
Ask HN: What is the optimal unsubscribe rate? - gnicholas
When a startup is considering how often to send emails to its email list, one consideration is the impact on unsubscribe requests.<p>On the one hand, if you send emails very rarely (1x per year), you&#x27;ll have very few unsubscribe requests. This can feel good - certainly better than getting a flood of them. But you&#x27;re probably not maximizing the value of your list if you send too infrequently.<p>On the other hand, if you send emails frequently (1x per week), you&#x27;ll probably have lots of people unsubscribe requests. After they leave, you won&#x27;t be able to tell them about the new products you&#x27;re launching or new features you&#x27;ve added.<p>Does anyone have a sense of how folks can figure out whether their unsubscribe rate is too high or too low? Is there any general guidance on where this number should be for startups?
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PaulHoule
You could work out the math for how much value you get out of sending email as
opposed to how much you lose from unsubscriptions.

You can also square the circle by writing good copy that actually appeals to
your audience. Few e-mail newsletters do it; disengagement is a real threat,
by the time somebody unsubscribes, they may have deleted your email 10 times
before reading it.

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gnicholas
Good copy is definitely important, and hard to come by. Any advice on what
type of content to include, and where to source it from? That is, should I aim
to include news that would be of interest to my audience, sourced from twitter
(for example)?

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omeid2
While I don't have an exact number, there is a couple of points I would like
to make.

Email makes for a terrible and noisy changelog. New feature announcements are
best in-app.

Email should be targeted and thoughtful. What that means heavily depends on
your audience, the nature and premise of your mailing list.

You should not avoid sending emails from fear of unsubscribes, an inactive
mailing list is worth as much as a mailing list with zero subscribers.

~~~
gnicholas
> _You should not avoid sending emails from fear of unsubscribes, an inactive
> mailing list is worth as much as a mailing list with zero subscribers._

This behavior is what caused me to ask. I feel like I don't send emails
frequently enough, in part because I am averse to getting unsubscribes. But of
course the optimal unsubscribe rate is not zero, and having an unsubscribe
rate that is too low can be just as bad as having an unsubscribe rate that is
too high.

