Unsubscribes can be a good thing.
Unsubscribe is the action an email recipient takes to opt-out of receiving any more emails.
Sending email to recipients who are uninterested in reading your messages is not cost-effective. After all, sending to an unengaged audience hurts your sending reputation.
There’s even some upside to this situation. The person who unsubscribed didn’t mark your email as spam or junk, which is helpful to your overall deliverability. Consider unsubscribes as a good thing, unless you are getting too many.
How many unsubscribes is too many?
Hotels should aim for less than a 1% unsubscribe rate.
A good scale to leverage is as follows:
< or = 0.3% | optimal range |
Between 0.4% - 0.9% | warning/area of opportunity |
> or = 1% | concerning/opportunity to investigate |
If you're sending relevant content to recipients who want their emails, this shouldn’t be too difficult.
If you're getting higher than a 1% unsubscribe rate, read on…
What should you do if you are receiving too many unsubscribes?
First, don’t panic. Many hotels can relate and there is always a story to be told. While we don’t have a magic ball to tell hotels why they’re getting too many unsubscribes, here are some questions to ask yourself as you investigate:
Is it related to a particular campaign?
If a particular campaign has caused a spike in unsubscribes, perhaps the content did not resonate with the audience. Review the recipients and audience criteria; was the audience segmented for the specific content? Cendyn also recommends using the campaign preview feature to check for image or formatting issues and ensure the campaign does not have broken links.
How often is the hotel sending?
Oftentimes people unsubscribe from email lists because they are getting emails too frequently. If the hotel is sending recipients messages daily, consider cutting it down to a bi-weekly, weekly, or even monthly cadence to see if the unsubscribe rate improves. Another best practice is to consider adding a time-based preference in the subscription center, so that hotel guests can tell you how often they want to receive communications.
What time of day is the hotel sending?
Your emails might be landing in the inboxes of grumpy, pre-coffee recipients! Consider segmenting audiences based on location and sending during waking hours. A/B test various times of day until the hotel finds the sweet spot.
Did the recipients agree to receive the hotel's emails?
It’s important that you are not sending emails without recipient consent.
Did the hotel promise one thing, but deliver something different?
Perhaps the hotel didn’t set clear expectations on what the recipient was signing up for. For example, the recipients may have opted-in to receive monthly F&B Programming content, but the hotel is sending weekly product promotions. The hotel should hold true to their word when a recipient opts in. If the hotel happens to switch gears, they should let their audience know and give them the option to unsubscribe.
Does content look spammy?
Sometimes the hotel can accidentally include spammy elements into an email without even knowing it. Hotels should avoid ALL CAPS, multiple punctuations!!!, urgent phrases like “purchase now” or “click here,” and excessive images or links—all proven to increase the likelihood of unsubscribes.
Is content interesting?
The inbox has transactional, marketing, and personal messages in every corner. Hotels are constantly competing with other businesses to grab the attention of their recipients. Hotels should make sure their message is concise, compelling, and relevant.
Takeaways
It is recommended to monitor your unsubscribe rate via the Cendyn CRM's Campaign Manager & Reports. Campaigns over 1% Unsubscribe Rate should be investigated.
Start with an action plan to investigate the campaign's performance. Review the common issues highlighted above. Identify if the high unsubscribe rate is consistent across campaigns or if the issue resides with particular companies.
To avoid high unsubscribe rates in the future:
- Segment the email campaign audience and cater messaging to each segment
- Keep messages concise
- Hotels should drive home the action they want their recipients to take
- Set communication expectations in the sign-up form
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