The Cost of an Email Unsubscribe

I love when you get things like "unsubscribing costs U.S. retailers about $5.8 billion per year.<p>So if you stopped people unsubscribing $5.8 billion more would be spent on retail? No, people have, roughly, a fixed amount to spend, stopping them unsubscribing isn't going to give them more money.<p>If that figure were true, 5.8 bil less would be spent in other areas. But let's face it, this figure is pulled from someone's arse.<p>OK, there's a bubble of apps claiming to do this at the moment, but the marketing just gets more and more cheesy. And if we find it cheesy, are we going to trust these folks with our marketing?

I thought it was going to tell me the cost of clicking unsubscribe, followed by the forgot my password dance to log in to my "subscription preferences" to turn off the emails being sent to me.<p>Or having to fill out the email address that received the email (change back to my email client, check the headers), something that they could fill in for me.<p>Or having to figure out that the unsubscribe link is two shades of grey darker than the rest of the email and is almost unnoticeable...<p>Or even worse, the unsubscribe link is only in the HTML portion of the email, but not in the text portion of the email.<p>Other times the unsubscribe button is an image ... and if you don't download images willy-nilly from random servers when you get email you can't see it, and thus have no idea there is a way to unsubscribe.<p>I could go on, email is starting to get more and more frustrating and I have gotten to a point that I simply don't care anymore. I will press the junk button in Google Mail or in my mail client, and in the future I will not receive messages from that company. Does stuff get caught because of that, which shouldn't get caught? Sure, stuff like password reset emails, or billing renewal reminders, but overall I am sick and tired of every little thing I do online causing me to receive an email.

First, the page is cut off on Safari on an iPad. But I can get the gist of it.<p>More to the point, it's the piracy argument all over again. If I unsubscribe from a retailer's list, I wasn't going to buy anything from their mailings anyway. It's apparent that I had no intention of reading them. They're missing out on nothing.<p>But maybe I'll buy something in the future, who knows? If it was an otherwise pleasant experience I'll keep them in mind. When I unsubscribe, I hold no ill will toward the sender if they make it a one-click, easy unsubscribe. Make it a pain to unsubscribe, however, and get nothing in the future.<p>Take Musician's Friend as a prime example. My first and only purchase from them was a Fender Greta amp (highly recommended, BTW). I gave them (my gmail alias)+musiciansfriend@gmail.com. They took it. They also spam me every other day. Fine, I'll unsubscribe. But the unsubscribe form's regex rejects "+" and tells me the address is invalid. Too bad for you, MF, as I'll just filter your mail, the paper catalog that I didn't ask for will go straight to recycling without ever entering the house, and I'll bad-mouth you to anyone that asks. That's because post-sale MF came across as obnoxious.

I found the interface annoying. Here's a rough copy of the text:<p>— CUSTORA PRESENTS — Clive AND THE Unsubscribe (OR, WHAT'S COSTING RETAILERS $5.8 BILLION EACH YEAR)<p>Clive loves shopping online From soaps to socks to jellyfish food, if he can think of it, it's only a few clicks away from his doorstep. It's miraculous, if you think about it. Along with 77% of shoppers, Clive actually prefers to receive emails from online retailers more than any other medium. It's an easy way for him to stay in touch with his favorite brands, discover new things, and take advantage of some great deals. Unfortunately, Clive is also one of those people who barely reads marketing emails.<p>50%* of people admit to never or almost never reading emails from retailers.<p>It's understandable, given people receive an average of 147 emails* per day. That's a lot to sort through. And sometimes, if he gets a bad vibe, Clive will unsubscribe.<p>And here's what happens: In fact, each year, "unsubscribes" cost U.S. retailers an estimated $ 5.8 Billion*. Yikes. That's $111 Million per week. We looked into when and why people unsubscribe, and discovered some interesting things.<p>5% of people unsubscribe within the first week of subscribing<p>6.5% within the first month<p>And 8.5% within the first three months<p>We also asked people to list their most common reasons for unsubscribing.<p>"Too frequent" Listed by 67% of people<p>"Too generic, not personalized" Listed by 63% of people<p>"Not relevant" Listed by 60% of people<p>"I hardly buy anything from them" Listed by 55% of people<p>So, back to Clive. How do you keep him "subscribed"?<p>Email works. Just keep it classy. Email's a really great way for retailers to stay in touch with millions of people, and customers actually prefer it over other direct mediums. The more tailored, the better.<p>First impressions matter. Those first few emails can make or break a relationship with a new customer, so make them count.<p>Timing + relevancy = happier customers It's all about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. Not too much, and not so little that they forget why they love you.<p>We believe online marketing can be a whole lot better, and we're getting started with email.<p>EVERY CUSTOMER HAS A STORY. MAKE THE MOST OF IT.

You'd better hope that I unsubscribe. Because that's just a signal to you that I don't want what you're sending.<p>If I get really pissed off, I will go look up what else you've sent. Who else is complaining. Where you're hosted. How you got my address.<p>And then I start complaining. Not to you. To your webhosting company. To your email hoster. To your upstream network vendors. All of them have AUPs that say "you won't use our service to send spam".<p>And on a bad day for you, they listen. They see the complaint from me. They actually investigate. And maybe my complaint is the one that suggests to them that you aren't paying enough to be worth this aggravation.<p>Don't send spam. If you're going to send me email, we had better have an existing relationship where I actually handed you my email address and positively clicked on "Please send me email about stuff you think is going to interest me", or you had best be sending me a personal email written by a person expressly to me about a specific subject.

The <i>only</i> opt-in email marketing I've ever been glad to receive, and not soon unsubscribed from, are those that presented an exceptional offer in the <i>very first mailing</i>.<p>It seems like such an obvious engagement tactic, I'm surprised so many companies don't employ it.<p>(That said, those same emails will piss me off more than anything else if I've JUST purchased the product for full price. Another seemingly obvious fail.)

From where does the cost come? Magic? Because it is nowhere to be seen.

Well, for retailers specifically, the only one I actually read is Newegg. That's because, not infrequently, I've gotten a really good deal on one of their limited-time "Shellshockers". Just got a 180GB Intel 330 SSD for $100, for instance.<p>Why would I bother reading an email, and thus engaging your brand when _you_ want me to, if you're not going to offer me something I can't get by visiting your website when _I_ want to?<p>I bet the most successful retailer email campaigns are those that actually throw a bone, even if it's a little one like my new SSD, to their customers every once in a while.

I couldn't care less what unsubscribes are costing retailers. Obviously it's not enough. The better question is what are <i>subscribes costing consumers</i>? How much of <i>our</i> time is wasted sifting through spam marketing emails?

OT: the site is hardly readable on ipad

Ok, so overlooking the horrible mobile-hostile design of this site, the logic here is delusional. An unsubscribe==better value to the business because at the end of the day you have a mailing list of customers interests in your messaging, and these are the people likely to be buying anyways. Plus, that's one less e-mail you have to pay for distribution on. wtf?!?

People receive on average 147 emails a day? 77% wants a newsletter?<p>Somebody gotta get his facts right.

Is it bad that I'm as interested in the facts on this page as the graphic design? I had no idea Custora had killer designers onboard.

I like the presentation. Very cool js slideshow.