Hey, Michael here.

We’re back with another edition of The DTC Letters.

"But what if sending more emails means our unsubscribe rates go up? Thats horrible"

I hear this at least once a week from Ecom brand owners.

Why?

Because all the generic email marketing advise in most blogs and forums have indoctrinated you in thinking unsubscribes are a bad thing.

But that couldn't be more wrong.

The Big Mistake Most Brands Make

By far one of the most common mistakes I see ecommerce brands making in regards to their email list is they act as if everyone is there customer.

They try to please every subscriber.

They make their emails super broad, vague, and incredibly vanilla to make sure that "everyone is happy".

Why do they do this?

Because they see people unsubscribing and freak out.

Why Does This Not Work?

There's a saying in the marketing world that goes like this:

Attempting to please everyone in order to not get unsubscribes is a sure way to ignore your most ideal and highest paying customers.

It's almost the exact same mindset as the people who spend $1000, they don't have in the bank, on a credit card so they can earn 2% cash back.

They didn't gain $20 by doing this, you LOST $980

There's another quote I really like from the OG innovator of industries, Henry Ford:

The purpose of your advertising and in this case, your emails, is to talk directly to your potential buyers based on what you've learn about your current customers.

Think About It This Way

The only difference between your potential customers and your current customers is that your current customer have already bought from you

That's it, they are they same people, who want the same thing, and have the same objections.

Most of you reading this are running some sort of paid ads, for this example lets think meta ads:

• You run Meta Ads to an audience with the goal that a % of the audience is your ideal customer and the purchase

• As you spend more money and the algorithm collects data points and conversions, so it gets better

• So what does it do? It stops showing the ad to people who are not like the people who are buying

Why? Because if not:

• You're burning through money that isn't getting you an return on your ad spend

• That money could (and SHOULD) be spent targeting your ideal customers profiles

• You dilute your data, start making decisions based on data that doesn't represent what your real customers actually want

Causing you to lose your core audience because your angles and messaging is misaligned

So Are Unsubscribes A Good Thing?

The short answer, yes…

In most cases we see a direct correlation between the two.

• The more unsubscribes you get, the more sales you make

• The less unsubscribes you get, the less sales you make

Now this isn't the case for every brand.

But I guarantee you the only way to get zero unsubscribes…is by not emailing your list at all.

And if that's your strategy then you're basically lighting up to 40% of your brands monthly revenue on fire every month. (yes email can bring in 40%+ of your brands revenue every month)

So if you are doing email marketing correctly (unlike 99% of Ecom brands in 2024)

Then you don't have to worry about unsubscribes, they simple don't affect you.

What Should I Worry About Instead?

Focus on these 2 things and you won't ever have to worry about unsubscribe rates:

Growing Your Email List

• Implement a high converting pop-up form to convert 6-12% of site visitors to your list.

Send 2-4 Campaigns Per Week (the right way)

• Send engaging content that's skimmable, entertaining/educational, and uses diagrams and visuals.

• Most importantly, speak directly to your core audiences and leverage what you know about your customers to find out what is keeping your potential customers from clicking the BUY button

Today’s Helpful Links

• Nike's Iconic "Just Do It" 1988 Campaign: A Lesson for E-commerce and Email Marketing

• The 3 things you need to NOT land in spam

• 60 Second video talking about Unsubscribes

Reply to this email with any questions or content that you want covered in future newsletters.

Best,

Michael

PS - If you run an Ecom brand and want to have a 15 minute strategy session with me, book a call here »