A Gift for Your Subscribers: Special Opt-Outs

Alison Goldberg AUTHOR: Alison Goldberg
May 03, 2022
3 Min Read
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At CI, we often talk about the importance of creating timely, relevant, and authentic content. It’s created at the intersection of what’s going on at your organization and what is going on in your audience’s lives. This is a huge reason we create the Social Content Calendar for Arts Marketers as a resource.

One of the most personal channels arts marketers have at our disposal? Email. With Mother’s Day right around the corner, it might seem like the perfect opportunity to send an email highlighting concert tickets or gift shop items as “perfect gifts” for mom. Here’s a recent example I received:

Met Opera
Subject Line: Mother’s Day is May 8–Find the Perfect Gift for Mom

 

Although it is a timely angle, it’s key to understand when our audiences might not want to hear what we have to say. So if you have content planned around Mother’s Day coming up (along with Father’s Day soon after), consider sending a preemptive email to your audiences offering them the opportunity to opt-out of those particular messages.

Consider How Messages will Land

For some, these types of holidays can be fraught for many reasons—lost parents, fertility struggles, and complicated family relationships, among others. Some find these emails triggering, and receiving them could potentially lead users to unsubscribe from all your emails permanently. Your impacted audience will appreciate the small gesture of being able to opt-out of this messaging.

  • Update Preferences: Ask your audience to update their preferences, so you can suppress them from emails with this messaging.
  • Sign Up for An Opt-Out List: Ask users to add themselves to a sign-up list—you will just suppress this list instead of including them.
  • Be Straightforward and Clear: This is not an opportunity for a sales message but a way to show you care for your audience.

Below are some excellent examples for inspiration:

Jeni’s Ice Cream
Subject Line: Don’t want Mother’s Day emails?

Jenis Ice Cream Email

Pineapple Collaborative
Subject Line: Don’t want Mother’s Day emails?

Pinneaple Collaborative

Canva
Subject Line: Want to opt-out of Mother’s Day emails?

Canva Email