Email Strategy Roundtable: Will An Unsubscribe Incentive Work?

Jordan Lane’s post Offer At Unsubscribe: Desperate or Brilliant? highlights an unsubscribe incentive by Personal Creations.com. As email marketing strategists, we all immediately found ourselves questioning this tactic. The enclosed discussions continue to raise the question Jordan puts forth – is this a smart approach or simply a bad idea?
Kristen Gregory: Interesting tactic. If this were me attempting to unsubscribe, I would do the following: 1) unsubscribe anyway or 2) go ahead and use the coupon and then unsubscribe. One negative consequence of this approach is that people can continuously feign unsubscribing in order to receive non-stop 25% off coupons – unless this is somehow set up as a one-time offer. At the end of the day, if the business has the margin to spare, this tactic could be worth a shot. Ultimately, I don’t see it as a clever way to keep someone on the list, but rather a clever way to potentially grab some last sales before someone jumps ship. It may also be worth reiterating/reminding subscribers of other reasons they should consider staying on the list as well (i.e. continue to receive special birthday reminders, how-to tips, etc).


Julie: I agree with Kristen. Subscribers are going to respond one of two ways: either use the code and unsubscribe later, or unsubscribe anyway. I think the latter is more likely because if they haven’t responded to any of your other offers or sales, why would this one be any different? And worst case scenario is that you train them to feign attrition in order to get a coupon.
What really alarms me about this is the verbiage on the page itself, as it is very confusing. They’ve got the huge coupon code and CLICK HERE button with tiny text underneath that says “or complete the form below to unsubscribe from our email specials list.” Below there is a field box to enter your email address, but underneath that it reads “Offer expires 3/28/10 or just Unsubscribe” (“Unsubscribe” is a button link). Combining the offer and unsubscribe language intertwined like that makes it hard to discern what I need to do as a consumer to either redeem or unsubscribe. Do I enter my email address to unsubscribe, or to take advantage of the offer? We know it is best practice to offer an unsubscribe with no login or multiple clicks required, but what of confusing unsubscribe page copy? This tactic can’t be good for the customer experience.
Jeff: It can be difficult to re-engage an individual who is already in the process of unsubscribing (i.e. already clicked on the unsubscribe button). In which case, this tactic may not yield a lengthened subscriber relationship, however could provide an incentive to convert a sale.
It’s important to recognize that while a person may wish not to receive emails; it does not necessarily disqualify them as a “money-spender” for your company. Often a person is simply unsubscribing due to an “overflowing inbox” (too many emails from too many sources) or are just trimming up their daily reading.
Other individuals may be unsubscribing because they feel unimportant (i.e. the company never asked WHAT I AM interested in). An additional tactic on this last-chance offer could be a survey on the unsubscribe page that asks the question, “Why are you unsubscribing?” You could present multiple choices (mail too frequently, offers not relevant, etc.) along with a text box for “other” typed in responses. The page header could read, “Tell us why you are leaving and receive 25% off today.” The results of this could be two-fold. 1. The person converts with a money savings discount, thus increasing company revenue, or 2. The person may get the warm & fuzzies and feel that the company cares about them as a customer, and just might defer their unsubscribe efforts. Either way, the survey feedback may be valuable for retaining other potential “unsubscribers.”
Kelly: I’m not sure how effective this tactic would be to keep contacts looking to unsubscribe. I have a few concerns about this unsubscribe page, which feed into my belief that this tactic may not be as effective as Personal Creations would like it to be:

• They provide the coupon code on the unsubscribe page so there is no incentive for the subscriber to stay subscribed the way the copy is written today.
• Beyond a quickie coupon, what other value are they providing the subscriber through the email campaign? Is it a personalized shopping experience that provides valuable and relevant content as Personal Creations touts on their website? If so, tell the subscriber!
• A quick peek at the current version of the unsubscribe page shows they haven’t changed the coupon code (yet it expires in two days??), which leaves ample opportunity for this code to get scalped and passed around.
• The way the offer is handled is a bit sneaky. I would bet the majority of people understand that an asterisk means “there are caveats”, but they hide the caveat at the bottom of the page.
• Personal Creations requires the subscriber to enter their email address in order to complete the unsubscribe. Make it easy, pre-populate with the data you have, or subscribers will complain.
• Beyond offering a coupon to shop again, there’s so much opportunity to provide options to opt-down, communicate with the company through other mediums or provide feedback. If you, Personal Creations, go this far, why not take it a step further to show how much you value your customers by providing them options?

It’d be interesting, since Personal Creations calls the subscriber a “valued customer”, if they could provide any past purchase data/cross-sells on this page as they should know who the subscriber is when they click through. It could be something as simple as “We want to keep you as our valued customer. We are extending you a 25% off coupon to repurchase the matching necklace for the Marquise Birthstone ring you purchased two months ago.” I would bet putting just a bit more elbow grease into this page would provide both a lift in sales with the coupon (because remember, “goodbye” to your email program does not always mean “goodbye” to the business relationship) and a higher retention rate of subscribers.

Kimberly Snyder
Team Lead Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto