Opt-Out Observations: What Marketers Can Discover For Better Email Engagement

Just as you can learn something about yourself based on your dislikes, marketers can learn a thing or two about their campaigns from discovering more about those who opt-out.

“The detailed exploration of these trends underscores the significance of understanding and redefining marketing signals that have previously only been viewed as negative,” writes Antonio Jones in the announcement of Optizmo Technologies’ sixth annual Email Opt-Out Infographic. “Such signals and insights equip marketers with valuable information on optimizing their email campaigns for better engagement and reduced opt-out rates.

The study revealed that North America, while still leading the planet in opt-out activity, dropped its percentage below 80% for the first time, making up just 76.42%. At the same time, the study found a “notable increase in the number of unsubscribe requests coming from Europe.” Beyond geography, more opt-outs came from iOS (42.37%) than any other operating system, from Safari Mobile (38.91%) than any other browser, and from Yahoo! (24.21%) than any other domain.

“We saw a big shakeup at the top of our list of email domains, with Gmail falling out of first place, taking the first drop in its percentage since 2019,” the report said of Gmail’s 18.62% showing. “Yahoo! reclaimed the top spot and interestingly, we saw an uptick in Hotmail activity  [17.60%].”

The hour between 9-10 a.m. (Central) remained the busiest opt-out hour, and while Optizmo says the most-active hour has fluctuated slightly over the last six years, it’s always been “within a 3 hour window.” Panning back, Monday was the busiest opt-out day (taking 16.36% of the activity compared to Friday’s 13.45%, the smallest weekday percentage) and February was the busiest opt-out month.

(Source: Optizmo)

“In 2022, we saw a large spike in opt-out activity to kick off the year in January and February,” the report says. “However, in 2023, we saw a return to more normal monthly activity. January and February remain the highest months of the year, as they typically do, but there was a general flattening across the remaining months, showing more of a consistent flow of activity every month.”

And while this data is limited to email marketing request data from within Optizmo’s system, the takeaway, Optizmo says, is the “staying power of email marketing,”

“Amidst all the upheaval email remained the go-to channel for digital marketers focused on performance and ROI.”