It's perfectly normal to have about 1/3 of your email list underperform every six months, not just from people hitting the "unsubscribe" button, but also from people who simply ignore your emails. There is no hard and fast rule about how many people you can expect to unsubscribe from you newsletter each month, but if your unsubscription rate above 10%, you should consider making a few switches to your campaigns in order to retain your readers.

Many new email marketers make at least one of the following mistakes when running their email marketing campaigns. This is far from a comprehensive list, but is the most common reasons why people choose to unsubscribe from your email list.

Big Mistakes That Cause Customers To Hate Your Emails

1. Receiving too many emails

How often do you send new updates to your list? Best practice is once or twice a month. If you are sending out emails more frequently than this, you greatly increase the number of people who hit the "unsubscribe" button. Realize that although you feel your newsletter is special, your customers most likely find a lot of newsletters in their inboxes, and nobody wants their subscriptions clogging up their inboxes. Generally, after two emails per month, you start to become annoying.

2. Sales pitches

Also known as "hard selling," always selling is when the sole purpose of your emails is to obviously generate sales or push products. People don't start receiving email lists to get advertisements in their inboxes, they sign up because they are looking for something of value. Just the fact that your subscribers are getting your branded emails is a sales tactic, and if you strategically pepper your newsletter with light promotion combined with a lot of value added information, you will be on the fast track to creating sales and loyal customers. In the case of email marketing, less is more when it comes to sales promotions.

3. Bad content quality

Similar to the point above, people will quickly unsubscribe if your emails really don't offer much value. If you're just regurgitating old news or always touching on entry-level tips, people aren't going to want to keep receiving your emails. Newbie information is great, but only when also mixed with some tips and advice for those who are more experienced as well. After all, you want to position yourself as an expert, and what better way to do this than through your email newsletter? Keep your newsletters interesting with advanced topics, entry-level topics and up-to-date advances in your industry, this is what people want from your newsletter.

4. No added value

Sure, there are always subjects which tend to prevail, but please don't simply provide the same things over and over again. Your newsletters always have to push the boundaries when it comes to relevance and information. If you keep saying the same thing time after time, after a few months your subscribers are going to unsubscribe, and your credibility will have taken a big hit. Remember: mix it up!

Summary

You don't have to constantly re-invent the wheel, just make sure to push real value in your email campaigns. Always ask the question: would I read this? Your email newsletter is a great sales vehicle only if you keep it light on the sales pitches and offer real value. If you pitch your products less, when the time comes to promote a new offering, your subscribers will be the most responsive.