Many marketers don’t pay much attention to subscribers after they click the unsubscribe link.

However, it’s a poor practice to simply display a generic confirmation page and be done with subscribers forever.

Instead, design and code a custom branded unsubscribe confirmation page with links back to your homepage and social sites. This keeps the entire customer lifecycle on brand from start to finish.

Take advantage of this potential last opportunity to connect with your lost subscribers, where you can prove your value, re-spark interest and maybe even obtain a few purchases or re-subscribes.

Just what are the specific advantages of a branded unsubscribe page? Let’s consider two scenarios.

scenario 1: unbranded unsubscribe confirmation page

Johnny has been getting weekly newsletters from Company ABC for a year now, and he starts to realize he’s not interested in the content anymore. Instead of deleting the messages from his inbox each week, Johnny decides to pull the plug and click the unsubscribe link in the footer. When he does, he’s greeted with the following generic confirmation page:

That is the end of the relationship. Johnny is removed from the mailing list and will no longer hear from Company ABC again.

scenario 2: branded unsubscribe confirmation page

Suzie has been getting weekly newsletters from WhatCounts, but since she was promoted at her company and no longer works in the marketing department, the emails aren’t relevant anymore. Suzie decides to unsubscribe from the mailings by clicking the link in the footer and she’s presented with the following confirmation page:

It’s a fully responsive and branded page confirming the opt-out and provides links back to the company homepage and social sites. It has the look and feel of WhatCounts and renders in desktop and mobile devices.

Suzie decides to click through to the site to see the other services with which WhatCounts might be able to help her. She also elects to stay in touch by connecting through Facebook and LinkedIn. The door is left open; the relationship isn’t over.

conclusion: make it personal

From the subscriber’s perspective, Scenario 2 is a much better experience than Scenario 1.

The generic unsubscribe confirmation page from Company ABC is impersonal and gives the final impression the company didn’t value the relationship with Johnny.

On the other hand, Suzie chose to stay in touch with WhatCounts because she was sent to a well-designed, attractive confirmation page providing easy access to the company’s relevant sites. Perhaps she doesn’t want to receive the weekly emails, but she’s still connected through social sites and receives content that way.

And worst case scenario, even if Suzie didn’t re-connect at all, the branded page is still more welcoming and leaves a better final impression of WhatCounts.

A branded unsubscribe confirmation page is an easy and cost-effective way to wrap up the customer lifecycle, and our talented agency team is standing by to quickly put one together for you. If you want to further intensify your email marketing efforts, also consider a full custom unsubscribe form, where you can give your subscribers the option to select their interests and frequency of mailings to opt-down rather than out, which will reduce list churn and keep your email list healthy.

If you want to learn more about these offerings, please reach out to us today.