This Lead Has Unsubscribed

There are lots of ways to learn from our mailing list, no matter what service you use.

One of my favorite features with Aweber (and many other service providers) is the option to receive the “reason why” notices when a lead unsubscribes. It’s a good indicator of what you’re doing right and what you need to improve upon. I actually enjoy opening these emails, because I know my message series isn’t perfect and these notes let me know what to tweak.

Recently I received an unsubscribe and the reason given was they didn’t like a book that I reviewed. This one really caught my attention for a few reasons.

The product I reviewed was relevant to the audience, it was reasonable priced, and it was available at Amazon.com. That all sounds good, right?

The subscriber simply didn’t like the author and therefore unsubscribed from my list just because I mentioned it and included my review of it. I wasn’t in love the book or anything, but I didn’t hate it either. I thought it was a decent book and I said as much about it.

Wow. Such a subjective tidbit, but a real insight into how easy it is to lose a subscriber.

I’ve received quite a few interesting unsubscribe notes over the past year or so, as I’m sure many people do. Most just say something like “reducing email clutter,” or “no extra time right now,” and I think that’s a pretty common reason to unsubscribe in any niche and I honestly appreciate them telling me that I haven’t done anything exactly wrong, but that they need to free up some time and space.

I’ve had other unsubscribes tell me that they’re not getting enough free stuff from me. Say what? That one always surprises me because I give plenty of free stuff to all of my lists. The funny thing there is that they joined my list without being bribed to do so.

Subscribers come and go, that’s for certain. Are you taking the time to learn from them and receiving those “why did you leave” emails? What insights have you received from reading those?

Loretta

Transcriptionist, passionate cross stitcher, writer at heart, wife, mom, and finder of lost shoes… Loretta Oliver, married to the comic book geek of her dreams and mother of four amazing young men, has been working from home full time since 2001. With a busy transcription service business, a few niche sites, and a handful of other internet marketing projects on the go, the computer is always fired up and the ideas are always flowing.