We often get questions around reducing unsubscribe rates and why people might be unsubscribing from your list.

MarketingSherpa conducted a survey in October and found that the top 5 reasons people subscribe are:

- "I get too many emails in general" - 26%
- "The emails are not relevant to me" - 21%
- "I receive too many emails from this company specifically - 19%"
- "The emails are always trying to sell me something" - 19%
- "The content of the emails is boring, repetitive and not interesting to me" - 17%

NOTE: Other than blatant spam, these are also reasons that people click the spam button often times. It's just easier than hunting for the unsubscribe button (HINT: Make your unsubscribe easy to find!)

So the question then becomes, how do you tweak your marketing to lose fewer subscribers and also reduce list fatigue (aka lower open rates from existing subscribers).

The key is to test, test and test.

According to a recent study from Mapp Digital, 40% of US Internet users prefer to receive "marketing" emails once a week. Now that may not be a perfect fit with your business model, but is a good guide in terms of how you might consider structuring your emails to provide more content and value in other messages going out. And limit that hard core promotions.

We've talked about segmentation quite a bit in the past. But the other piece of this is that you've simply got to segment and target more effectively so your email stays relevant to your individual subscribers.

Ultimately, you've got to figure out how to make your messages WANTED and not just additional clutter in the inbox among all the other messages. AND make sure that your messages provide some value to your subscribers.

For over a decade Heather Seitz used email marketing to build successful companies. She had to solve the biggest barrier to consistent profitability: deliverability. Today she is the Co-Founder and CEO of Email Delivered.

If you want to know why people unsubscribe, visit : http://www.emaildelivered.com/why-do-subscribers-unsubscribe. ‎  Remember to sign up for the FREE Email Delivered Pulse newsletter for articles, tips, and recommended resources for email marketers.

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