A great deal of time and effort has gone into building up your email marketing list and you have written amazing content. You have formatted an easy to use sign-up form and offered hard to resist deals to entice your audience. You send out your first email to your target market via your marketing automation system. Yet, people still unsubscribe.

Don’t panic! Every email marketing list has people who unsubscribe. The only way to avoid this would be to not have an email list at all.

Identifying the reasons for people unsubscribing from your email marketing list is key to bringing those numbers down. Here is what to do:

Do Not Go Overboard in Your Subject Lines

Overuse of caps, emojis, exclamation points and keywords such as “free”, ”give away”, “sex”, “deposit”, and the like, can identify your email as spam and move it to your junk folder or cause your reader to hit the unsubscribe button.

Write Engaging, Well-Thought-Out Content

Your content should have a clear and concise purpose, which starts with the subject line, is carried through in the following paragraph and continues to be elaborated on throughout the email body. Finally, your message or point should be brought to a strong conclusion in your CTA.

Deliver on What You Promise

Your reader opens the email, intrigued by what is offered and clicks on the CTA link in the hopes of finding that something amazing – which was promised to them. At this point, if they are unhappy with what they find, they will hit the unsubscribe button without a doubt. Your subscriber needs you to deliver on what you promised – each and every time!

Make Unsubscribing Less Obvious

Legally an unsubscribe option is required in your content marketing, but this can be done in less obvious ways. You don’t want to make unsubscribing too easy. Try writing it in smaller text next to other options such as “please provide feedback” and don’t allow too much white space around it.

Email marketing is highly effective and, therefore, important. By following the few basic guidelines above, your unsubscribe rates will drop for sure.