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Difficulty Unsubscribing

We all break at some point. After months or years of recieving and deleting the same newsletters time and time again, we decide to do a bit of spring cleaning and unsubscribe from all of them. Yet it is never that easy.

After trying to do this myself. I kept coming across the same problems and companies’ tricks to try and keep you as a subscriber.

1. Hidden links

It is common knowledge that ‘Unsubscribe’ links generally appear at the bottom of an email, but it does not really help when the link is hidden within a mass of terms & conditions, and the link is styled to match the text.

Can you see the link in the above Marks & Spencer newsletter?

2. Multiple clicks and Logins

Unsubscribing from an email subscription service should be easy – one click of a link and a confirmation page loaded to let you know that your request was a success.

However some newsletters tend to require you to click multiple links, fill out forms, or even log into sites which you may not remember your details to in order to unsubscribe. All of this just means more time and hassle for the user.

Apple.com Unsubscribe form

3. Unsubscribe confirmation emails

Just to add insult to injury – you have just been able to; successfully find the unsubscribe link in the email, logged into the website, filled out the unsubscription form – when you suddenly get another email in your inbox confirming you have successfully unsubscribed. Excellent – except why couldn’t a simple confirmation page after clicking the link suffice? The last thing any user would want is another email.

Conclusion

We all know that at the end of the day these ‘mistakes’ happen without the companies realising or even on purpose to try and deter their users from unsubscribing – more subscribed people means more marketing opportunities.

Personally, I quickly learn to ignore these kinds of companies. If I get newsletters or advertising emails from companies all the time even after trying to unsubscribe – I tend to just delete them without looking. A prime example of this is Apple. I admit I am a big fan of Apple with my iPhone and iMac, but I never read and always delete their emails. Why? Because they are such a big company I already know about all their latest products and price reductions, why spam my inbox with it?

So before launching that email campaign: think about the problems users may have I pointed out above and whether you are making the same mistakes. People do not like spam and particularly spam which they should easily be able to unsubscribe from. Don’t make your user think of you as annoying spam they cannot get rid of.