To Every Season, Churn … Churn … Churn

In email marketing, there is one thing you can always count on: that fact that you can’t count on your email list to stay the same. Yep, email-list churn (the percentage of users that unsubscribe, or bounce, from an opt-in email list during a set period of time) is a fact of email marketing life. Perhaps you have not been overly concerned about the people unsubscribing or bouncing, considering an average annual churn rate is around 30%. That’s understandable. If you are lucky, your acquisition rate has balanced out your churn rate, allowing your list size to remain stable or even grow.

However, as people have become more tech-saavy, they also have become more selective about what they really want to see in their inboxes. They want content and offers that appeal to them. If you don’t stay relevant, you’ll inevitably see an uptick in your churn rate.

But, when is it time to worry about email-list churn, and what should you do about it? Never fear! Below you’ll find three important metrics to track, as well as three tips to help minimize your list churn.

3 Churn-erific Metrics to Consider:

1. Hard Bounce Rate –  If your email program has a double-opt in process in place, or if subscribers have to verify or double enter their email address before sign-up is complete, your program may have a low bounce rate. Good job! But, if you don’t currently use any validation process, you may see higher than usual bounce rates (What is an average bounce rate you ask? Well, that would be about 2%.) If that’s the case, be sure to remove your bounced emails from your system. But, more importantly, think about why this could be happening and work to rectify the situation. You may need to push for an address validation system on-site. You could add a Captcha code to deter those pesky bots. Or, you could add a double-opt in email to your program.

2. Unsubscribe Rate – People are going to unsubscribe from your email list. But, if you are seeing your unsubscribe rates climbing higher than 0.3%, you may have a content issue. Is your content still appealing to your subscriber base? Is your subscriber base event-centric and will naturally turn over in time? Analyze when your unsubscribe rate spikes higher than usual and work to pinpoint the cause. It could be a simple fix (tweaking your offer) – but it could save subscribers.

3. Spam Rate – As much as you want people to stick around, hiding the unsubscribe link is not the way to do it! People who have trouble finding the unsubscribe option on your email may feel forced to mark your email as spam. High complaint rates or spam complaints can cause big trouble for your deliverability, and may even damage your sender reputation with your ESP.

Okay, you know what metrics to keep an eye on in regards to churn. Now, let’s look at how you can head off any potential problems!

3 Things to Keep Your Churn in Check:

1. Engage Subscribers – I know you’ve heard this 47492712940 times. But, our job as email marketers is to keep our subscribers engaged. That means you need to send relevant and exciting information and offers to your subscribers and respect the message frequency they have come to expect. Other ways to engage subscribers? Try dynamic content for a personalized touch. Include appealing offers on popular products and services. Keep them interested!

2. Reengage and Reactivate Subscribers – You may be losing people’s interest even if they aren’t unsubscribing. These passive subscribers need to be woken up! Send them a targeted message – offer them a better-than-usual discount, or entice them with a witty and personalized subject line. There are lots of ways you can reinvigorate your inactive subscribers and prevent them from churning. To learn more about reengagement and reactivation campaigns, read another one of my blog articles here or check out this great article.

3. Make It Easy to Unsubscribe – We just covered this a few hundred words ago. Make it easy for people to unsubscribe from your emails! Optimizing your unsubscribe option does not mean more people will unsubscribe. It just means that you are making it simple for people to opt-out without having to mark you as a spammer. Often just knowing they can unsubscribe at any time will help keep people around.

There you have it. A beginner’s guide to email-list churn at your fingertips. Do you have any other best practices for reducing churn? Leave a comment below!