Holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be sensitive topics for consumers. Allowing your audience to opt out of email marketing related to these occasions helps to build trust with your audience and overall nurtures the customer relationship.
What Are Sensitive Subject Opt-Out Emails?
Sensitive subject opt-out emails allow your audience to avoid receiving emails about holidays or events that may cause them distress. If a contact decides to opt out, they will not be unsubscribed from your database, but you can use this data to segment your audience. By doing this, you can ensure that your audience is only receiving content that they are comfortable with.
What Do Sensitive Subject Opt-Out Emails Look Like?
These emails should be clear and concise with a simple way for contacts to opt out.
There are lots of ways of collecting this information:
1: A short, concise email: This is to the point and many businesses choose this format to send their opt-out emails
2. Added Value: The opt-out option is gently introduced alongside brand and product content.
At Pod Digital, we carefully crafted an empathetic message with clear CTAs, balancing sensitivity with engaging content. This approach was successful for multiple clients, leading to high engagement, excellent open rates, multiple conversions and less than 1% of audiences opted out.
By blending the opt-out message with brand content and products, we ensured that the email resonated positively with the most recipients.
3. Use a preference centre: A preference centre can be set up to allow subscribers to choose their opt-out preferences upon signup. Having contacts set their preferences all at once removes the focus on particular holidays and can be less distressing to consumers.
However, contacts may forget or struggle to update their preferences regularly. This could lead to sending potentially distressing content to your audience and could cause contacts to unsubscribe. Individual opt-out emails sent in the lead-up to holidays are more effective and timely.
Why Send Sensitive Subject Opt-Out Emails?
Customer experience is a main priority for all businesses. By giving your audience the chance to opt out, you will strengthen their trust in your brand. It shows that you care about your customers’ needs and preferences.
In a recent LinkedIn poll, we conducted:
- 63% found sensitive-topic opt-outs considerate
- 31% didn’t mind them
- 6% think that they are not necessary.
To share your opinions, make sure you’re following us on LinkedIn!
Are Sensitive Subject Opt-Outs Necessary For GDPR and Email Compliance?
No, sensitive subject opt-out emails are not required for GDPR compliance. However, it is the considerate thing to do and therefore best practice. You want your contacts to feel valued.
It is best practice to let contacts control the type of subject matter they receive emails about. GDPR emphasises respecting individual preferences, but this also improves customer experience, decreases unsubscribes and builds trust.
Should I Be Sending Opt-Out Emails?
In most cases, yes. If you are running promotional campaigns around sensitive holidays, then you should give your audience the option to opt-out. It doesn’t take very long either! You should also consider whether your business relates to these holidays before creating content around them.
Are you unsure how to implement sensitive subject opt-outs into your strategy? Book your free email marketing strategy meeting today.
