5 Keys to Effective Unsubscribe Landing Pages

You heard that right.

OK, you hear it from your significant other on a hopefully regular basis, but “Let’s KISS” can mean so much more.

Take your use of email subscriptions, or rather, your email unsubscribes. KISS isn’t only a romantic action, but for you as an email, product or service, or direct response marketer, knowing how to “Keep It Short and Simple” will help you maintain your email lists.

Why Do People Unsubscribe?

Email recipients generally cite several reasons for unsubscribing. These include:

• They’re no longer interested in your products or services.
• They’re receiving way too many emails.
• They’re not interested in your content.

Create a Branded Landing Page

Ordinarily, your emails carry with them an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Subscribers just click on the link and they’re unsubscribed. Simple, right?

Why not create a meaningful branded landing page instead. You can actually retain more subscribers.

There are lots of ways to keep it simple and short when it comes to an unsubscribe landing page. Here are five keys to an effective landing page:

1. Set Up Preferences

Consider the use of preferences centers for email frequency, as well as the type of content to give subscribers a choice. This can be something like:

Marketer: “Hi there, do you really want to leave us?”
Subscriber: “Well, no, I’ll give you another chance.” This is making them have second thoughts.
Marketer: “Awesome! We thrilled you’ve decided to stay!”

You then provide them with the frequency of emails: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly.

Let subscribers select what types of emails they’d like to receive: sales, e-newsletters, company news, infographics.

Finally, let them update their email addresses if they wish. Make everything easy and obvious.

2. Make Your Unsubscribe Button Really Obvious

Many times, companies place their unsubscribe as a tiny link at the bottom of the email. Don’t let your subscribers have to search for that _{teeny weeny link}. Provide them with a stand-out unsubscribe button that takes them to a substantial landing page, which might just make them change their minds.

3. Use Humor

Short videos are a big deal these days. When your subscribers decide to make that ultimate decision of leaving, present them with a bit of humor. Take a page from Groupon’s playbook: On your landing page, include a short video of a person sitting at their desk. When they receive the word of the unsubscribe, that person is punished by a boss for annoying subscribers. This “Punish so-and-so” works because it interjects a layer of humor, which can keep subscribers because they don’t feel like they’re being begged to stay.

4. If They Want to Leave, Let Them

The last thing you want to do using the KISS method is to make people jump through hoops. If they want to leave, let them. Consider a landing page that provides them with specific product or service categories that may interest them. Convey that if they do choose to leave that they could lose out on valuable sales offers or they may not receive confirmation emails regarding any future orders.

5. Make Sure That Subscribers Don’t Have to Log in to Unsubscribe

Nothing can make a subscriber more annoyed is to have to log in to unsubscribe. If they’re already irritated about your emails, this won’t help. You want to leave them with a positive image of your company because chances are, they may come back if you’ve provided them with a simple way to leave.

So remember KISS. If you always put that extra attention to your unsubscribe process, you’ll find that you will actually lose less subscribers.