I can't believe I wrote about this topic back in October of 2009 and this is still a crazy mistake that should be avoided.
Like me, you probably get a number of email newsletters that you may or may not have signed up for.
I find if I go to a convention, I've been subscribed to a new flurry of them.
Like any sane business professional, you might prefer to keep your inbox for the important day-to-day business tasks that require your timely attention.
I like my newsletters to come into a separate email I keep for them so that when I have time, I can peruse them for nuggets that will make me smarter, wealthier, or just plain informed.
To that end, I try to manage these subscriptions by changing to that other email address.
What I find is that a large majority of email systems don't have a way to allow me to make a change in my email address.
They only allow me to Unsubscribe.
What winds up happening is that I do Unsubscribe.
Often I'd be interested in keeping the subscription...
if I could change my email address.
What amazes me is that over a year after I first wrote about this, it still happens.
Not only that, but some very prominent marketing companies seem to have this affliction.
It's embarrassing.
Don't let it happen to you.
Keep your subscribers.
Don't let this happen to those hard-won, loyal fans.
You may see copy like: "If you do not wish to receive further offers from XYZ Firm, please follow this link:" But no, I got "To confirm your removal from our email database, please make sure this email address is yours.
" The only option was just to remove myself from the list.
To add insult to injury, they then send me yet another email to Unsubscribe that doesn't let me Re-subscribe under another email address.
What are they thinking? Marketo and Alterian, two respectable marketing companies, have the same issue.
My only choice was to Unsubscribe.
(I have to give Alterian credit; they at least offered me their RSS feed.
Still, I couldn't change my email address.
) By now, you see my frustration and why this is a pet peeve.
Marketo and Alterian don't give me the opportunity to just change my email address.
Want to know who gets in right? BusinessWire, by using SafeUnsubscribe from Constant Contact.
There are several services that get it right.
Go find one and make sure to use it so you keep your loyal fan base by letting them get your newsletters their way.
When a company uses SafeUnsubscribe or a similar service, I can Update my email address to put in the address where I would like to get my newsletter.
I can also Unsubscribe from ALL emailings, but I can also change my format to Text which takes up a lot less memory.
Think how important that might be to a mobile newsletter subscriber.
Lastly, I can just continue to receive mailings.
It's understandable that to be CAN SPAM compliant and make sure that consumers can opt-out or unsubscribe, the companies that push emails out for us haven't given consumers flexibility to change their profile.
As marketers we work so hard to build and nurture our fan base.
Why frustrate them by choosing an in flexible and self-defeating email system.
Look at your current email system and evaluate it for the flexibility to change your email address and settings.
Can you change easily to Text from HTML? Find out the answers and make this simple fix that will improve your retention of subscribers to your email newsletter.
Here's the link to Customer Retention of Your Email Newsletters from October 2009 when I tackled this topic before.