It's simple.

Send this email:

Hi "Name",

Just a quick email letting you know that it's simple to unsubscribe from
my list at anytime. Simply click the link below and it's that easy.

Have a great day,
Your name


Don't be scared, it's a GOOD thing.

Do you send this to your entire list, or just the ones who haven't purchased after a period of time?

It kind of sounds like you're saying, "Don't let the virtual door hit you in the virtual butt on the way out."

It goes to the whole list excluding buyers. You can word it different. The point of the email is to just let them know it's available.

Believe it or not, most people look at the little aweber or getresponse link under your address and don't really know what it means. I know you might not believe that, but it's true.

Oh, I believe it. The first version just struck me funny because it sounds kind of abrupt, but it's a great idea.

Why would you want to clean up your list like that?

Seriously... why?

The only benefit I could possibly see would be to reduce the costs of your A/R account by having a smaller list... but that seems like stepping over a dollar to save a dime.

Here's just ONE reason why.

Most people aren't smart like you. They don't spend 18 hours online everyday. They think when you say "Hi Ricky" it's ACTUALLY YOU sending the email. They believe you just sat down at your computer and personally typed them that message.

Don't believe me? Doesn't matter, it's the reality of this business.

Anyways, why did WE do it? We simply wanted to let them know there was an unsubscribe button down there. You know, that little link under your address has the words "aweber" or "getresponse" in them that people have NO IDEA what they mean.

These are the same people that will hit the SPAM button in a heartbeat because they don't think they can unsubscribe. You can consider it a pruning of sorts on your list. The people that do unsubscribe have wanted to all along, you lose absolutely nothing.

We actually sent the message you see above out initially and that was WRONG. We should have given our list the reason why, which was simply to point out to them that "Hey, you can unsubscribe at any time". I always knew the relationship we had with our list was strong. But it hit me even harder when we emailed the above message out and got response like:

"Why would you send me this, I just bought a product from you!"
"Why would you ask me to unsubscribe, I love your emails?"
"I would never unsubscribe, why would you ask me to?"

See... this was a mistake WE made. I say this for two things. DO NOT send out what I wrote above, make sure to mention WHY your doing it. It is simply to let them know that it's available should they ever want to.

People are so scared and tippy toe around their list and are so fake. Quit worrying about it and being scared someone might unsubscribe, oh well! They weren't the right fit for you if they do, it's best for BOTH OF YOU if they do.

But, the subscribers that do stay with you, that trust you, and that you provide value for will help you to become very rich. You have to care about your list and really be a part of their lives as much as you possibly can and this can happen for you.

As for the money aspect, it's simply numbers. Lets say for example you have a list of 13,000 people and send out an email for a sale. You make $12,000 in three days for a quick sale. Now, you couldn't have done this without a loyal list. And you don't have to work hard for it because your list is in place.

So, take your daily list growth and do the math. It gets VERY exciting when you know in 3-4 years that you not might, but WILL be making anywhere from $150,000 $250,000 for each sale, product launch, etc. It's litterally guaranteed.

I don't believe ANYTHING is more important than your list other than quality products and smart direct response marketing.

Maybe I'm too "old school" - but I just can't stop thinking it's crazy to send an e-mail to your database where your call to action is essentially "remove yourself from my database".

I absolutely agree - keeping a clean database is a good thing.

It's a GREAT thing!

It helps with e-mail deliverability, and gives you better data when you're tracking response rates.

But surely it's better to:

1. Rewrite the standard unsubscribe text at the bottom of e-mails to make it more clear and obvious to people who don't spend 18 hours a day online, and;
2. Monitor your reply-to address, so that you pick up any bounced e-mail addresses, e-mail unsubscribe requests etc to keep a clean list.

Perhaps even explain in your footer, just above the unsubscribe information, that hitting the Spam button hurts your business - and if people want to stop receiving e-mails, all they need to do is click one link (at any time) and their subscription is cancelled.

I'd hate to be losing potential customers because I caught them on a bad day.

People run hot and cold on products all the time - they might sign up, get busy or distracted by life and become completely disinterested in a product for months...

...Then a year later, out of the blue, they buy.

I like what you're trying to do (make it easier to unsubscribe than it is to click a "Spam" button) but I think you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Brent

What you said is also very good ways of going about it. Mine was just extremely agressive which is just another avenue to take. You gotta do what's best for you.

Yeah, good point. No point applying strategies which don't work for your specific list, and your specific business.

It'd be an interesting thing to split test, to find out how many people DID infact unsubscribe... And then to find out how / whether it affected deliverability rates.

You're dead on about keeping a clean list though. It's probably the most underestimated e-mail deliverability factor.

I like the emails that go something like this at the begining of each message:

To me this will stop anyone "forgetting" that they signed up and thus cut down on spam complaints.