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What are my unsubscribes telling me?

by MusicMinCoach
7 replies
Hey guys,

I give away a free 5-day video min-course featuring quick vocal lessons. At the end I promote my 6 month paid home study course.

So I'm looking at my unsubscribes today and I noticed almost all of the unsubscribes happened on either day 1 or day 5. All of the day 1 unsubscribes are undeliverables.

I'm assuming then, that all of the day 5 unsubscribes are people who simply joined only to get the free lessons and jumped off the list as soon as they were done.

I've seen some people post here about how offering a free gift for opting in increases the likelihood of building a list of freebie seekers, and I think that may just be what I'm doing.

This thing converts at almost 50% most of the time, so it's definitely a strong offer. But I need to change something to get more serious people on the list so I improve conversions to the paid course.

Someone suggested to me that I should offer one sample lesson and then charge a small fee to see the other 5. That way people who join are people who are more likely to make a purchase.

Any ideas guys? By the way, a large percentage to stay on the list, and I have decent open rates. I get good feedback on the fan page too about the blogs. So I know the content is there. Just looking for ideas here from the experts. Your thoughts?
#telling #unsubscribes
  • Profile picture of the author StingGB
    You don't say what percentage of your list unsubscribed. It doesn't matter what you give opt-ins, or how well you look after them, a few of your list will always leave usually right after a mailshot. If they are genuine opt-in's, and you are trying to do your best by them, just keep improving and don't take it personally.
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  • Profile picture of the author tomcam
    What StingGB says. But also, have you tried buying traffic? Your site looks good and I've signed up for the course.
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  • Profile picture of the author MusicMinCoach
    Hey thanks guys. I didn't mention the percentage of unsubscribes because I recently had Aweber delete all of them after a great tip I read here (did you know Aweber counts those in your total number of subscribers and charges you for them?)

    I definitely understand that there will always be a percentage of unsubscribes. I'm more concerned about whether or not I'm building a list of freebee seekers, and how I can change it. As much as people love the free course I should see more people moving into the paid course, I would think.

    Looking forward to your feedback Tom, thanks for checking it out.
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    Ron Cross
    http://www.TheMusicMinistryCoach.com
    http://www.Facebook.com/TheMusicMinistryCoach

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    • Profile picture of the author vickybabe
      Originally Posted by MusicMinCoach View Post

      Hey thanks guys. I didn't mention the percentage of unsubscribes because I recently had Aweber delete all of them after a great tip I read here (did you know Aweber counts those in your total number of subscribers and charges you for them?)

      I definitely understand that there will always be a percentage of unsubscribes. I'm more concerned about whether or not I'm building a list of freebee seekers, and how I can change it. As much as people love the free course I should see more people moving into the paid course, I would think.

      Looking forward to your feedback Tom, thanks for checking it out.
      I think you will find that a high percentage will always be freebie seekers. The main question is, are you getting ANY conversions on your paid course? If so, just ramp up the numbers coming into your funnel or focus on increasing conversions a little bit.

      What you need to realize, is that by giving something away, you ARE building a list of freebie seekers, that you then try and convert into paid members.

      Have you tested trying to sell the short course for a small amount? That might be worth a try. (rather then giving it away)

      I am assuming that your paid course is rather expensive, so maybe try offering a lower dollar product before the big one, to get your list used to buying from you, the hit them with the big one.

      These are all just things that you can try, but keep in mind that i do not know what will work best for you.

      Testing and tracking will tell you what you should do.

      Hope that helps slightly
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Change the content on email 1 and email 5. You may want to re-arrange your email order and test if whether or not a different order will make the difference for your unsubscribe rate.
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    • Profile picture of the author MusicMinCoach
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      Change the content on email 1 and email 5. You may want to re-arrange your email order and test if whether or not a different order will make the difference for your unsubscribe rate.
      Hey Randall, as I said all of the day one unsubscribes are undeliverables. I'm thinking those are simply people who never confirmed and were unsubscribed by Aweber. I don't think the unsubscribe rate is that high. It's just that almost all of them unsubscribe on day 5. Which tells me they love free course (only one person has unsubscribed before the course was over) but don't move on to the paid version.

      So I'm trying to figure out if I need to change my opt-in process to discourage freebee seekers by charging a small amount, or if I simply need to work on the sales page/pitch for the paid course to increase my conversion rate to the paid course.

      I'm starting to think from the feedback so far that it's the latter.
      Signature

      Ron Cross
      http://www.TheMusicMinistryCoach.com
      http://www.Facebook.com/TheMusicMinistryCoach

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  • Profile picture of the author MusicMinCoach
    Hey Vickybabe (love that name, lol),

    that does help and it makes a lot of sense. I've gotten a small amount directly from the free course. Most of the subscribers I have now came from when I first launched it and promoted it to my list and FB followers. Since then I've gotten 3 or 4 here and there. I got two the other day from a blog I posted on my fan page with a link to the course.

    My sales page could probably convert better, but I think the price is pretty affordable at $25 a month for 6 months.

    I haven't done any testing regarding selling the short course for a small amount. That's kinda the advice I'm looking for. But based on what you just said it might be smarter to simply focus on improving my conversion rate from the free course to the paid course.

    Perhaps I should just create a couple of different versions of the sales page, do a cheap traffic campaign and start spit testing?
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    Ron Cross
    http://www.TheMusicMinistryCoach.com
    http://www.Facebook.com/TheMusicMinistryCoach

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