How to Handle Your Newsletter Unsubscribes

<h1>How to Handle Your Newsletter Unsubscribes</h1>Author: <a title="Sandra Martini" href="http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/sandra-martini/60559.htm">Sandra Martini</a> In the beginning, when you’re writing your newsletter and repurposing your articles in order to continuously grow your list, things are great.

You go to bed, wake up and find you have new ezine subscribers. It’s a wonderful feeling (almost as good as waking up to find you’ve sold some products).

Then comes the day when you put your heart and soul into your newsletter article, hit SEND and get a notice indicating that someone’s unsubscribed.

The most common question I hear from my clients is “What did I do wrong?” immediately followed by “Maybe I should stop publishing my newsletter since no one likes it.”

In learning how to handle your newsletter unsubscribes, you must first realize:

<ol>

<li>Typically, you did nothing wrong.</li>

<li>There IS a silent majority of your newsletter readers who learn from you and enjoy your newsletters, but may not speak up to tell you.</li>

<li>Chances are, those who unsubscribe are not your ideal client and would just be inflating your list by staying on it – remember, it’s the quality of your list, not the size that really matters.</li>

</ol>

That said, it can still hurt, especially when you give it your all.

Now that we’ve addressed your emotional response to unsubscribes, let’s talk about what you should do when you they occur:

<ol>

<li />Have the email with unsubscribe notifications go to someone, anyone, besides you. Even if this needs to be a fictional person at an email account you check every-so-often.

<li />Know your unsubscribe percentage (calculate this by taking the number of unsubscribes for a given period, dividing it by your total subscribers and multiplying by 100) and continue to monitor it. If is rises significantly, take a look at how long your unsubscribes had been with you, where they came from and whether or not you significantly changed your usual ezine format/style of writing or started offering more promotions.

<li />If you are using more than one system (a shopping cart and an ezine system like Constant Contact for example), ensure that the person is marked as “do not mail” for each and every system to avoid complaints down the road.

</ol>

Your Coaching Challenge

Create a process for handling your unsubscribes and ensure you are looking at the percentage at least once per month to be sure it’s not increasing (and if it is, WHY is it?).

If you notice an increase in your unsubscribe percentage and have taken the steps above to determine what’s happening, create a survey (you can use <a href="http://www.SurveyMonkey.com" target="_blank">www.SurveyMonkey.com</a> for free) to ask your readers what you’re doing right, what they’d like to see more of and what they’d like to see less of – remember, the more specific you are in your questions, the better responses you’ll get and you can always offer a f’ree gift for your readers to complete the survey.

About the Author: Sandra is the publisher of "Success Strategies" - a free weekly email newsletter designed to teach small business owners how to create marketing systems and better leverage themselves in order to reach their business and life goals. 
She is also a contributing author of "Power and Soul: 42 Successful Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets for Creating the Business and Life of Your Dreams" (April 2007) and her articles are regularly featured on countless sites across the Web. 
Get Sandra Martini's FREE "5 Simple Steps to Putting Your Marketing on Autopilot" e-course/audio mini-workshop and her FREE small business success how-to tips at <a href="http://www.SandraMartini.com." target="_blank">www.SandraMartini.com.</a>Article Source: <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/">ArticlesBase.com</a> - <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/newsletters-articles/how-to-handle-your-newsletter-unsubscribes-424371.html" title="How to Handle Your Newsletter Unsubscribes">How to Handle Your Newsletter Unsubscribes</a>

In the beginning, when you’re writing your newsletter and repurposing your articles in order to continuously grow your list, things are great.

You go to bed, wake up and find you have new ezine subscribers. It’s a wonderful feeling (almost as good as waking up to find you’ve sold some products).

Then comes the day when you put your heart and soul into your newsletter article, hit SEND and get a notice indicating that someone’s unsubscribed.

The most common question I hear from my clients is “What did I do wrong?” immediately followed by “Maybe I should stop publishing my newsletter since no one likes it.”

In learning how to handle your newsletter unsubscribes, you must first realize:

Typically, you did nothing wrong.

There IS a silent majority of your newsletter readers who learn from you and enjoy your newsletters, but may not speak up to tell you.

Chances are, those who unsubscribe are not your ideal client and would just be inflating your list by staying on it – remember, it’s the quality of your list, not the size that really matters.

That said, it can still hurt, especially when you give it your all.

Now that we’ve addressed your emotional response to unsubscribes, let’s talk about what you should do when you they occur:

Have the email with unsubscribe notifications go to someone, anyone, besides you. Even if this needs to be a fictional person at an email account you check every-so-often.
Know your unsubscribe percentage (calculate this by taking the number of unsubscribes for a given period, dividing it by your total subscribers and multiplying by 100) and continue to monitor it. If is rises significantly, take a look at how long your unsubscribes had been with you, where they came from and whether or not you significantly changed your usual ezine format/style of writing or started offering more promotions.
If you are using more than one system (a shopping cart and an ezine system like Constant Contact for example), ensure that the person is marked as “do not mail” for each and every system to avoid complaints down the road.

Unsubscribes are a natural part of your business – just as clients come and go, so do newsletter subscribers. The important thing is to know your average number of unsubscribes and act/adjust if the number unexpectedly increases.

Your Coaching Challenge

Create a process for handling your unsubscribes and ensure you are looking at the percentage at least once per month to be sure it’s not increasing (and if it is, WHY is it?).

If you notice an increase in your unsubscribe percentage and have taken the steps above to determine what’s happening, create a survey (you can use www.SurveyMonkey.com for free) to ask your readers what you’re doing right, what they’d like to see more of and what they’d like to see less of – remember, the more specific you are in your questions, the better responses you’ll get and you can always offer a f’ree gift for your readers to complete the survey.

Sandra is the publisher of "Success Strategies" - a free weekly email newsletter designed to teach small business owners how to create marketing systems and better leverage themselves in order to reach their business and life goals.
She is also a contributing author of "Power and Soul: 42 Successful Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets for Creating the Business and Life of Your Dreams" (April 2007) and her articles are regularly featured on countless sites across the Web.
Get Sandra Martini's FREE "5 Simple Steps to Putting Your Marketing on Autopilot" e-course/audio mini-workshop and her FREE small business success how-to tips at www.SandraMartini.com.

Rate this Article:

0 / 5 stars - 0 vote(s)

Re-Publish

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/newsletters-articles/how-to-handle-your-newsletter-unsubscribes-424371.html

Article Tags: Marketing Coach, Small Business Coach, Sandra Martini, Sandy Martini, Newsletter Unsubscribes

Related Videos
Related Articles
Ask / Related Q&A

Play

Block Coloring a British (Bob Haircut)

Play

Learn about Waterproof Sand

Play

Ask an Expert Wholesaler: Lease Option Example

Play

Harvesting Apples Part One - Garden Girl TV

Play

How to Plant Strawberries

Latest Newsletters Articles
More from Sandra Martini

Few Words on Affordable SEO Services

By: John | 29/12/2009
In the highly competitive world of IT solutions, companies have started to offer competitive rates when it comes to specific services. However, one should be wary about picking somebody who is participating in such a price war. Search engine optimization needs expertise and finesses, so cheap SEO services must not be the only consideration.

Google Profits Scam Recovery System

By: Jeff Bergquist | 25/12/2009
Ever been part of an online SCAM ? You're not alone. This is yet one way to get back at those scammers legally. Read on…... Please visit: http://GreenAnything.net after you've read this article for further FREE download information.

Gosoled-Dimmable LED Lamp manufacturer pioneer

By: jekaywu | 22/12/2009
On December 15, 2009,located in China Gosoled Lighting announced that it has completed one by the French Alphaled Group (France) cooperation programs. Gosoled company is committed to developing high-performance tunable optical LED lamps.

Jack Stephen Cates - The online Competition to Save newspapers

By: Jack Cates | 17/12/2009
When beleaguered executives from top newspaper firms met at a Chicago airfield hotel in late May, they decided they needed a savior - that is, a tech company to help them work out tactics to earn income on the internet. Letters inviting solutions went out to ten firms, and in July the replies discreetly rolled in. Google's proposal coincidentally showed up online Sept. 9, sparking an ocean of media reports about Google's plan to save newspapers. But what of the other firms that co...

Photoshop Video Tutorial Success For Beginners

By: David Peters | 15/12/2009
Get a free Adobe Photoshop report and discover our totally unique step-by-step Photoshop Video Tutorial training system, designed to make any newbie user completely competent in no time at all!!!

Building an Email Marketing List

By: Ryan Orlon | 14/12/2009
To build your email list you will want to make sure the list is targeted to those individuals you want to reach. It is a waste of time and possibly against the spam laws to send your marketing materials to those who have not indicated an interest in your materials or given you permission to send them your materials.

Heavy Obstacles to Chinese Tire Export

By: Alice Chen | 08/12/2009
Chinese tire export achieves great development since its emergence. The tire categories and export markets are expanding. However, in recent years, various trade barriers against Chinese tire export appeared. Chinese tire export suffers enormous losses in the trade protectionism of foreign countries. Thus, adjusting marketing strategies to cope with foreign anti-dumping measures becomes the concern of domestic tire producers.

Affiliate Tip – Create A Newsletter

By: Sarah Danes | 27/11/2009
The average person has to be exposed to a product seven times before he makes a decision to buy. What does that mean to you as an affiliate marketer? You need to be able to get the product you are offering in front of your visitors repeatedly. One of the best ways to do this is by getting the visitors of your website to sign up for a newsletter. By capturing their email address and getting them on your newsletter list, you can keep bringing them back to your site. You wil...

Are You on Track? 5 Tools For a Late Summer Retreat

By: Sandra Martini | 05/11/2008 | Management
Do you spend so much time working in your business that you never work on your business? The corporate world knows the value of taking time out for a step back, taking time to assess what is going right, what is going wrong and what just plain isn't going anywhere. As a...

Where’s the Cash? 7 Simple and Proven Steps You Can Easily Take Right Now to Get Paid Faster

By: Sandra Martini | 25/09/2008 | Management
It’s that time again. You send out invoices and sit and wait, and wait, and wait for your clients to pay you. Sometimes it’s a matter of cash flow on their end, sometimes they are just too busy and forget and other times it’s something little that they are unsure of, but haven’t found the time to contact you.

7 Simple Ways to Consistently Build Your Ezine List

By: Sandra Martini | 14/07/2008 | Business Ideas
One of the most popular questions I'm asked is "HOW do I build my ezine list?" or "How do I get more people to sign up for my ezine list?"

How to Make Your Business Thrive Rather Than Survive

By: Sandra Martini | 29/06/2008 | Management
It seems everywhere I turn I'm hearing about: the recession, why we *should discount* our services to get more business or why we should have a sale as a result of *the* summertime lull in business and yet I'm busier than ever and have just brought on two new team members and several of my clients are reporting record months.

Where are You in the Hierarchy?

By: Sandra Martini | 20/06/2008 | Entrepreneurship
There is what I call a “Hierarchy of Connection” – the higher the level of your connection, the more credibility you have and the more likely prospects are to turn into clients and refer others to you – think of this as the “know, like and trust” factor you hear so much about.

How to Handle Your Newsletter Unsubscribes

By: Sandra Martini | 23/05/2008 | Newsletters
In the beginning, when you’re writing your newsletter and repurposing your articles in order to continuously grow your list, things are great. Then comes the day when you put your heart and soul into your newsletter article, hit SEND and get a notice indicating that someone’s unsubscribed.