10 Tips to Lower Your Email Unsubscribe Rate
The email unsubscribe rate shows the percentage of subscribers who no longer wish to receive your messages.
Subscribers opt out for many reasons, such as email frequency, content relevance, and subscriber expectations. A high opt out rate indicates your email marketing subscribers find your content uninteresting, too salesy, or spammy.
So, what can you do to maintain a responsive email list? We discuss the formula, good vs. bad unsubscribe rate, reasons for people unsubscribing, and tips for overcoming high unsubscribe rates.
Unsubscribe Rate Definition
The email unsubscribe rate refers to the percentage of people who discontinue the subscription and leave your email campaigns. It’s a powerful email campaign metric that shows your email performance.
If you’re wondering how many unsubscribes is normal, the average industry standard unsubscribe rate is 0.49%, with the highest percentage of unsubscribes in B2B (non-retail) marketing — 1.08%.
A high unsubscribe rate can negatively impact your sender reputation and email deliverability. ISPs and email clients continually examine this metric to determine if your emails are safe enough to send. And when your unsubscribe rate is high, your emails can be identified by spam traps.
If you’re new to emails, you could ask “What is unsubscribe rate in email marketing?” and how to calculate it. We’ll show you the formula below.
Email Unsubscribe Rate Calculator
If you use email marketing software, it automatically calculates the unsubscribe rate for you.
If you are doing it by yourself, here’s how to calculate unsubscribe rate:
Opt out rate formula: Number of unsubscribed users / Number of emails delivered * 100
For example, let’s assume you sent 3000 total emails, and 55 subscribers decided to unsubscribe. Your unsubscribe rate would be 55/3000 = 0.018 * 100 = 1.83%.
What is a Good Email Unsubscribe Rate?
A normal unsubscribe rate is considered below 0.5%. However, having a high unsubscribe rate does not necessarily mean it’s bad news; here’s why.
Why Letting People Unsubscribe is The Best Thing You Can Do
Subscribers opt in to receive your email communication and the form can look anything like below.
You’ll typically add them to your email list only after a person has consented to receive your emails.
When subscribers leave your mailing list, it helps you differentiate between potential buyers from the rest. A constant challenge for most email marketers is “How to reduce unsubscribe rates.” However, not many realize that even if those subscribers stayed, they wouldn’t likely engage with their emails.
Does Unsubscribing From Emails Cause More Spam?
Sometimes, more people unsubscribing from your emails may translate to higher spam complaint rates. A safe unsubscribe rate is usually below 0.5%.
That’s why letting people go maintains your email list hygiene:
- Helps maintain deliverability: Easy unsubscribing reduces spam complaints and helps you maintain sender reputation and a high deliverability rate. Consistently use email deliverability test to ensure safety.
- Tightens your email list: The right way to grow your email list is to let dormant subscribers go.
- Respect for individual preferences: Your subscribers have the right to decide the type of content they will receive and when they should opt out. By following unsubscribe law, you value their preferences.
- Enhances list quality: A smaller list with engaged subscribers is better than a larger list with disinterested subscribers. Unsubscribes help you build a clean list with valid email addresses.
- Avoids spam complaints: If users can’t find a way to unsubscribe, they might mark your emails as spam. Higher spam complaints can damage your sender reputation. Campaign Refinery automatically adds a true one-click unsubscribe button in all emails clients send.
- Builds trust: Transparency creates a positive impact on your brand and strengthens your email engagement.
- Improve email performance: When you observe the reasons for unsubscribes, you can refine your email campaigns to suit your audience’s needs. This, in turn, increases the other email metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and email conversions.
- Maintains compliance: Data privacy and anti-spam laws such as CAN-SPAM and GDPR require every email sender to provide unsubscribe options. It safeguards you from legal consequences and email domain blacklisting. Follow email security protocols and security best practices.
If you suddenly notice a spike in your email unsubscribe rate, it means there are gaps in your email marketing strategies. The average unsubscribe rate email marketing is pretty consistent for businesses implementing robust strategies.
Perhaps you send too many emails, or your email campaign templates don’t look professional. Or your subscribers are looking for better and more informative emails from you. Either way, calculating this email metric can be beneficial in many ways, including maintaining a healthy unsubscribe rate.
The Importance of Measuring Email Unsubscribe Rate
Clear email subscriptions and unsubscribe buttons help you avoid unnecessary opt-outs.
In addition, tracking unsubscribe rates can help you understand the effectiveness of your email campaigns and customer satisfaction levels.
Here are 8 ways to show how it supports your strategies:
- Indicate relevance: The unsubscribe rate shows whether your content resonates with the audience. A high rate indicates irrelevant content, prompting them to disengage. Unprofessional email sign-offs or using too many email abbreviations can also be a reason.
- Email quality assessment: Measuring the percentage of unsubscribes helps you assess the quality of your email content, and tells if you are fulfilling subscriber expectations.
- Refined targeting and segmentation: When you don’t segment your audience properly, you are bound to send similar content to all target groups. Knowing unsubscribe rates in different segments helps you tailor content accordingly.
- Prevents email fatigue: Overloading customers with frequent emails and repetitive content can lead to email fatigue, is a bad email marketing practice, and may damage your IP reputation.
- Identification of problematic areas: Unsubscribe rates point towards problematic trends and patterns in your email marketing. This could be not following current email marketing trends or using design best practices for visual appeal.
- Maintains sender reputation: A sudden spike in this metric can lead to a lower sender reputation and potential blacklisting of your email domain. Many factors can contribute to a low sender reputation, including your email timing.
- Elevates subscriber experience: A low unsubscribe rate shows that your subscribers are happy with your content and have a positive brand experience.
- Improves strategic decision-making: Reviewing your unsubscribe rates assists you in implementing strategies that work for your audience. Whether it’s fine-tuning your content and frequency or re-evaluating current methods, monitoring unsubscribes is critical.
Measuring your opt-out rate is not about tracking your losses but about gaining helpful insights into what works for your audience. So, what is a healthy unsubscribe rate?
Let’s look at the industry standards for this email metric.
Identifying Good and Bad Email Marketing Unsubscribe Rate
While the normal standard is 0.5%, unsubscribe rates below 0.2% are considered excellent. Stable unsubscribe rates demonstrate a healthy relationship with your subscriber. However, your unsubscribe rates can differ with industry type, content, and strategies.
For example, the average unsubscribe rate mailchimp is considered to be below 0.26% for all industries. Similarly, Gohighlevel unsubscribe rate is believed to be below 0.2%.
We’ll review the guidelines to identify good unsubscribe rate and how to reduce unsubscribe rates.
First, we’ll learn how to calculate email unsubscribe rate.
| Unsubscribe percentage | Interpretation |
| 0 – 0.2% | Your email strategy is highly effective and subscribers are engaged. |
| 0.2% – 0.5% | Good – Your unsubscribe rate is within industry benchmarks, indicating customer satisfaction. There is room to improve, though! |
| 0.5% – 1.0% | Average – Consider monitoring your email metrics and optimizing your strategies. |
| 1.0% – 2.0% | Elevated – You are at risk for higher spam and lower sender reputation. It’s best to take a closer look at your unsubscribe rates and the reasons. |
| 2.0% – 5.0% | High – Indicates potential issues with your content and list segmentation. Take immediate action to avoid consequences. |
| Above 5.0% | Critical – Requires urgent attention and rapid changes in strategies. |
The above is only a general guideline for this metric and the average unsubscribe rate can vary with industries. You may set your benchmark or follow your industry standard to differentiate good and bad percentages.
Email Unsubscribe Rate Benchmark for Different Industries
As we discussed, the email marketing unsubscribe rate can differ based on the industry. To help you navigate the digital realm with confidence, here’s our compilation of unsubscribe rates by industry.
| Industry | Average Email Unsubscribe Rate |
|---|---|
| Beauty and personal care | 0.29% |
| Business and finance | 0.16% |
| Charities and nonprofits | 0.15% |
| E-commerce | 0.22% |
| Educational institutions | 0.18% |
| Health and fitness | 0.26% |
| Insurance | 0.26% |
How to Manage Your Unsubscribe Rates?
Managing your opt-out rates refers to regularly tracking email unsubscribes and maintaining a healthy email marketing strategy.
To further help you achieve great email performance, here are our best guides for related reading:
Now, let’s see what causes these email unsubscribes in the first place.
Email Marketing Unsubscribe Reasons
Implementing double opt-in helps you maintain an acceptable unsubscribe rate for your industry— most of the time; subscribers have not consented to receive your emails, leading to dropouts. It could also be that your email marketing ideas are outdated or that subscribers are taking time to adjust to your content and brand.
Reducing email unsubscribe rates strategy can help with most common reasons for opt-outs.
For example, Mailchimp unsubscribe rate average total hovers around 0.22% for all users. The same way, the unsubscribe rate average can be different for other businesses in your industry.
Irrespective, here are common reasons why people leave your list:
1. You Send Too Many Emails
Sending too many emails has been linked to constant opt-outs from email marketing newsletters. It’s because your subscribers experience email fatigue when you overload them with your brand content. According to GetApp, almost 50% of them unsubscribe due to receiving too many emails.
The main reasons include:
- You have not mentioned the email frequency in your opt-in forms.
- You assume your subscribers want to hear from you more often.
- You send extra emails, thinking it will help your subscribers.
2. Your Emails Resemble Spam
If you’ve wondered, “Which part of the email often determines the audience’s decision to read an email?”
It’s the subject line.
Your email subject line decides whether subscribers open your emails or toss them in spam. Adding too many exclamation marks, over-hyped promises, and get-rich-quick-scheme content is seen as spam by the ISPs. Plus, subscribers set filters in place and are cautious before they interact with any email.
3. You Email Customers Without Their Permission
Cold emailing people just to increase the probability of higher open rates can backfire — these emails can be caught by spam filters, harming your sender reputation. Cold emails are often ignored or deleted, leading to lower email response rates. Further, the lack of email personalization can make these emails less effective.
4. Changed Subscriber Needs
Subscribers’ preferences and needs are evolving and can change with time. That’s why you must assess and create content that fits their changing needs.
Here are a few examples of irrelevant content:
- Inviting existing customers to try your product when they have already purchased it.
- Sending digital marketing tips to fitness enthusiasts.
- Giving skincare regimens and tips to people who signed up for blogging tips.
Irrelevant content disrupts email personalization and trust in your brand.
5. Not Meeting Subscriber Expectations
When you are not transparent about what your subscribers can expect from your email sequences, it leads to dissatisfaction and unsubscribes. Besides, adding them to other lists because they signed up to one email list can also lead to opt-outs.
6. You Use Auto-subscribing
Many readers are not aware that they have been added to mailing lists or autosubscribed. This is a potential cause for concern since it involves legal compliance. When you purchase email lists. Subscribers who receive unwanted messages are bound to leave soon.
7. Too Little Content
While it sounds counter-intuitive, sending too little content can hurt your unsubscribe rates. Further, when your content or email tone suddenly changes, your subscribers can become uncomfortable and back out.
8. Difficulty in Unsubscribing
If your subscribers have to search for the unsubscribe link endlessly, they may report your emails as spam instead. Instead of letting them wonder about what is the best way to unsubscribe from emails, keep your links straightforward and easily accessible.
Including good unsubscribe messages at the end of your emails can do the trick. When people know they can unsubscribe at any time, they are likely to sign up to receive your brand messages.
Some companies allow users to select preferences instead of completely unsubscribing them.
At Campaign Refinery, we believe that the only way to go is to make your unsubscribe links visible and allow subscribers to unsubscribe super-easily should they want to.
Marketers are increasingly striving to be close to the unsubscribe rate benchmark. So, here are tips and tricks to build stronger relationships with customers.
14 Tips to Overcome High Unsubscribe Rate
Your unsubscribe rate partially impacts your mailing list growth. When more people unsubscribe from your mailing list, your email list growth can become stagnant. So, what is a good unsubscribe rate for email?
While the answer depends on many factors, overcoming a high unsubscribe rate email requires a strategic approach. So follow these tips to understand what does unsubscribe mean in email and how to overcome it.
1. Understand Your Audience
Segmenting your audience helps you customize content according to their needs and preferences. You can use demographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation, geographic segmentation, and behavioral segmentation, to divide your audiences into groups.
2. Personalize
Use a double-opt-in method to collect subscriber names and email addresses. You can use this data to personalize your emails further.
3. Optimize Email Frequency
Notice how subscribers interact with your business. Email marketing unsubscribe rates are directly related to your website analytics, email open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, and show you what resonates with them.
4. Offer Exclusive Content
While many brands use content recycling, it may not be the best approach. When your subscribers follow you on social media and receive similar content through emails, they are likely to unsubscribe from your newsletter. Define what type of person needs your content and why they would care. This will give you an idea of their likes.
5. Ensure Content Alignment
You can send many well-designed newsletters, but if they don’t interest the reader, they will opt out. Send them tailor-made content based on their purchase history and website behavior. Address any pain points from reviews and customer testimonials.
6. Avoid Spammy Words
Keep your email communication professional and friendly, and avoid spam trigger words or misleading subject lines. For example, use ”Let’s meet up for a chat” rather than ”Meet us for coffee at 5 pm today”. Keep your subject lines shorter than 5 words to retain customer attention.
7. Optimize Email Design
Cluttered emails, slow loading speeds, and irrelevant images could lead to higher unsubscribes. Ensuring your emails are optimized for different devices can help. Additionally, you can also use an unsubscribe tool email that helps you spot gaps and refine your strategies.
8. Make Icons Touch-friendly
The icons and buttons must be large enough for users to click on them. This is also a good opportunity to link to important pages such as the checkout page, blog, or about us page.
9. Clean Your Email Lists
Regularly verify and remove invalid and hard-bounce email addresses from your list.
10. Use A/B Testing
Update customer preferences and split test campaigns with different subject lines, images, and CTAs to know what your audience likes best.
11. Seek Feedback
Send email surveys to learn customer feedback and use it to iterate your email marketing strategies.
12. Re-engagement Campaigns
Identify inactive subscribers and implement targeted re-engagement campaigns to win back their trust.
13. Reward Subscribers
Send discounts, deals, and coupons to subscribers based on their behavior. Additionally, use e-books and other digital content to maintain subscriber interest. You can also use email gamification — with Campaign Refinery, you can gamify your emails for higher opens and fewer unsubscribes. It’s simple — you set the points and awards, and your subscribers collect them every time they interact with your emails.
14. Use Other Marketing Outlets
Utilize social media marketing along with email marketing to maximize revenue and reduce unsubscribes. You can include links to social accounts or use them as a CTA for purchases.
It’s difficult to lose your hard-earned subscribers, but most of them create a negative impact on your email marketing. This is one reason you must regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive subscribers and not become a spam email sender.
The Importance of Cleaning Your Email List
Chances are that you may never completely know the unsubscribe reasons. A few subscribers may forget they opted in and put you on the spam list. When you methodically clean your email list, you will be able to recognize the unengaged subscribers early. You can then choose if you want to send them re-targeted emails or take them off your email list.
Once you do this, you will see a drastic reduction in spam complaints and a balanced sender reputation. This step is important because every time a recipient moves your email to the spam folder, ISPs record it as a spam complaint. High spam complaints lead to decreased deliverability and trust. In worse cases, your domain can be blacklisted, shutting you off from sending any email at all.
Aside from that, cleaning your email list comes with a range of benefits:
- Better click and open rates,
- Lower unsubscribe rates,
- High deliverability,
- Reduced bounce rates,
- Increased revenue,
- Reduced costs,
- A more engaged email list,
To sum up, your email list determines the level of engagement and unsubscribes therein. You can manually weed out the inactive email addresses or use email marketing software to run through larger email lists, just like Campaign Refinery.
Build a Healthy Email List With Campaign Refinery
A high unsubscribe rate is a clear sign that your email campaigns need improvement. The best way is to start with a clean email list full of active and engaged subscribers.
Campaign Refinery‘s automatic list cleaning tool bulk sanitizes your list, increasing customer open rates by 37%. This feature immediately protects you from risky subscribers such as undeliverable, spam trap, malformed, bot, role and disposable email addresses.
Through this process, our software allows you to qualify as a quality sender with verified email lists. We have set up processes that ensure you maintain low unsubscribe rates and the highest deliverability rates in the market. The results are self-evident on your email analytics dashboard — our customers report an immediate increase in deliverability by as much as 6x after signing up with us.
You get the picture — you can focus on developing appealing content for your email marketing campaigns while we handle your email deliverability and sender reputation. At Campaign Refinery, we are all about helping email marketing enthusiasts maintain a healthy email list and grow their revenue.
If you are looking to take your email marketing game to the next level, we are here with a holistic approach to help you do that.
Apply to become our client and unlock elite email list performance!
FAQ
How to calculate opt-out rate?
To calculate your unsubscribe rate, divide the total number of subscribers by the total number of messages delivered multiplied by 100.
What is a high unsubscribe rate?
A high unsubscribe rate is considered to be anything above 1%.
What about managing unsubscribe rates?
To properly manage your unsubscribe rates, it’s important to regularly monitor the opt-out percentage and take steps to reduce unsubscribes.
What is an acceptable unsubscribe rate?
Anything below 0.5% is considered an acceptable unsubscribe rate.
What is a good newsletter unsubscribe rate?
A good newsletter unsubscribe rate is below 0.5%. Anything below 0.2% is considered excellent.
Why is my unsubscribe rate so high?
Your unsubscribe rate could be high because of sending too many emails, irrelevant email content, poor email list quality, or sending unappealing emails.
