Should You Let Subscribers Opt Out Of Sales Emails?
Episode Overview
In this episode, Branda discusses the concept of a "soft opt-out" in email marketing, allowing subscribers to opt out of receiving specific promotional or launch emails without unsubscribing from the entire list. She explores the benefits, such as retaining more subscribers and providing valuable feedback, as well as potential downsides, like reduced awareness of offers and technical challenges.
Tune in as Branda discusses:
What's a soft opt-out and how it differs from a full unsubscribe.
How to implement soft opt-outs depending on the email marketing platform used.
Pros and cons of soft opt-outs.
Mentioned in the episode:
You’ve probably been here before: you're getting a ton of sales or launch emails for an offer you have no interest in. Maybe you delete those emails and don't think twice about it. Or maybe you're so bothered that you unsubscribe from their email list. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can let subscribers opt out of your launch or sales emails. Let's talk about the pros and cons of a soft opt-out.
What is a Soft Opt-Out?
You've likely heard of an opt-out before, otherwise known as unsubscribing. A soft opt-out is similar to this.
When you unsubscribe from an email list, you’re removing yourself from the entire list. However, with a soft opt-out, you're giving subscribers a chance to opt out from receiving specific emails (like from a launch or promotion) rather than removing themselves from the whole list.
When Should You Use a Soft Out-Out?
Soft opt-outs can be used when you have a membership or workshop launch, or if you have a longer promotional period. For example, you could use a soft opt-out when you launch a new product or service. Or when you have a big sales event, like Black Friday.
I don't recommend using soft opt-outs for short promotional periods that are 3 days or less. In my opinion, if your subscribers can't hang in there for a two to three-day promotion, they are not your ideal person.
What Does a Soft Opt-Out Look Like?
It’s pretty simple. You’re going to include a sentence in your email like, “I’m going to be sharing about XYZ promotion for the next several days. If you’re not interested, you can opt out of these emails, and you’ll still receive my regular weekly emails.”
You want to make it clear that they are not unsubscribing from your whole list when they click that link. You can put this sentence at the beginning of your email or at the end. I usually include it in the PS.
How Does the Tech Work?
This is going to depend on the email marketing platform that you use. I'm a big Convertkit fan, and Convertkit makes this really easy. All you have to do is include a link and tag that link as something like, “Soft Opt Out XYZ Promotion DATE”. Then, exclude this tag during the launch.
If you’re using a platform like Flodesk, this gets a bit more complicated because they don’t use tags. Instead, you’ll have to create a workflow and use the If/Then condition to sort subscribers.
The Cons of Using a Soft Opt-Out
Let’s say you decide to use a soft opt-out for your next launch. What are some ways it could “negatively” affect your launch or email marketing? Keep in mind that these are all potential outcomes. It doesn’t mean these things will happen.
Your subscribers won't receive your whole launch or sales sequence. If your subscriber decides to opt out, they might miss out on messaging that registers with them. This means they could be less warm for later launches or that you miss out on a possible sale (if they didn’t have the choice to opt out).
Lower awareness of your offers. As I mentioned, because they're opting out early, they may not see all the information about the sale or launch, and therefore they have less awareness about your offers. This could impact your future sales and lead to longer buying cycles.
Keeping the wrong people on your list. We don’t know why someone is opting out. Maybe it’s because it’s not the right time to buy. Maybe it’s because they aren’t interested in your offers. If the latter is true, you could keep bad-fit subscribers on your list.
The Pros of Using a Soft Opt-Out
If you decide to use a soft opt-out, there are some potential benefits for you and your audience as well!
Gives you feedback about your launch. When looking at the data at the end of a launch or sale, seeing how many people opted out could give you some information. If there are enough people opting out, it might signal an issue with messaging, the offer, or the timing.
Help you retain subscribers on your list. Big promotional periods can lead to more unsubscribes and lower engagement on emails. That’s normal. By giving them a chance to opt out, you can better maintain your list size and keep engagement high. (See above why this could also be a con.)
Gives your subscribers control over the content. We want our subscribers to enjoy our content. That’s what keeps them around! By giving them some control over what they receive in their inbox, you can keep them more engaged with your brand.
If you’re not sure about using a soft opt-out, I don’t think it hurts to experiment and try things out. We don't often know what's going to work for us until we just give it the good old college try. So if you need my stamp of approval to try it, I say go for it and just see what happens.
If you want support with your launch copy, let's work together. I can write sales pages and launch emails for you. These packages also include market research, so I can use your audience’s own words, struggles, and desires directly in your copy (which leads to better results). Learn more about my launch copy packages.