Are you watching your email list dwindle and wondering what’s going wrong? Feeling like every time you hit ‘send’, more of your audience hit ‘unsubscribe’?
We get it; it’s frustrating. As a healthcare marketing agency, we’ve faced these challenges head-on and have learned a thing or two (or a hundred).
In this article, we’ll share our top tips for looking after your subscribers so that you can get more out of your campaigns.
You're overwhelming your subscribers
According to recent data, in 2023, 347.3 billion emails will be sent and received daily, with the average person receiving 121 of these emails (including personal, work, spam, automated and promotional emails).
As you can imagine, this is a lot of emails to work through. Amidst this downpour, your well-intentioned efforts can inadvertently contribute to the overwhelming feeling that your audience experiences when they open their inbox.
With 67% of people feeling overwhelmed by their inbox, this might be one of the main reasons you’re losing subscribers.
Solution
To solve this problem, you need to find the ‘just right’ balance regarding how many emails you send out. This is a science, not an art. Your audience is unlikely to unsubscribe if you send them too few emails, but you could easily send too many.
Therefore, it’s better to fall on the side of caution and then scale up, carefully looking at your data to see what the right email volume is for your audience.
Another great idea is to segment your audience by offering frequency options upon sign-up. Let them choose between daily, weekly, or monthly updates. By respecting their choice, you’ll see a much-improved open rate and stop losing subscribers.
For a full breakdown of how to make the most out of your emails, have a run-through of our article on optimising your email campaigns.
Your content isn't relevant
A common mistake companies make is sending irrelevant content to their subscribers.
No one wants their inbox filled with information that doesn’t relate to or interest them, and this can lead to an increase in unsubscribe rates.
Solution
The solution to this is very straightforward. It’s all about segmentation. Studies show that when you segment your subscribers, your engagement rates improve.
There are several ways to segment your audience. The first is based on subscriber preferences or past interactions with your content. Which links have they clicked? What videos have they watched?
Analyse your email data and edit your content based on what’s popular and what isn’t. When creating your content, consider what information your audience wants to hear about rather than what you want to tell them. Putting the audience first is the best way to create content that interests them.
A great way to do this is to speak to your sales teams about the questions they’re being asked during the sales process. Why? Because this is the information that your audience is looking for to move through their buyer’s journey, making it the perfect content for your emails.
The second way to segment your email list is through demographics. People are complex, but individuals of the same demographic often have similar interests. With their permission, collect data on your email list and send relevant content based on that.
Demographics you should consider:
-
- Age
- Gender
- Profession
- Location
All these demographics may not be relevant when communicating with HCPs, but they will be when it comes to patients, especially if you have a well-defined intended purpose.
There are errors in your email
Another reason you might be losing subscribers is that your emails are frustrating or inaccessible.
Ensuring the technical accuracy of your emails is pivotal to maintaining your mailing list’s health.
Potential issues include:
- Images not loading.
- Broken links.
- Malfunctioning or low-quality videos.
- Emails aren’t optimised for various devices.
- Automation mishaps (e.g., Sending emails to the wrong recipients or with incorrect personalisation details).
These may not seem like significant issues, but they mean your emails can come across as unprofessional and inauthentic, leading to unsubscribes.
Solution
The key to addressing these issues is rigorous testing. Always send test emails to yourself or colleagues before distributing them to your entire list.
It’s good to always keep in mind that emails will appear differently across different devices, so it’s helpful to test them across computers, tablets and smartphones.
Platforms like Campaign Monitor and HubSpot can help ensure that your emails are optimised across different formats, eliminating concerns about image distortion.
A great habit is to click on every link in your email to ensure they all work. Even if you’re confident they’re all correct, check again; you’ll never be sorry you did if you find an error. There’s nothing worse than pressing that send button and immediately realising you forgot to attach a link, or you attached the wrong one.
Your emails need to add more value; it's not all about sales
Most customers like to feel an emotional connection with the brands they align with. So, if all your emails are promotional, they might feel taken for granted.
To create a balanced email strategy, you need to know how to mix it up –information, education, promotion, events, and the occasional sales pitch. A great ratio is 1 in every 5 emails being explicitly promotional. The rest should be all about adding value to your audience.
Solution
To tackle this, mix up your content a bit. Send out emails with company updates, the latest in the industry, and some valuable tips to supplement your promotional emails. This content has to be valuable to your mailing list, so they’re getting something out of subscribing to your email list.
They don't know they subscribed
Many people find themselves added to email lists without actively signing up and can find it very frustrating.
When companies scoop up emails from other sources (e.g. paid lists) without direct consent, it may not sit well with your audience. Yes, they have signed up for an event that said, in the small print, that their information would be used for other purposes (e.g. a GDPR-compliant list for purchase).
Still, they’ll likely not appreciate unexpected marketing surprises in their inboxes unless they add real value.
This is why this tactic can often backfire, leading to irritated audiences promptly hitting delete or unsubscribe.
Solution
Ensure you get a green light from your customers before adding them to your email list. Be clear on your website about what their email will be used for, and then stick to that promise.
You also need to ensure you properly segment your purchased email lists, so you provide information that is truly valuable to each audience.
When collecting their details, asking them to opt in rather than out ensures they’re happy to join your mailing list. Another essential feature is providing an opt-out button at the bottom of each email you send. This is only fair so that your audience can opt-out if they choose. After all, you want your actual email list to be full of a qualified audience.
If you follow this, you’ll end up with a fully engaged audience rather than having subscribers who feel that they have been tricked, which can cause a loss of trust.