I was reading an interesting thread today about the comments that people leave after they have unsubscribed from your list.
I don’t know how other providers handle it, but I know that when a person unsubscribes from your list in Aweber they are given an opportunity to leave a message for you as to why they are unsubscribing.
Needless to say, these can be quite interesting. (I’m being sarcastic)
The reality is that building a list is a critical component in building your business. Yet many don’t do so. To often the reason has been that they feel “guilty” or even “responsible” for when a person leaves their list. They take it as a personal attack.
If you are building a list then it is a 100% certainty that people are going to unsubscribe. Thats part of business. It is impossible to please everyone and we, as marketers, had better learn that lesson fast or your growth in the business will be severely stunted.
When people unsubscribe from your list there are a multitude of reasons as to why they did so ,most of which probably have absolutely nothing to do with you.
If someone leaves your list AND decides to leave a comment as to why, you will eventually find that there is a pattern to the reasons and that information no longer becomes useful to you.
I’m NOT suggesting that you ignore your unsubscribe rates completely. If you find a particular email in your autoresponder sequence or a broadcast that resulted in higher than normal unsubscribe rate, then you most certainly want to look at it to see what can be improved.
I once sent an email with the subject line of “How To Grow Your little eMail List With This Easy Little Trick” (or something like that). The first challenge was that I generally always put the name of the newsletter first in the subject line. So The full subject line wound up being something like “[NicheWare.com] How To Grow Your Little eMail List With This Easy Little Trick”
The second challenge came when I noticed that I had SEVERAL HUNDRED upsubscribes from this email.
After doing a little research I found that my subject line was too long and therefore many email readers truncated the subject to show only “[NicheWarfare.com] How to Grow Your Little…..”
Sigh….
You have to develop a Thick Skin in this business just like any other business venture you set out on. Your attitude and mindset are critical to your success. For this reason I have an email filter set to catch any unsubscribe notice that comes in and it deletes them before it ever reaches my inbox.
Unsubscribes happen. Do your best to provide value, sprinkle in a few offers, focus on building.
It will help thicken your skin 
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Several observations from my personal experience.
1. I have almost unsubscribed several times because i keep forgetting Niche Warfare stands for Michael Gunn.
2. using “little anything” in a subject line can sound condescending so depending on person’s mood at the time could lead them to push that unsubscribe button.
3. Sometimes I am just over whelmed with email over load and just about everyone is fair game for the unsubscribe button
4. And from a personal stand point I wish Michael Gunn sent me emails and not Niche Warfare (that nameless, faceless entity)
Thanks for the input, Bill! I might have to rethink my “branding”!
I agree with this, ESPECIALLY #1. I’ve often done the same thing.
Hi
I get subscribed to so many lists when products are promoted by some one other then the list I am on. Every so often I just go through my emails and unsubscribe as many as possible to lose a few MB off my inbox
Dee
Funny Michael! Always learn something from you. I will watch my subject line length!
Have a great day.
Kit
I agree with the suggestion that you use your name, because I also forget who Niche Warfare is. I tend to stay on lists which are 1) personal (humor helps!) and 2) useful information. Of course there will be offers, but when my mailbox is stuffed with daily messages and all of them are trying to sell me something, I am likely going to unsubscribe. Also periodically I go through my mailbox and unsubscribe to ones I’m not reading, because if I didn’t I could spend way too much time there.
Personally I am sick to death of having to fill in squeeze pages to get to any info. I had enough and started the clean out the other day. I expect to be nearly finished lets say this time next week or shortly there after. I sit back and think just how much value I’ve got out of the ‘stuff’ that people have sent me and I have to say for the time invested – not much except more damn emails and more damn squeeze pages from people who should never had my email in the first place!f
Hi Michael,
I just would like to preface this by saying thank you for all that you do for all of us out here. Your honesty and insight has been helpful.
So far as un-subscribers, (as others have stated) the sometimes over whelming barrage of emails of buy, buy, buy, BSO’s, can drive you nuts, and there comes a time to cut the ones that just seem to show up in your inbox, and set up folders for your favorite authors.
I have a personal belief that people come in and out of our lives for a reason. Often times we do not know or can we understand why they do. They just do. So when they come in…we smile and welcome them. When they leave…we wish them well and leave the door open if they want to return.
The ones that motivate us to do better are the ones that want to hang around. The ones that find what they are looking for. They find something of value that they can grab a hold of and use. Sometimes they leave something of value for us. Either way, it warms our hearts when they do.
Sub-scribers and Un-subscribers are with us in all areas of our lives.
I for one am Grateful!
Thanks again!
Lary Heller
lary@internetpromotiontrends.com
I couldn’t agree more with you Bob, these sound like spam right from the off. Also I unsub from ones that try to assume a close relationship with me when I have no idea who they are, presumptuous or what?
It’s important to note that that the exchange of an email address for information is a sales process and we to believe that the exchange will be worth it.
As marketers we should not fault anyone who offers a squeeze page in exchange for information. That is, after all, what we should be doing. Building a list! But IMHO, the building shouldn’t stop there. It needs to continue into the building of a relationship. This is something that I have personally been trying to improve on the last few months.
Personally, I rarely unsubscribe from any list unless they use offensive language. I collect subject lines, story lines, signature files, etc. To me, it is “market research”.
I also don’t mind the buy, buy, buy, emails. Jason Fladlien, for example, rarely sends content emails. He delivers all of his content via paid products. He feels that HIS content is worth paying for and I have to agree with him. I have earned far more from Jason’s products that what I paid.
As marketers, we make money by selling. That’s the reality of it. So I can’t really blame a person for trying to sell me something. It’s how I make a living. I take no personal offense if a person decides not to purchase something I offer anymore than I take personal offense to someone trying to sell me something.
Just FYI though, I do have close to 100 filters in place to file emails into a variety of subfolders. Very few do I open as soon as they come in.
Great post, Michael. You’re funny, honest, and smart–an unbeatable combination.
I agree that I’d rather have your name for branding. I’ve got no problem with the Niche Warfare name. It’s just you’ve earned loyalty because we know your personal name.
And what a name it is: Michael Gunn. Your parents must have been thinking about a Hollywood career when they named you!
Cheers,
Mary Greene
I like this post! It helps a lot since I found out my unsubscribe rate for my list is 13%. Thick skin is good. Everyone is not going to like or relate to your message. You do better leaving people that don’t fit behind than trying to change yourself and alienating the other 87% who like the content:)
My advice is to focus on the ones who stick around. Those are the people who you want to form a relationship with, not the looky loos who are just looking for a free hand out. That’s my 2 cents worth.