Unsubscribe rates are at an all-time high in the online business & marketing niches. In fact, April through June of 2008 saw some of the highest unsubscribe rates that I've ever seen.
I noticed this trend across the board while looking at stats for the first half of the year. Not just with one of my mailing lists, but with ALL of them. Its an official unsubscribe trend, as I’ve been hearing similar reports from other eBiz email publishers...
Not surprising considering the recent discussion on this across the blogosphere lately. The advice has been to unsubscribe from marketing pitches, and to only remain subscribed to content that you actually read and use.
Good advice, no doubt. I have said the same, and have even been unsubscribing from email lists at a higher rate than usual myself.
Also interesting to note is that in that same time frame, Twitter became the #1 referrer for new traffic to my blog. (You can see current stats here)
That may seem completely unrelated to the topic of list-building, but actually its not. Growing your "following" on Twitter is much the same as building your email list. You are still broadcasting to a group of people who opted in to receive your updates.
I'm not suggesting that you stop focusing on list-building, not by any means. But now, more than ever, it pays to look into social networking and the ways that you can integrate it into your marketing plan.
Social networking is a more personable, sociable style of marketing and includes being interactive on: niche blogs, social Q&A sites, internet talk radio shows, niche discussion forums, as well as sites like Twitter, MySpace & Facebook.
That is not to say that you should use social marketing strategies to replace email marketing or list-building, but rather use them to establish a more personal relationship with your target market.
People who meet you, like you, and have an interest in what you offer will follow your links and subscribe to your mailing list. Establishing that personal connection upfront will work to build a more loyal readership, which will ultimately result in less unsubscribes.
Obviously you have to continue building on that relationship through your email correspondence. But it is much easier to make a personal connection through social networking, than it is on a static opt-in page where you and your visitor 'meet' for the very first time.
With current market trends, it has become incredibly important to focus on building a loyal readership - rather than just a 'large mailing list'. In fact, the numbers are not near as important as the quality of your relationship with each indvidual subscriber. Its not a numbers game anymore.
As for the high unsubscribe rate, I'll also say that new subscriptions are at an all time high as well - specifically since I have been using social marketing strategies more heavily.
There are a lot of factors that can result in a high unsubscribe rate. One of the most common being that you arent offering your reader what you promised them when they subscribed. For example, if they opted in for free copywriting tips and you send them a high percentage of emails completely unrelated to copywriting.
But even with every consideration taken, top-notch publishers are affected by the current unsub trend. If you are experiencing the same, dont sweat the loss. Those who are unsubscribing from your mailing list are not the responsive sector of your list anyway.
In the meantime, consider the ways that you can build a more loyal readership, and a better relationship with your readers, by using social marketing strategies upfront.
Best,
p.s. The release of Aweber's new Email Analytics package was perfect timing. Not only will the in-depth stats reveal who is unsubscribing - and why - but it will also allow you to craft individual, personalized messages to your readers.
The more I study current marketing trends, the more I see the value in what Aweber is offering...
About Lynn Terry
Well Lynn, I'm a prime example of what you are talking about in this blog post.
I first connected with you on Twitter and enjoyed your style. Then I heard you on a call with @CoachDeb and really enjoyed what you shared.
Now not only do I subscribe to your newsletter, but I'm a raving fan who wants your daily notifications.
I have completely cleaned house with my newsletter subscriptions and even unsubscribed from some big name guru's lists because it just didn't suit me.
I never get upset when someone unsubscribes from my list. Obviously my style did not resonate with them. I'm not going to waste my time trying to prove to everyone why they should be on my list.
Instead I will focus on making my raving fans happy and deliver what they want to hear.
I can certainly connect with my readers through my blog and newsletters, but it absolutely pales in comparison to how I can connect with my followers on Twitter or other social media.
So glad that I found you on Twitter Lynn 😉
Scott Tousignant
http://www.UnstoppableFatLoss.com
80/20... 20% (and probably even less than that) of your subscribers are going to be your bread and butter.
I haven't been email listing for a while as I've been working on building my mini-network.
It's just about complete though an will open up with a brand new newsletter...it should be interesting to see how things have changed.
I thank Scott though, he gave me an idea for a nice post 😉
I've unsubscribed from a lot of lists, and some have disappointed me because they've just moved me elsewhere; weasels.
Unfortunately, at the same time, I notice that the initial bounce I got from Twitter has dropped drastically. I think it's more Twitter's fault than anything else, with it being down so often lately.
Mitch - what do you mean by bounce, exactly? It seems Twitter was down A LOT during the month of June, yet it was still one of my top traffic sources that month...
Ditto Scott - very glad we connected via Twitter. And I like what you said about focusing specifically on your "raving fans" - great way to put it! 😉
My readership had almost tripled when I first introduced Twitter into my life back in April, but in June I showed only 8 visitors as coming from Twitter.
Interesting - did you find that you were less active on Twitter yourself during the downtime, or was your activity the same?
Well, when they were down there wasn't anything I could do. But I still posted all my blog entries, and wrote when I could. Doesn't help that TwitterFox is down more than up these days either.
I have heard a lot about that - something to do with the FF3 release? I use the web version of Twitter most often. Its great when its up! 😉
Interesting observations. I've never delved into building lists, mostly because I'm the kind of person who never lasts more than three days on any of them myself, and it doesn't surprise me that fewer people are sticking around these days.
I'm sure I've left a lot of money on the table by not creating lists, but I've done okay for myself just by building blogs and websites and practicing basic SEO and link-building practices.
I'm definitely based in selling advertising rather than products though.
I do want to start building a blog that is more community based and more for the internet entrepreneur types, so I'll be looking more seriously into web 2.0 social networking, and I might just have to do the list building thing. We'll see. 😉
Thanks for the article--you've given me a few points to ponder as I go forward.
~Lindsay
Lindsay - you provided an excellent answer for yourself right in your statement.
Analyse everything from the other lists that made you unsubscribe (most likely many of them are universal problems), and be sure those are the first things you avoid or find alternatives for in your list.
You will attract many of the same people that hate the same garbage you do 🙂
I have also experience higher unsubscribed rates in non IM niches, even though I am giving related content.
When I first started doing email marketing i was also surprised at how many email addresses became useless because they were deleted by their owners or email providers. Count on loosing about 5% of your list every couple of months.
That high in that short a period of time? That's not good...
Obviously its important to focus on building a quality, responsive list - and to keep that relationship warm. It doesnt pay to focus on the loss, but rather on continuing to build on those that appreciate your content.