The objective was to create an Unsubscribe Page that would encourage users to stick around and even reengage with us if possible. The previous Unsubscribe Page was basic HTML, with longwinded and confusing text, and nonintuitive buttons. Anyone looking to leave the mailing list, would only be further encoraged to do so when they saw such an unprofessional looking page.

 

What I wanted to do was create a page that was funny yet pulled at the heartstrings. You want viewers to feel that we are truely saddened to see them leave but you need to be careful not to make them feel like you are dumping a guilt trip on them. That would only make them feel resentful, hence the need for a lighthearted feel. Ideally you want to get a chuckle with just a touch of guilt to encourage them to stay -- which is a delicate balence to reach.

 

I tasked our design team to come up with ideas, a few each, on a Friday when evenone feels a bit playful anyway and to send them to me. Meanwhile, I assigned a programer with the task of building the page functionality. In addition to removing people from the Database, I wanted the page to have more buttons and to track more data about what happens when viewers reach the page.   

 

I went trough the design ideas. Although none were home runs, I choose one I knew I could flesh out. I give the character more personality and fleshed out his background. Finally, I then wrote the text and handed it over to the programmer to implement. With in a week of seeing the need for a new Unsubscribe page, we had this new page live and saw an immediate 12% drop in unsubscribes.