Ideally, you want to keep your customer database as clean as possible. On the other hand, your customer base should receive a newsletter from you that is as relevant as possible. Because unsubscribes are of no use to you. Do you see that you are getting more and more unsubscribes? This can have several causes. In this article, we will cover some of the causes, how to test them and thus how to improve your emails.

Do you have a lot of unsubscribes in your newsletter? Maybe the design doesn't appeal to your target group. Try two totally different layouts: what you like, may not be what the other person likes. It could be that your target group doesn't find your newsletter well-organized enough and is therefore unsubscribing. Test it yourself!

Your customers subscribed to your newsletter for one reason: to get the information they expect. Did you specify in your welcome email what information your customers can expect? Then live up to it! When there is a mismatch between you and your customers, they are more likely to unsubscribe. This is because the content of the newsletter does not match their expectations.

What does your customer expect? This is easy to test in an A/B test. Are they expecting inspiration? Better offers? Longer newsletters? Or shorter ones? This can all be tested!

How do you actually communicate with your customers? Do you do this with a 'you' form? Do you pack your message in a businesslike or more casual way? The way you address them can play a role in their unsubscribing from your newsletter. Test how your customers want to be addressed. 4. Unsubscribe or give preferences? Do you only let your clients unsubscribe?

Do you pack your message in a businesslike or more casual way? The way you address them can play a role in their unsubscribing from your newsletter. Test how your customers want to be addressed.

Do you only let your clients unsubscribe? Did you know there is also a possibility for your customers to give preferences?

This way your customer chooses exactly which newsletter they do and do not want to receive from you. Test this by adding only an unsubscribe link in variant A of your newsletter, and adding both an unsubscribe link and preferences link in variant B.

Variant A:

Variant B:

👉 You can read how to set up preference groups here

Of course, it is also possible to test which text works better for giving preferences or for unsubscribing. What is important is that every email contains an unsubscribe link. This is simply mandatory.

Now that you know what you can think of when setting up an A/B test to reduce the number of unsubscribes: go ahead and test it yourself! This way you can prevent your customers from finding the newsletter uninteresting and unsubscribing in the end. Good luck! 🙌