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Some Tips For Your Goodbye Email
In MailChimp, you can totally customize the emails and landing pages of your double opt-in process. In this post, we'd like to suggest a few things for your "Goodbye email."
We realize nobody likes to see people leave their list, but it happens. So make sure the goodbye is every bit as polished as your "welcome."
What IS the Goodbye Email?
First of all, some background information. When someone unsubscribes from your list, it's a good idea to send a final "goodbye email." Mainly because the unsubscribe could have been accidental.
For example, you send a newsletter to your list. One of your recipients thinks it's really swell, so he forwards it to his friend. The friend is having a really bad day at the office, putting out fires left and right. He opens the email, and doesn't read the little "hey, thought you might like this..." stuff at the top. He just sees a newsletter he never opted in for. So without thinking, he clicks the "unsubscribe" link. Bam, the original recipient is unsubscribed from your list. Oopsie.
So here are some tips for your "goodbye email:"
- Make it short and sweet. You don't want this to look like yet another HTML email newsletter. If the recipient just unsubscribed from your list, they'll be furious to receive even more "salesy" emails from you.
- Consider a plain-text email, or an HTML email that's "lite" and looks like plain-text. Minimal graphics.
- Try to include a link to a feedback survey. Keep the feedback survey brief. All you really need to ask is, "why are you leaving?" By the way, if you don't have a good survey tool, look into Surveymonkey.com (no relation to MailChimp, but it's a kick-ass monkey anyways)
- Include a link to re-subscribe to your list, just in case it was a mistake.
- Got a blog/website they can bookmark instead? Sometimes, people get inbox fatigue, and just want out. Let them visit your website instead. Who knows, they might opt-in again later.
Below are some screenshots of what we use in our own MonkeyWrench newsletter:
The final goodbye email:
The goodbye survey (screen 1):
Goodbye survey (screen2):
August 4, 2006 in Tips, Tricks, Best Practices | Permalink
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Comments
I agree. I got some good feedback during unsubscription too. My the process for my ESP goes like this: click unsubscribe link -> confirm unsubscribe from one, more, or all lists. Or update info -> click to edit info or confirm unsubscription -> if unsubscription then display that she was unsubscribed.
just below the confirmation like is a text area where she can submit feedback if she choose to do so. she can close the window if she want.
Most of the time "why are you leaving?" is the only question to ask, so why not give it as an option instead of having to click a separate link to go to a survey site again? It maybe worthwhile to add that as a feature.
Posted by: Hendry at Above the Fold Email Marketing | Aug 9, 2006 11:11:50 AM
