As you should already know, providing your customers with a clear cut method of unsubscribing from your marketing mailers is one of the most important aspects of email marketing. Not only does this help keep things friendly between you and your customers, it also keeps you off of the blacklists of ISPs who jealously guard their clients’ privacy like hungry junkyard dogs. But sometimes, using your email delivery software to give your customers alternatives is the best way to ensure they don’t stray too far.

How is that accomplished? Think about it. If you limit a harried email list subscriber’s options to IN or OUT, you’re also limiting your own ability to market effectively. Hiding the unsubscribe feature is not an option. So what about using your email delivery software to send a final message to all unsubscribes, informing them that they can stay in touch by joining your Facebook group or signing up for your blog’s RSS feed? This might serve as a perfect alternative for those customers who don’t wish to receive periodic emails but would still take the opportunity to continue following your company. It may even result in their eventually signing back up for your e-newsletter.

In the end, it’s this option that could make all the difference between losing a customer for good and keeping them around on a semi-frequent basis. If given the choice between the two, the latter is always the better option.