Have your checked your unsubscribe UX lately?

No? Go do it. Here’s why…

I had a little inbox clear-out last week and unsubscribed from a few mailing lists which were no longer of interest.

And almost without exception, they showed that none of the companies (and some were big household names) had paid any attention to that part of their user experience (UX).

Below is the form that I was taken to when I clicked unsubscribe at the bottom of one of the emails (they’re not with Mailchimp by the looks of the form but these things are much of a muchness). It belongs to a very nice nationwide boutique-ish hotel chain. It’s not that I won’t use them again but simply that I know where they are when I need them.

Firstly they’ve not hidden a load of data fields which means I can see a) what they collect, b) what they call those fields (and often they’re very much “for internal purposes only”).

Secondly, I can see various audience/list/group names they have, and what I’m on (fortunately none of them in this case). These groups names are again, very clearly “for internal purposes only” and should not be seen by me.

Thirdly, I could see the name of the audience in the email’s subject line.

Why is all this important?

Well, in my day to day life within multitudes of Mailchimp accounts I see SO many audience names, groups, field names and segments which are most definitely not names for public view. In fact some of them could be downright damaging and a bit of a PR catastrophe.

Imagine if one of your subscribers found out they were on an audience called “People with small budgets” / “Poor engagement” / “Low priority” / Sue’s Test List” . I’ve seen audiences called all of those things and MUCH worse.

Make it not just not bad, but actually good

Not only should you avoid pitfalls like this, but you could actually make unsubscribing a positive experience.

Like me, lots of people will unsubscribe NOT because they’re not interested in your brand but because they know where you are when they need you. So why not make the unsubscribe process a good one? Maybe one that will make them smile? Or tell them where they can find you on Insta?

What do you need to do?

I’m presuming you are subscribed to your own mailing list with various email addresses (if not, why not?). Now go and unsubscribe and see what happens. And if it’s not good, go and do something about it.

What this helpful?

I’d really appreciate it if you’d let me know by clicking on the button below. And if you have any questions or need help or advice drop me a line.