Learning From Your Unsubscribes

If you have a mailing list it's never really much fun to have people unsubscribe from your list, but it can be educational. I use AWeber to manage my list. If a person chooses to unsubscribe after they receive a mailing they simply click on a link which takes them to a page where they manage their subscription. This page includes a field where you can enter a reason for unsubscribing if you wish.

Yes, occasionally you get some dropkick who simply tells you to f*** off and then reports you as a spammer to their e-mail service provider (usually Hotmail or AOL), even though they double opted-in to your list. But even these people can tell you something useful. They perceived your message as spam. Why? Quite often it's because they subscribed some time ago, and forgot they did, and haven't heard from you for a while. Your message gets lost in all the other spam they have to deal with, and I sure know what that's like.

For example, Rene unsubscribed and said this:

"I don't know you"

Rene was probably confused because the message I sent him was headed "Hi Rene..." but he had forgotten that he subscribed to my course, yet here I was addressing him as someone I knew. More frequent mailings might have overcome this.

Donald said this:

"btyhtyj"

Donald thought he had to put something in the reason box. At least he didn't abuse me. His address was a Hotmail address which indicated he liked to ride skateboards. Was Donald ever likely to buy something from me? Highly unlikely. Losing Donald was no great loss.

Uzma said this:

"too many of these mails cluttering my box. these ppl need to change marketing techniques. it abt time somebody quit those looooooooooooong white/red/black/yellow sales letter whcih scream scam. ppl r becoming blind to them as they have become blind to other ads. spread the word, whoever u r. i bet i already have a spyware installed on my comp by 1 of these gurus, who is watching my every move. even my mcafee cant seem to detect it."

Hmmm. Uzma's obviously a bit paranoid. I can just see McAfee popping up a message- "Warning. Warning. You have just visited a sales page. Someone is trying to sell you something. Warning".

Long sales letters don't mean someone is trying to scam you. Most sales letters adopt a common layout and structure for one simple reason - they work. Scams are usually quite easy to detect. Just do a bit of research. As for "whoever u r", well Uzma, I'm Steve Pronger. My name was in the email I sent you. I'm not trying to hide anything, and the only word I'm spreading is to recommend various resources (some free, some not) that I actually use and benefit from.

Can anything be learned from Uzma? He (she?) is probably not alone. He is sick of being marketed to and is suspicious of just about everything. What would it take to break through and gain his trust? I'm not sure, but had he replied rather than unsubscribed I might have had a chance.

Mal said this:

"I don't like the selling style, too waffly, too american & too expensive. But thanks anyway."

Now this is really useful feedback. Mal's response was to a mailing where I was advising my subscribers that Ken Evoy's Make Your Site Sell, a book which had previously sold over 100,000 copies for around US$30 was now free. But Mal's comments were obviously directed at Site Build It, which is the process that MYSS had morphed into.

So what do Mal's comments tell me? If we overlook the fact that Ken Evoy and SBI are actually Canadian and not American, could it be that a certain "style" of selling has different effects on different cultures? Mal is an Australian, just like me, and I can see what he's getting at. It would be true to say that we prefer a "get to the point" approach. I can't change the sales page of the product I'm referring someone to, but if my subscribers are mostly Australian perhaps I could qualify my recommendations with statements like "You might find the sales page a bit waffly, but here are the main reasons I recommend this product".

What about the "too expensive" comment? An SBI subscription currently costs around US$300. I was reading an advertorial in a local newspaper the other day for a web design company. The writer was saying that an average small business should expect to pay a minimum of $10,000 to have a website developed. He obviously had a team of web developers to pay, but 10 grand? That's a bit over the top. Sure, many businesses DO pay that much and more for their site development, but I'd say the average would be in the $500 to $3,000 range.

OK, that's for professional website design. What about other DIY website builders? If Mal were to compare SBI to services provided by Yahoo, Verisign and Microsoft he would see that he'd be hard pressed to find anything that compares on that price level. Sure, he'll probably find website builders provided by hosting companies here in Australia, for a cheaper price, but he'll probably get at best a 3 page site with very little functionality or marketing tools. The SBI sales page points out that if you priced all the features separately you'd be looking at $5,675.

If Mal realised this, would he still think $300 is too expensive? I doubt it. What would Mal be currently paying for his Yellow Pages ad? A lot more than $300, and nowhere near the Return on Investment a high-ranking website will give him.

So, the lesson to me? Make sure my subscribers understand the "value" in my recommendations. It's not just about finding the cheapest web host. It's about finding your best ROI.

BTW, Ken has now made another e-book free - Make Your Content preSELL. It's a top read and I recommend you download it now.

Keywords: professional website design web design site build it steve pronger ken evoy aweber unsubscribe cheap web hosting