{"id":599,"date":"2010-07-20T11:36:32","date_gmt":"2010-07-20T15:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/?p=599"},"modified":"2010-07-20T11:36:32","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T15:36:32","slug":"unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/","title":{"rendered":"Let's Play The Unsubscribe Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bonnier Corporation is a publisher<\/a> of lifestyle magazines and online properties. Of their 50+ titles Sailing World, TransWorld SKATEboarding, and SNOW are among my favorites.<\/p>\n

However, when I recently attempted to opt-out of one newsletter I noticed a host of missed opportunities and one big problem. Take a quick look at the following image and tell me if you can easily find the unsubscribe link:<\/p>\n

\"Bonnier<\/a><\/p>\n

(By the way, don’t even get me started on the rendering of the links in the footer)<\/p>\n

Once you’ve finally found, and clicked on, the unsubscribe link imagine that you’ve entered your email address (which is completely unnecessary by the way) and click submit. Which button on the bare-bones page below would you pick?<\/p>\n

\"Bonnier<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’re anything like me you would either A) click the first button (which I did two weeks ago) or B) hit enter<\/em> on your keyboard. In either scenario the window simply closes. No confirmation. No nothing. Note: Perhaps you’re smarter than me or maybe I’m busier than you. :) No matter the case, I was surprised to see the very same newsletter in my inbox this morning.<\/p>\n

I’m an email-friendly guy so I don’t want to hit the ‘report as spam’ button so I tried unsubscribe again only time I took a bit more time, read more carefully, and clicked the correct button. Voila. I see by the confirmation message below. And that’s all I see.<\/p>\n

\"Bonnier<\/a><\/p>\n

Granted, I live and dream email marketing but I’ve seen firsthand that a well crafted opt-out process will allow marketers to gather valuable intelligence, reduce attrition, improve deliverability, and even gain more loyalty.<\/p>\n

My advice to Bonnier Corporation?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Don’t be sneaky<\/strong>. Don’t try to be sly with the opt-out language in the email and placement of the unsubscribe button. (Not to mention the lack of confirmation when I clicked the misplaced unsubscribe button.) If I want out, let me leave. Otherwise you risk damaging the reputation of your brands and certainly that of your email deliverability (this is the big problem I mentioned).<\/li>\n
  2. Don’t make me feel like a second-class citizen.<\/strong> The lack of the effort you’ve put into the opt-out page screams that you no longer care about me. You should. Simply because I no longer want this particular newsletter it doesn’t mean that I don’t buy your magazines or the products of your advertisers.<\/li>\n
  3. Learn from me.<\/strong> Survey me or ask me set my preferences (i.e. weekly, monthly, never). Maybe I like the newsletter, but not the frequency? Or perhaps, I’m no longer in the market. \u00a0You’ll never know of you don\u2019t ask.<\/li>\n
  4. Try to keep me.<\/strong> You could use humor or some other devise, perhaps coupled with an incentive, to get me to stay. GroupOn<\/a> does an excellent job.<\/li>\n
  5. Profit from me. <\/strong>For starters, brand the opt-out pages. It’s free money. Ask me to buy something, subscribe to other more relevant publications, or join you on the social networks. Hell, why not display ads? You’ve got my attention. Capitalize on it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As I mentioned, I’m busy so I’m fairly certain that I’ve overlooked several other missed opportunities. I’d love to hear your thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Bonnier Corporation is a top-notch publisher of lifestyle magazines, but their unsubscribe process is riddled with missed opportunities and one big problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,16,18,20],"tags":[38,39,40,202,45,193,195,50],"yoast_head":"\nLet's Play The Unsubscribe Game - Email Critic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Hardigree\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott Hardigree\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e2710fe0f549a043c5d05bd2f06f8240\"},\"headline\":\"Let's Play The Unsubscribe Game\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-20T15:36:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-07-20T15:36:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/\"},\"wordCount\":528,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Bonnier Corporation\",\"Deliverability\",\"Direct Email Marketing\",\"Email Marketing\",\"Email Marketing Mistakes\",\"Email Optimization\",\"Email Rendering\",\"marketing strategy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Email Delivery\",\"Email Marketing Strategy\",\"Email Optimization\",\"Email Rendering\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/\",\"name\":\"Let's Play The Unsubscribe Game - Email Critic\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-20T15:36:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-07-20T15:36:32+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/unsubscribe-link-opt-out-example\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/\",\"name\":\"Email Critic\",\"description\":\"The Bloody Truth About Email Marketing\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Email Critic\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/emailcritic-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/emailcritic-logo.jpg\",\"width\":400,\"height\":91,\"caption\":\"Email Critic\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e2710fe0f549a043c5d05bd2f06f8240\",\"name\":\"Scott Hardigree\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.emailcritic.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6aab7943edae63ab32813d607644cea8?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6aab7943edae63ab32813d607644cea8?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Scott Hardigree\"},\"description\":\"Scott Hardigree is founder of email industries and Indiemark, an email marketing agency. 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