Does Your Unsubscribe Page Look Like this?
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I was subscribed to a fairly complex step campaign from a company with a compelling offer. The emails were plain text but had great long copy. Each time I took an action on their site, I got different content based on my activity (or inactivity). Today I received a well-written email but I decided to forgo the offer and unsubscribe from the emails.
Here’s how they said goodbye:

Ouch! This is the message behind this, “you stopped playing so we’re on to the next sucker… see ya!”
Only without the “see ya!”.
Three Components For Your Unsubscribe Landing Page:
- Offer publication-based unsubscribes instead of a master unsubscribe. It may be as simple as, “You’ve been unsubscribed from this email campaign, here are some other publications you might be interested in:” with an offer to opt-in to others. You may even try to tie an incentive to it.
- Ask Why! Why did they unsubscribe? Was it too many emails? Not enough? Not interested? No email campaign is perfect, how come you’re not asking how you can do better? Thank them for participating and apologize if they select a reason that says, “you suck!”.
- Use all that page real estate for other offers! Don’t throw a big white blank page at this person! They were there with interest and intent at one time or another (when they subscribed). Why not show off your latest products, services, whitepaper, etc.?
When I worked for ExactTarget, I implemented this generic example system wide (and marketing did the copy and design). The page has a thanks, a blurb about ExactTarget, a Personalized Demo link, as well as links to the rest of their site!
Sometimes the sale starts when the customer or prospect is walking out the door. You have an opportunity to make a lasting impression, don’t miss it with a blank page!

Douglas Karr
But I think it’s a good idea to revisit the page to see what they see and make sure it’s the message you want to leave them with.
Usually, if someone bothers to hit the unsubscribe link, it’s a done deal.
As far as a dialog that asks why the user is unsubscribing, I’d like to see some concrete stats about whether the user fills out the form and what they say.
Personally, when a “Why are you leaving” box or page loads after I’ve confirmed my wishes … I don’t even wait for the page to load before I hit the browser’s close button.
I agree that the unsubscribe is probably a done deal - my point is that you can continue to try and build a relationship with the person as well as provide them with alternative products or services.
In fact, I think a great way to handle a page like this is to monitor your analytics package and see how many folks are interacting AFTER the unsubscribe!
Thanks!
Doug