That’s right: encourage people to unsubscribe by putting a second unsubscribe link up the top of your email. Like I do:
unsubscribe up top
I first argued for this option two years ago (though it wasn’t my original idea) and others have since explored the issues, notably Loren McDonald and Chad White.
Spam reports are a big contributor to your reputation as a sender of email and thus your ability to get delivered.
The theory is that an unsubscribe link at the top of your email encourages people to use it who might otherwise use the “report spam” button to achieve the same aim.
And it works for some:
* Groupon revealed that adding an extra unsubscribe link like this did in fact reduce spam complaints by 30%.
* ESP StreamSend reported complaint drops of up to 75% for clients using this practice.
* Conversion Voodoo added the link up top and noted, “we’ve seen slightly higher unsubscribe rates, but substantially lower instances of spam complaints”
* The University of Pittsburgh took this step as well and said that “…since moving it, we’ve seen our number of “Mark as Spam” complaints drop significantly.”
Others are less positive. Commenting on Loren’s article, Jason Henderson noted, “I tested putting the unsubscribe link at the very top a few years ago for one company, and it was a nightmare. Many people actually started clicking on it by accident…”
So is it really a good idea?
I believe it works much like a guarantee. But the majority of other commentators take a more circumspect view.
The consensus seems to be that it’s worth doing whenever you stray from the best practice path. For example, when you’ve had a longish break between email sends or your email’s relevancy isn’t as good as it could be.
Of course, if you’re worried about spam complaints, then you need to address the cause. In such cases, the top unsubscribe link just tackles the symptoms of sub-optimal email practices.