andrewteman.org

Look, being in online marketing, I will admit that I do get some level of pleasure when I find a way to keep a customer engaged just a little bit longer than they want to, in hopes that they will convert on an offer, or complete some action that I am nudging them towards. I get it. I understand the game, and I play it fairly well.

I guess you could file this under “you reap what you sow”, but just indulge me here for a second while I point out something that drives me nuts.

Multi-step email marketing unsubscribes, or “double opt-outs”.

Which I suppose is a bit of a misnomer, in that I am not REALLY double opting out in the true sense of the phrase, but I just kind of like the sounds of it, and have mentally tagged any email unsubscribe process that involves more than a single click, as double opt-out.

Today’s offender is Barnes and Noble, an offline book retailer, who’s online component operates via Amazon.com’s framework, and through whom at some point, I made a purchase…and when I made that purchase, was added to their newsletters….which come at the clip of about 3 per week. Annoying. I want to unsubscribe.

I scroll to the bottom of the email, and look for the link, and the language surrounding said link, makes my heart sink.

How to Unsubscribe:
This message was delivered to ********@gmail.com on November 21, 2006. To unsubscribe or change your options in receiving messages like this one, please visit bn.com, log in to your account, and follow the instructions under Change Your Communication Preferences. http://email.bn.com/cgi-bin6/DM/y/********

Ugh. Here is what it should say.

To unsubscribe, click here http://email.bn.com/cgi-bin6/DM/y/********

This is annoying on a few levels. For one, I don’t want to deal with “my account” or updating my “communication preferences”. I want to get off of the email list, that I was kind of sneakily signed up for when I made a single purchase some 18 months ago. Furthermore…I don’t know my username and password….like I said, I made a single purchase a long time ago. Now the clicks to unsubscribe are adding up. Let’s count:

1. Click the link in the email to go to a login page.
2. From login page, click “forgot password” to go to a password recovery page.
3. Enter the email address and click “send password”.
4. Back to email and click password reset link.
5. Answer security question to create new password.
6. Enter new password.
7. Confirm new password.
8. Login with new password.
9. Click “communication preferences”
10. Uncheck the five radio buttons and checkboxes it takes to be removed completely.
11. Click save.

Eleven steps to unsubscribe. Unacceptable. Now granted, had I remembered the password from nearly two years back, I could have cut out six steps, but still….that would have been a five step unsubscribe process. It should be a single link.