Emarketer.com recently published the results of some research they undertook to find out the main reasons behind why people choose to unsubscribe to email updates from various companies. While email marketing and SMS marketing are not completely identical there are a great number of similarities between the two marketing mediums, as a result there are a number of lessons to be learnt from this research.
The study found that the single greatest reason for dropping out of an email marketing subscription was that “The message was not relevant to me”, 46% of respondents cited this as their reason for unsubscribing.
Second highest on the list of reasons was “I receive too many to manage”, this was cited by 23% of the respondents.
And third and fourth place on the list, with 16% a piece were “They cause clutter in my inbox” and “Not from a trusted source”.
So what can we learn from this study? What actions can marketers using SMS text messaging take to ensure that their opted-in subscribers stay part of the database? Well based on the information outlined above we can come to a few conclusions.
- Make sure the message is relevant – This might seem like an overly simple point to make, but almost half of email un-subscribers were prompted to do so when they received one too many irrelevant text messages. Therefore it should always be kept in mind that when sending a marketing SMS message it must be related to what your customers requested, it must be RELEVANT. For example if Tom joined your VIP club with a view to receiving text coupons, he might not be interested in receiving quizzes, polls, updates etc. Sending Tom too many of these might force him to unsubscribe.
- Almost a quarter of respondents in the email marketing survey cited the reason: “I receive too many to manage”, SMS marketers should keep this in mind at all times when contacting members of their database. Just because you CAN send your database three messages a day it really doesn’t mean you should! Customers’ expectations should be set from the beginning, for instance you could advertise the “VIP weekly coupon”, or “monthly special offers” therefore customers know exactly when to expect when subscribing to your SMS messages.
- Inbox clutter was cited by 16% of respondents, this is likely to be an increasing problem as SMS marketing becomes more popular in the future. Again, this is an issue related to the frequency with which SMS marketing messages are sent. If marketers behave in a responsible fashion and send a reasonable amount of messages at a pre-agreed frequency then this should not be an issue. All marketers need to play their part in keeping SMS a relevant medium by adhering to reasonable usage and not firing out multiple messages every day.
- Another 16% of respondents claimed they unsubscribed due to receiving messages from an un-trusted source, it should go without saying that you should never send marketing messages to people who have not agreed to receive them, not only is it illegal to do so, it will more than likely generate negative word of mouth around your brand.
By keeping the mistakes made by email marketers in mind at all times those using SMS marketing can ensure that their opted-in database remain opted-in.
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