The unsubscribe rate is a metric that measures the percentage of people who opt out from an email list.
The unsubscribe rate percentage is calculated as Unsubscribed number/Emails delivered x 100 = Unsubscribed rate %
Every email must include an unsubscribe link to provide subscribers an option to remove themselves at any time. If recipients want to unsubscribe from an email list, they can click on the link (usually placed at the bottom of an email message). The subscriber’s status will then be automatically changed from active to unsubscribed and he/she will appear as unsubscribed in campaign reports.
People unsubscribe from your email newsletters for various reasons. You could be sending too many messages, or you may have an issue with formatting. Some of your readers may have signed up inadvertently and are no longer interested.
While it may not make sense at first, removing unengaged contacts from your email lists can actually help improve your email marketing performance. They’re probably not opening or clicking on your messages, which means they aren’t helping you build your sender reputation.
However, you should be keep track of your unsubscribe rate to maintain healthy and engaged lists.
What is a good unsubscribe rate?
The average unsubscribe rate can vary depending on the industry, but generally speaking anything below 0.5% is considered good, and 0.5-1% is reasonable but could be improved.
A high unsubscribe rate can suggest that you're targeting the wrong people, your emails are of poor quality or they aren't compatible with mobile devices. There are numerous email marketing techniques you can use to lower the number of unsubscribes, but a fluctuating or steadily increasing unsubscribe rate should always be taken as a red flag.
Best practices to improve your unsubscribe rate
The unsubscribe rate is a critical statistic to track during every email campaign, as it helps you to measure the success and gauge consumer interest into your products and promotions. It is also one of the most unpleasant metrics that marketers need to deal with, but there are ways you can improve it:
- Consider customer’s engagement: ensure you’re only communicating with people who agreed to receive emails from you and continuously top up your list with fresh leads. Segment your list to be sure you’re targeting the most engaged subscribers and excluding the less engaged.
- Update your list using recipient’s purchase activity: a good way to prevent your clients to unsubscribe from your list is to exclude people who have just made a purchase on your website. In the days after a purchase, they’re less likely to be interested in buying again and their unsubscribe risk is higher.
- A/B test email frequency and time: it is crucial to understand your segments’ preference in terms on when and how frequently they like to receive email. A/B tests can help you optimize the frequency, content and style of your emails to achieve the best performance.
- Create value: one spammy email can cause a huge spike in your unsubscribe rates and damage your brand. Always aim to provide valuable, unique content to your subscribers that will earn their trust and respect, and the sales will follow.
- Optimize for mobile: as email opens on mobile are increasing, taking mobile devices into consideration early in the design process will help you reduce the unsubscribe rate and tap into a huge trend that shows no signs of diminishing.
- Keep the unsubscribe link visible: subscribers should always have an option to opt out from a mailing list if they no longer wish to receive emails from you. By making the unsubscribe link visible and accessible, you’ll avoid spam complaints and maintain a positive image of your brand. It’s not unusual for subscribers to come back after some time, so let them go on good terms.
- Use exit surveys: All the data analysis in the world won’t give you the kind of insight you can get from a simple survey. If someone has stopped reading your emails, the easiest way to find out why is by asking them.
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From theory to pratice:
A case study from one of our clients
Moving from theory to practice, we want to give you an example of how the unsubscribe rate can be improved by adopting some of these simple best practices and how this improvement can be realized over a short period of time.
Taking on of our client (a famous Canadian beauty company) as an example, let's see together how the unsubscribe rate of their email campaigns evolved in the first six months of our collaboration. We started working together on their email campaigns in September 2021 and since then their average unsubscribed rate decreased from 1% to 0.22% showing a steady improvement month after month.
The client’s average unsubscribe rate over the first 6 months we worked together:
- September: 1%
- October: 0.62%
- November: 0.47%
- December : 0.48%
- January: 0.48%
- February: 0.31%
- March: 0.22%
How did we do it? By combining together several actions that all contributed to the achievement of this result.
Among the actions taken:
- We defined an "Engaged" segment consisting only of subscribers who show interest in the client’s emails. But who are engaged subscribers specifically? They are the people who opened or clicked on your emails at least once during the time period under consideration. This period can vary depending on the company and its strategy: in the case of our client, the first “Engaged” segment created was based on a 90-day period. Considering the good results obtained in terms of open and click rates, we gradually expanded the segment to 180 days. The Engaged segment is used as the basis for the newsletter, but it can and should be replaced by larger segments in the case of important and out-of-the-ordinary promotions or communications. ( -> Go check our segmentation guide to know how to build your own engaged segment). As explained earlier, using an "Engaged" segment allows you to exclude people who are not interested in receiving your basic newsletter and thus helps improve the unsubscribe rate since the people who show the least interest are the ones most at risk of unsubscribing.
- Another key step was to identify and exclude from the basic newsletter all subscribers who had completed a purchase in the few days prior to the email. Again, the time period considered can vary depending on the strategy and the type of product or service offered. In the case of our client, after conducting several tests we decided to use a time period of 14 days, which was the one that showed the best results. Excluding people who have recently completed a purchase helps improve the unsubscribe rate in two ways:
- Normally the days following an online purchase are days when you receive several emails from the company you purchased from, particularly order confirmation emails, shipping, and other post-purchase emails. Clogging up your customer's inbox with email campaigns is not a good idea during those days and can increase the risk of unsubscribing.
- In addition, those who have just made a purchase are generally less likely to make another purchase after a few days, and this can have a negative effect not only on unsubscribe rate but also on conversions.
- In addition, A/B testing sending days and times we were able to better understand our audience and organize email campaigns based on their preferences. (Quick example: do you think sending emails over the weekend is too risky for your Unsubscribe Rate? Try it and you will know!)
- We also made sure that every email that was sent was optimized for mobile and had a visible unsubscribe link. Sometimes the most obvious actions are the ones that bring the best results.
The strategy adopted by this client was the combined result of a careful initial analysis of their unsubscribe rate and various adjustments made along the way to get the best results. If you want advice on how to improve your unsubscribe rate and you want it from someone who has succeeded before, now is the time to schedule a call with us!
Written by: Flavia Malvatani
