Re: Measuring opt-outs

From: Mark Brownlow <mark_at_keepingthekey.com>
Date: Tue 26 Feb 2002 16:47:30 -0600

JOHN FLEMING <jfleming094_at_yahoo.com> WROTE:

> What is the standard method of determining opt-out
> percentage? Is it a yearly average or does it reflect
> the percentage per mailing? I've heard a lot of
> different numbers thrown around, and I know all lists
> and mailings differ, but what do you all view as an
> acceptable level? Thanks.

Your best bet is to develop your own metrics and track
them through time. There really are too many factors
involved to make comparisons between different lists
and owners useful.

In an ideal scenario, I'd evaluate my unsubscribe
metrics around five factors:

1. Source: Understand which unsubscribes are genuinely
people opting-out (and which are the result of automatic
pruning following bounces, or people changing addresses,
etc.)

2. Dynamics: If I add a hundred subscribers a week, is
that because I added 2500 and lost 2400, or added 101
and lost 1? The choice of percentage calculation and
time period is important here too.


3. Source of subscribers: Where subscribers come from
usually impacts on their likely unsubscribe behavior.
Were they single or double opt-in? Was a sign-up
incentive offered? Did they come from a co-registration
source? Compare unsubscribe rates across sources.

4. Timing: Useful to correlate unsubscribes with number
of issues/mailings received. If people are unsubscribing
immediately, that suggests, for example, there may be a
"problem" with the expectations raised in marketing.
If there's a jump in unsubscribes from long-term
subscribers, then maybe it's rather a content problem.

5. Costs and revenues: given the costs of subscriber
acquisition, mail creation and distribution, returns
etc., what level of unsubscribes is financially
acceptable? How do the numbers look for relevant
segments, too (such as subscribers acquired through
a specific co-registration service).

And not forgetting, of course, the importance of list
quality, as opposed to quantity...

Mark Brownlow, Author

The Keeping the Key Report
"How to give your email newsletters impact & influence"
http://www.KeepingtheKey.com/






Received on Tue Feb 26 2002 - 16:47:30 CST