SilverPop just announced a "Snooze" button that can be easily added to their customer's unsubscribe pages. When the user clicks to unsubscribe, the landing page gives them an option to "Snooze" the email until some time in the future rather than unsubscribing. The example they use is that someone who buys flowers for Valentine's Day might snooze their emails until the next Valentine's Day.
Overall I think this is a great feature – pretty much anything that gives the end user more control is good in my book, and this has the side benefit of reducing unsubscribes. This is a twist on the "opt-down" idea where the user can choose to reduce the mailing frequency.
I'd like to hear other good case studies for the Snooze button, because the florist one isn't really cutting it for me. The best florist emailers I've seen ask me about holidays and birthdays and anniversaries and then use those dates as triggers to email me. That's been around for a long time, and if I was a florist I would much rather take that approach than get snoozed for another year. The user might snooze for shorter periods of time, but seems much easier to just ask them for the important dates once and rather than have the user make a decision each time about how long to snooze.
I hope that having big gaps of many months between mailing (as in the Valentine's Day example used above) will not cause a spike in spam complaints when the snooze "wakes up". Sometimes if there is a break in mailing frequency that can happen. I guess only time will tell if this is significant or not.
We've recently prototyped a similar solution to Snooze using OtherInbox Organizer. Instead of unsubscribing, the user can choose to have the message automatically filed into a folder. This way the marketer gets to keep sending the messages but the user can decide when to view them. Most senders would probably prefer to stay in the Inbox, but if its a choice between going into a folder or not being able to send at all, most marketers will choose the folder. We are talking with Email Service Providers about how they can easily implement this on their unsubscribe pages.
SilverPop has always been an innovator and I'm sure that this is just the first step. I'll be watching this one closely to see how it develops.
Last 5 posts by Joshua Baer
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We implemented a similar ‘Winter Hibernation’ option for one of our travel client’s emails. Recognizing that a great many travelers only care about warm weather events and activities, we allowed subscribers to ‘hibernate’ their accounts from November – February, and become active again in March. Several subscribers took this option rather than unsubscribe, and we’re just starting to analyze the data on those subscribers, now that they’ve been reintroduced into the larger, active database.
We implemented a similar ‘Winter Hibernation’ option for one of our travel client’s emails. Recognizing that a great many travelers only care about warm weather events and activities, we allowed subscribers to ‘hibernate’ their accounts from November – February, and become active again in March. Several subscribers took this option rather than unsubscribe, and we’re just starting to analyze the data on those subscribers, now that they’ve been reintroduced into the larger, active database.
What about companies selling services and not product? How those companies take advantage of this type of system?
What about companies selling services and not product? How those companies take advantage of this type of system?
There are a lot of ways to use this and I solute Silverpop for totally standing behind the notion of placing control into the subscribers hands. In the retail environment for instance, if someone recently made a purchase, they may want a break from retail offers and opt to snooze awhile at the same time continue receiving newsletters. I think this is awesome. There are a ton of ways I can think of to use this to boost overall subscriber retention and create increased conversions and revenue Way to go Silverpop
There are a lot of ways to use this and I solute Silverpop for totally standing behind the notion of placing control into the subscribers hands. In the retail environment for instance, if someone recently made a purchase, they may want a break from retail offers and opt to snooze awhile at the same time continue receiving newsletters. I think this is awesome. There are a ton of ways I can think of to use this to boost overall subscriber retention and create increased conversions and revenue Way to go Silverpop