There it is again. The stomach-sinking notification that another person has unsubscribed from your email list. And then comes the self-confidence spiral. Why didn’t they like your emails? Was it something you said? Was it something you didn’t say?
Unsubscribers are bad… right?
Not so much. When you look a little closer (and work a little smarter), the people leaving your mailing list are actually doing you a big favour. In fact, they’re giving you a big push closer toward the kind of potential clients you’ve been angling for since day one. Here’s how every unsubscribe can be a small win in the bigger picture.
The Real Cost of Keeping Dead Weight
Of course, you don’t want every name on your carefully cultivated email list to disappear overnight. Who would read your wonderful client stories then?
The truth is, a bloated, unengaged list of recipients won’t get you the closes and leads you’re looking for. As always, it’s quality over quantity that you need. A streamlined, interested list will always outperform the big, unbothered one.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that unengaged subscribers are going to hurt your deliverability rates. In fact, the worst-case scenario is that your emails get ‘shadow-banned’. You see, email providers track engagement metrics like opens and clicks to find out if you’re a spammer (£100,000,000 from a long-lost royal cousin, anyone?).
If your emails are getting minimal opens, they could end up in the dreaded spam box, gathering dust and never even seen by the valuable people on your list. Which is even more painful if you’re working hard for every person on that list or even paying to get them there.
And just like that, the email list that should be making you money and connections… is losing you money and connections.
The Things That Actually Matter
So what should you be doing about those unsubscribers? Well, the first thing is knowing where to put your focus. If you’re feeling deflated by a deflating email list, it might help to know that open rates and click-through rates are more valuable than your overall list size.
Just think – if you had a list of 500 uninterested subscribers, you’d still have zero leads. But if you had a list of 100 engaged subscribers, you’d have 100 leads. The big lists mean nothing if your emails are going straight to junk or being ignored week after week.
If you really want to know if your email list is healthy, take a look at your Conversion rates. They’ll tell the full story. If you have 10,000 subscribers at a 15% open rate, you’ve got email marketing health issues. Compare that to 2,000 subscribers at a 45% open rate, and you can soon figure out if your email marketing needs resuscitation or congratulations.
What Unsubscribers Are Really Telling You
It doesn’t feel good to see someone opt out, but you can learn a lot from each one of those unsubscribe notifications. These unsubscribers are telling you that they’re not your ideal customer (and that’s OK). They’re either not interested, not understanding or not ready, none of which describes a dream customer.
You’re looking for customers who are already looking for you, interested in what you offer and ready to take action. The people taking the time to click that unsubscribe link at the bottom of your last email? They don’t tick any of those boxes.
And you know what, they’re being honest instead of just ignoring your emails! It’s better to know who’s not interested than to have ghost subscribers taking up space on your list and dragging your metrics down.
In reality, every unsubscribe makes your list more targeted and more valuable. With the right people on your list, you’ve got the odds in your favour, and your finely tuned email marketing campaigns will hit the spot with everyone who receives them. That certainly sounds better than sending out high-value emails and hearing crickets in response.
Refining, Not Rejection
It really is just a reframe of how you view your list. You’ve been taught by the likes of social media that every lost ‘follower’ is just that, a loss. When in fact, unsubscribes are refining your list, not rejecting you or your services. It’s definitely not something you should take personally. They’re moving you one step closer to your next dream customer.
And as I often say to my email marketing clients, every no is someone who can say yes later. In other words, those unsubscribers might come back when the timing is right. They might connect with a different lead magnet of yours, find their way back to your list and reply to an old email that they’ve dug out. The point is that your list is a constantly growing and evolving thing, filled with people who open your emails when they see them.
Because let’s not forget that’s the whole point of your email list. You want people who want to hear from you, not just an echo chamber or padded numbers.
Building credibility with the right people matters more than broadcasting to everyone, so in the grand scheme of things, even the unsubscribers are an essential part of a healthy, efficient email list.
Want To Grow A Healthy Email List, Unsubscribers and All?
There’s value in those unsubscribers, since your email list needs to be filled with interested and active recipients who ultimately want to engage with your offers. But you need a solid email marketing strategy to make the most of the valuable opportunity to connect with every individual on your list.
If you’re not sure where to start or you want to know why those unsubscribes keep on coming, book a consultation with me, Nathan Littleton, today. Together, we’ll develop an email list strategy that will knock the socks off your ideal customer and make those unsubscriber blues a distant memory.
