July 16, 2008 Why do I want to unsubscribe? Because…that's why.
I just unsubscribed from an email that I magically started receiving from my health care provider. I’m assuming they added me to their list after I signed up for online access. I certainly didn’t ask to receive emails about someone winning an iPod Touch… (unless it was me doing the winning).
Anyway, I clicked “unsubscribe” expecting to your get a typical “you’ve been unsubscribed” screen. Instead I got a screen asking me why I unsubscribed.
For some reason, I was caught off guard with “…we would like to know your reasons for unsubscribing.” Is it just me, or is this a little strong? I immediately flashed back to being a kid and having my parents asking me why I did or didn’t do something.
As a marketer, I can appreciate wanting to know why an email recipient unsubscriber from my mailing list. This would be very useful information.
As a consumer, if I unsubscribe from an email, I want to be removed immediately. I don’t want to do anything more than click a link and be told that I’ve been unsubscribed. Nothing sets me off more than being forced to log in to a site to change my preferences (especially if I don’t know my username/password) or even being asked why I’m unsubscribing.
Please just let me unsubscribe peacefully…
