Humanize Your Email Unsubscribe Process
▼ Summary
– The author argues that empathy, sympathy, and humanity are crucial values in marketing, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, and should not be abandoned.
– A personal experience managing deceased relatives’ email accounts revealed that many brands have broken unsubscribe processes and fail to ask or respond to reasons for unsubscribing.
– The article proposes that brands should consider automated, sympathetic responses when learning a subscriber has died, viewing it as a humane practice rather than just a business tactic.
– Examples from brands like Chewy and Petplan demonstrate the powerful impact of empathetic, personalized communication during customer life events, such as the loss of a pet.
– The author suggests technical ways to implement such humanity, like using ESPs to detect keywords in unsubscribe reasons and sending a one-time acknowledgement within legal guidelines.
In today’s digital marketplace, the connection between a brand and its audience often hinges on subtle, human interactions. The email unsubscribe process represents a critical, yet frequently overlooked, opportunity to reinforce brand values and demonstrate genuine care. Moving beyond a purely transactional approach to customer relationships can foster lasting goodwill, even at the moment of departure. The lessons of recent years have underscored that empathy and understanding are not weaknesses but essential components of sustainable business practice.
A personal experience managing the digital affairs of deceased family members revealed how most companies handle unsubscribe requests. The process is often cold, broken, or entirely automated, with little regard for the human context behind the action. Encountering numerous 404 errors and non-functioning links from major brands was both surprising and disappointing. This technical failure alone explains why many frustrated recipients simply abandon the effort and mark messages as spam instead. Beyond functionality, the experience highlighted a profound missed opportunity. Most unsubscribe flows offer no meaningful way to communicate a reason, and when they do, those responses appear to vanish into a void, unmonitored and unacknowledged.
This raises a pivotal question for marketers: when a subscriber indicates they are unsubscribing due to a death, should a brand respond? It’s a delicate situation that sits at the intersection of customer service, privacy, and basic human decency. We routinely ignore critical feedback from those who take the time to formally opt-out, a group that demonstrates respect for the sender by not simply reporting messages as junk. Understanding why a relationship ended is valuable data, and in cases of bereavement, a simple, automated acknowledgement could mean a great deal. The value isn’t measured in immediate conversions but in upholding a brand’s commitment to humanity.
Consider brands that have built legendary loyalty through empathetic engagement. Chewy, the pet supply retailer, is renowned for sending flowers and handwritten sympathy cards when customers contact them about a pet’s passing. Similarly, Petplan pet insurance crafts claim communications that blend practical information with genuine compassion, using the pet’s name to personalize their condolences. These companies leverage the data they have to treat customers as individuals, not just account numbers, especially during difficult life events. Their actions, while directed at paying customers, provide a powerful template for injecting humanity into all communications.
Implementing a humane response for bereavement-related unsubscribes is technically feasible. An email service provider can often be configured to scan reply-to messages or unsubscribe feedback forms for specific keywords. While emailing an unsubscribed address is generally prohibited, regulations like CAN-SPAM allow for a brief window to process the request, which could accommodate a single, non-promotional message of acknowledgement. This isn’t about sales or re-acquisition; it’s about closing a loop with dignity. It signals that a brand pays attention and cares about the circumstances of its audience.
The potential ripple effects of such kindness are intangible but real. In processing those unsubscribe requests, new interests were discovered, leading to subscriptions with other brands. While sympathy should never be a calculated customer acquisition tactic, acting with compassion aligns with the core relationship-building purpose of email marketing. It recognizes that an inbox is a personal space, and every interaction within it contributes to a brand’s perception. In a world where digital interactions can feel impersonal, choosing to be human, especially when it’s not required, can be a brand’s most powerful differentiator.
(Source: MarTech)
