There is a new trend in town – there are is a variety of new services designed specifically for one purpose – to let your email subscribers let you go as quickly and easily as possible.

These days there is information overload, and now people are taking control of what content they receive and when – look at TV on demand, user collated news feeds and websites, and now people can cancel their email subscriptions at the click of a button.

For a start there is Unsubscribe.com, and Unroll.me, and more services like this are popping up daily. Each removes unwanted email from recipients inbox’s and gets subscribers off your email lists.

Take a look at how easy it is for someone to not only unsubscribe from your messages, but also delete everything you’ve ever sent them:

It is also interesting to note that in the Unsubscribr.com service as shown in the service above, what is shown in the last email you sent the subscriber and who it’s from. Which means that in addition to sending email that’s relevant, timely, targeted, and valuable, you now have to have subject lines and from names that are consistent, clear, and memorable so that subscribers don’t mistake you for someone else in these mass unsubscribe services – or not recognise you at all and delete you!

And on that note, another thing that’s important is email frequency. Services like this make it so easy to unsubscribe that if a subscriber doesn’t remember you, they will likely just unsubscribe. So as well as having a consistent from name and memorable subject line, consider sending email more frequently so that people instantly recognise you and that you are ‘on their minds’ If you mail monthly, as we do, perhaps look to increase that to weekly for example. You really just want to be recent and memorable – even better if you can be ‘in the inner circle’ of the subscribers inbox.

And besides all of the above points, be valuable. This may seem obvious, but if you want to keep your subscribers, and even better if you want to keep your list going and growing, then spend as much time on your email campaigns as you do social media, advertising, and other avenues for marketing. And make sure you are providing valuable content. Give your subscribers a reason why they want to get your email. What do you give them that no-one else does? Your subscribers are all looking for a reason to leave and clear their inboxes, and more and more are using services like Unsubscribr to do so – so give your subscribers a reason to stay.

We have written about unsubscribing many times on this GetSmart blog – here is one, and links to others for you to look, learn and share!   Thanks so much!

I got an email this morning and checked the links at the bottom… and found this gem…

“To unsubscribe from our mailing list, just send us a reply with the subject: UNSUBSCRIBE
Make sure you reply from the same address that we have in our system, especially if you’ve already unsubbed & are still recieving the messages. Make sure to include a list of all the alternate e-mail accounts linked to your inbox too, so we can remove all of them; as opposed to sending us legal threats and hate-mail because you don’t know how to use your computer properly.”

We get this quite a lot too, which is why we recommend merging the email address into the email like this: “you are subscribed as roanne@Jericho.co.nz”

Also, we display a similar message when you click the unsubscribe button to confirm which email address you are unsubscribing.

When you have a few email addresses it’s easy to genuinely forget which one you subscribe things from. You might even be getting an email meant for someone else entirely, such as an ex colleague.

Have you had any issues with unsubscribes? Love to hear them.

Streams of automated email timed just right to maximise revenue is a kind of nirvana for the ecommerce marketer.

But it’s not easy to get right.  Sometimes simple is safer, but the drive to optimise each customer experience keeps on keeping on. Clearly, the Brads have struck this – prompting 30 frames of genius. This is frame 1 of a great cartoon that sums up the scenario better than anything I could write… click through and have a giggle, your thoughts on this dilemma are welcomed.