they’ve asked to hear from you – instead of AT your them.

Ruthie’s Tip – Even if you have a VA that does routine tasks for you, you should always write your own newsletters and emails. Energy online is a tangible thing, and people can get a sense of your energy and how invested in them you are just through how you write and the energy behind your words.

Final Thoughts

Even though email unsubscribes rates are a natural course of doing business, you want to keep them as low as possible. It’s a lot more affordable to continue to serve your existing subscribers as it is to go out and find new ones every month. According to this recent article from Hubspot a five percent increase in customer retention can improve your profits by 25 to 95 percent.  There’s no reason to think those same numbers couldn’t apply to your email marketing efforts as well.

That’s not to say you should not be building your list every single day, but don’t neglect the subscribers you already have because they are the key to long term success for your business.

*Note: This post includes affiliate links, for which I will receive a small commission should you make a purchase.