Don't be insulted. Don't take it as a personal rejection. But you can count on it happening without fail.

Each and every time you send a mailing to your opt-in list, a few of your subscribers will opt-out, meaning they will unsubscribe from your list. This doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of your newsletter or your offers.

It may simply mean that the recipient's inbox is so swamped with commercial messages that she can't find Grandma Sally's latest news from Tennessee.

Besides, if your opt-in system is healthy, working well, and gathering new subscribers as it should, this minor setback will not have much of an effect on your business as a whole.

On the other hand, your business will be best served if you take steps to minimize opt-outs as much as possible. While email marketing ethics demand that you keep the opt-out process simple, easy, and fool-proof, there are a number of things you can do to retain the subscribers that you have. Your goal is to prevent them from even thinking about clicking the unsubscribe link.

Here are a few suggestions.

1. - Strive to keep the content of your mailings fresh, interesting, and professionally formatted. Provide good information and other obvious benefits in each issue of your ezine or newsletter. Even solo ad mailings can be written to contain at least some educational value and useable information.

2. - Identify yourself in each mailing with a full signature line and URL to your website. Keep in mind that you probably are not the only marketer who is sending email to your recipient. Be sure that she can quickly and easily recognize your mailing, rather than mistake it for just another anonymous piece of junk email.

3. - Personalize each mailing with the recipient's first name whenever possible. Most list mailing softwares will enable this by the insertion of a simple piece of code into the body of the message. While most receipients know that the personalization is mechanical, it still has a desired effect.

4. - Frequently manage and edit the subscriber names on your list for proper capitalization and other formatting problems. A personalized greeting of 'Hello jerry027' will not build much in the way of reader rapport.

5. - Resist the urge to over-mail, no matter how desperate your need is to generate sales. Practically anyone will be quick to unsubscribe when she finds her inbox being slammed daily with your email messages.

6. - Make every effort to answer any and all personal inquiries from subscribers within 24 hours. Believe it or not, this isn't a common practice with many online marketers. Some tend to reply only when they smell money. A prompt answer to a subscriber's inquiry will not only demonstrate respect and consideration, it will set you and your business far above many others in the minds of your subscribers.

7. - Give, give, and then give some more. Of course, we're not suggesting that you give away your products or your services on a wholesale basis. Yet you must be willing to give of your time, your effort, and your committment to quality.

While it should be made clear and evident to all that you are operating a business for profit, your obligation to your subscribers is to cultivate a win/win situation for all involved. When you are successful in that effort, very few subscribers will even think for a moment about clicking your opt-out link.

Dan B. Cauthron has been involved in direct marketing more than 30 years. He offers FREE No Nonsense Marketing Advice and Tested Tools and Resources at: http://DanBCauthron.com

? Copyright 2005 - Dan B. Cauthron All Rights Reserved Worldwide