Looks like we’re doing pretty well at the moment (whew!) but if your number is below your target rate, there are a couple of things you can try. You’ll want to be sure that your signup forms are visible in all of your different “homes” online. If you have a Facebook fan page, be sure to add a signup form to your Facebook page using our Signup App.There’s also a plugin available for your WordPress blog.
You could also create a fun giveaway to create some buzz around the list and give people incentive to sign up. Here’s an example of the giveaway we did with DesignLab to help grow their list. (ProTip: People love plushies almost as much as they love t-shirts!)

If your unsubscribe rate is starting to dip too far below your target, you may want to take a look at some things:

How often are you sending? It could be that your list is losing momentum if you’re emailing too infrequently, or they’re feeling overwhelmed by emails if you’re sending too often. If you started out as a weekly newsletter, but want to bump it up to daily sends, you want to be careful about how you do it.

Is your content relevant? Are you sending the type of content that your subscribers were expecting when they originally signed up, or have you changed drastically from that initial subject? Straying too far from the original topic without warning can cause attrition. If folks signed up initially to get advice about modifying classic cars, they might not appreciate diary entries from your dog, no matter how cute he is.

Finally, you may also take a look at your unsubscribe survey results to get an idea of why people are leaving the list. And remember, our smarter bounce management methods keep you from losing too many valid subscribers at a time.

Happy list growing!

This post will explain the easy steps for setting up a MailChimp “WebHook” that will send the unsubscribe notifications, as well as the Visualforce page that will listen for the notifications and update any relevant Salesforce records.

Pre-Requisites

The techniques described in this article require the following:

• Salesforce administrator privileges
• Salesforce Enterprise (including non-profit), Unlimited or Developer edition

Setup

We’re going to configure MailChimp to send a message to Salesforce automatically, whenever someone unsubscribes from our MailChimp mailing list. That message will be received by a web page, hosted by salesforce.com, that will query related Salesforce CRM contact or lead records, and mark any as “opted out” of future email communication.

In practical terms, we’ll set up a MailChimp “WebHook” to send the message, and a Salesforce Visualforce page that will receive the message, and then trigger some custom Apex code to query and update any lead or contact records that have the same email address as that of the unsubscribed list member.

If you’d like to explore an already-configured Salesforce environment, including all the elements described in this article, you can login here

Step 1: Install the Salesforce AppExchange Package

The code described in this article can be installed as a package from the Salesforce AppExchange – click to install now (requires login, opens in new window).

The package contains a Visualforce page named “Unsubscribe,” an Apex class named “UnsusbscribeController,” and a static resource named “WebHooksConfig.”

If you’re interested in the geeky, technical details: the Apex class acts as the Visualforce page’s custom controller (and includes unit test code). The static resource is an XML file that holds a “secret” code designed to enhance the security of the communication between MailChimp and Salesforce (more about that below). You can view the source code for these items:

• View source of UnsubscribeController (Apex class, Visualforce page controller)
• View source of Unsubscribe (Visualforce page)
• View source of WebHooksConfig (static resource, XML)

Step 2: Create a Force.com Site

As you may know, Force.com Sites are a relatively-new feature, and allow you to set up public-facing, data-driven websites, hosted by salesforce.com. We’re going to set up a Force.com Site whose only purpose is to receive the unsubscribe message posted by MailChimp. Therefore, the page isn’t really “public-facing,” at least not for the human public, but is designed only to listen for WebHook messages from MailChimp and act on them accordingly.

You can set up your Force.com Site by going to Setup | Develop | Sites, or by following: this link (requires login, opens in new window).

If you’re creating your first Force.com Site, you’ll be asked to register a Force.com domain name; register any valid domain name that you like, and which is available, then proceed to the next step.

Press the “New” button to create a new Force.com Site and enter the following values – you can leave all the other fields as-is:

• Site Label: webhooks
• Site Name: Webhooks
• Site Description: Handles data posted from MailChimp Webhooks
• Default Web Address: webhooks
• Active: Checked

Step 3: Add the Visualforce page “Unsubscribe” to your Force.com Site

Click the “Edit” button in the section titled “Site Visualforce Pages” and add the page titled “Unsubscribe,” which you installed with the private AppExchange package. (See notation “A” in the screenshot below for the location of the “Edit” button. If you need to get to this page, click Setup | Develop | Sites and then the label of your Force.com Site.)

Edit Force.com Site details - click Setup | Develop | Sites

Step 4: Configure Site Permissions

Press “Public Access Settings” (see notation “C” in the screen shot above) and scroll down to “Field Level Security.” Make sure that both the Contact and Lead objects’ “Email Opt Out” field are marked “Visible.” Next scroll down to “Standard Object Permissions” and make sure that “Read” is checked for “Leads.”

Note that if you want to view the “Email Opt Out” field in your contact or lead detail page, you may have to add it to the page layout, if it’s not there already.

Step 5: Determine the URL

Note your Site’s “Secure Web Address” (see notation “B” in the screen shot above). If we append “Unsubscribe,” we have the URL for our Visualforce page that listens for the messages sent by MailChimp to Salesforce. For example, the URL for my listener page is:

https://mcsf-developer-edition.na7.force.com/webhooks/Unsubscribe

The nature of Webhooks requires that our listener page be on a public-facing website, unprotected by a password or session ID. It is possible, then, that someone who knew the URL and the format of the data, could post fake information, thereby inducing us to update our records. In this case, that would mean tricking us into marking a lead or contact as having opted-out of email communication.

We can enhance security somewhat by requiring that a “secret” code be passed to our listener page along with the WebHook data. If that code were missing or incorrect, Salesforce would simply do nothing, and the caller would be none the wiser.

The AppExchange package that you installed in the first step is pre-configured with a “secret” code of _I_Love_MailChimp_. You can change this code to another value that only you’ll know by editing the static resource file that you installed with the AppExchange package. The static resource is a very brief XML document, including the line below; to use your own code, just modify the “code” attribute:

<webhook id="unsubscribe" code="_I_Love_MailChimp_"/>

We have to pass this “secret” code to the listener page as part of the URL. Therefore, the complete URL for my page that’s listening for MailChimp WebHook messages is:

https://mcsf-developer-edition.na7.force.com/webhooks/Unsubscribe?code=_I_Love_MailChimp_

Yours will be different, of course, at least at the start of the URL.

Step 6: Set up the MailChimp Webhook

The final step is to set up the MailChimp Webhook; that is, we need to tell MailChimp the URL of the listener page that is waiting for messages about unsubscribed list members. If you haven’t already, log in to your MailChimp account, and navigate to the list you want to configure. Select “List Tools” and then “WebHooks.”

In the “webhook URL” field enter the URL as described in step 5 above. Under the section labeled “What type of updates should we send?” check “Unsubscribes,” and check all the boxes under the section labeled “Only send updates when a change was made by …” Save your changes

Ta Da!

That’s it! Now MailChimp will automatically notify Salesforce whenever someone unsubscribes from your mailing list. Salesforce, in turn, will search for lead or contact records that have a matching email address and mark them as “Opted Out” of future email communication.

Useful Links

• Login to Salesforce developer edition configured for this article
• Visualforce page source code
• Apex controller class source code
• Install code from Salesforce AppExchange
• What are WebHooks?
• About Force.com Sites

While this feature is a step in the right direction, it clearly doesn’t help our international users to only have the form available in English. That’s why we’re asking for your help with translations in the 30+ languages we support elsewhere in the app.

Just head over to the form we’ve set up, select the language you can help translate, and enter the appropriate text for the six multiple choice selections. We’ll be compiling and comparing these for the next couple months and will keep you posted when they go live in the app. Also: If you’re willing to and have time, we’d love your help translating the text elements of our new polling feature so that we can offer that in multiple languages as well. You’ll see these fields at the bottom of the unsubscribe survey translation form.

Note: The reactivation process only works for users who have a history of sending with MailChimp. If you import a list and go through this process before sending with MailChimp, chances are that we’ll unsubscribe more of your list than you’d like. That’s because there’s a rating system in the app that tracks subscriber activity and engagement, and the engagement data isn’t applied until you’ve sent a few campaigns to your list. The more history you have with sending through MailChimp, the more accurate our engagement data will be.

Last week, Ben blogged about how MailChimp allows you to segment your mailing list by activity. He gave several good examples of how you can use the tool effectively, but I’d like to show you how to use it to reactivate inactive subscribers and remove subscribers who don’t want to be on your list.

If you’ve ever received a subscription to a magazine, you know that as you approach the end of your subscription, you start receiving letters in the mail about renewing your subscription. And it’s never just one: You get a series of letters, all designed to move you to action. It may seem like overkill, but there’s good research showing that a renewal series is more effective at retaining subscribers than a single renewal notice. Renewals can get lost, thrown away, or forgotten in a pile of mail. Sending a series of renewals increases the likelihood that a subscriber will renew if he desires, or that he’ll make an active decision not to renew.

Keeping someone on your email list may not mean that you’ll see additional subscription or advertising revenue. However, if the overall engagement of your list affects its deliverability, it makes sense to confirm that inactive subscribers want to be on your list, and to remove subscribers that have lost interest. Plus, if you have a large number of inactive subscribers on your list, you may be spending more money on your campaigns than is necessary. The magazine-renewal principle applies to email lists, too: Email can easily get lost in a cluttered inbox, and sending a series of reactivation notices ensures that the subscriber is aware that his subscription is expiring.

To set up a reactivation campaign in MailChimp, create a new campaign. When you get to the list screen, segment your list like this:

Make sure both conditions apply by selecting “match ALL of the following”. We recommend that you target subscribers who have been inactive for at least six months. To do that, set the two conditions like I’ve done above. Member ratings of 1 and 2 respectively represent subscribers who have soft bounced and subscribers who have never opened or clicked email you’ve sent them.

When you’ve successfully segmented  your list, you’re ready to begin writing the text of your reactivation campaign. For the second and third emails in the series, you can segment your list the same way. Subscribers that have reactivated won’t match the conditions of the segment, so you don’t need to worry about accidentally sending them subsequent renewal notices.

What does a reactivation series actually look like? I’ve created a very generic series below. You’re welcome to copy or revise this text for your own reactivation campaigns.

EMAIL #1

Subject: Do You Want to Renew Your Subscription?

*|FNAME| *,

You signed up to receive news and information from *|LIST:COMPANY| *. Would you like to renew your subscription?

Please take a moment to indicate your preference below:

<a href=”link to Thank You page”>YES, I’d like to continue receiving email from *|LIST:COMPANY| *.</a>

<a href=”*|UNSUB| *”>NO, I no longer wish to receive email from *|LIST:COMPANY| *.</a>

Thanks,
*|LIST:COMPANY| *

EMAIL #2

Subject: Your Subscription to *|LIST:COMPANY| *’s Newsletter Expires Soon

*|FNAME| *,

We haven’t heard from you about your subscription to *|LIST:COMPANY| *’s newsletter. If you want to be removed from our mailing list, you don’t need to do anything further. If you’d like to continue receiving news and information, please reply by clicking below:

<a href=”link to Thank You page”>YES, I’d like to continue receiving email from *|LIST:COMPANY| *.</a>

Thanks,
*|LIST:COMPANY| *

EMAIL #3

Subject: Your Subscription to *|LIST:COMPANY| *’s Newsletter Has Expired

*|FNAME| *,

Thanks for your interest in receiving *|LIST:COMPANY| *’s newsletter. Your subscription has expired and you have been removed from our mailing list.

If you’d like to renew your subscription now or in the future, click the link below:

<a href=”link to Sign Up page”>YES, I’d like to receive news and information from *|LIST:COMPANY| *.</a>

Sincerely,
*|LIST:COMPANY| *

Wrapping Up

As you can see, the first notice just asks if the subscriber would like to continue receiving email. The second notice acknowledges the first and only provides a positive action; the subscriber will be unsubscribed if no action is taken. The third email confirms that no action has been taken and the subscriber will be unsubscribed, while providing one final opportunity to reactivate.

Immediately after you send Email #3, export the 2-star segment and use our bulk unsubscribe tool to unsubscribe everyone that was sent Email #3. This will clear all the inactive addresses from your list. Anyone who receives Email #3 and wants to stay subscribed will have a final opportunity to re-subscribe by clicking the subscribe link in Email #3.

Another option would be to export the 2-star segment between sending Email #2 and Email #3, and to create a temporary list you can use to send Email #3. With this option, you can go ahead and bulk unsubscribe the remaining 2-star addresses from your primary list before sending Email #3. Delete the temporary list after you send email #3 and you’re all done!

Concerning the YES and NO options within the emails: The YES option for Emails #1-2 can link to any page on your site, because simply clicking on the link will increase the subscriber’s rating to 3 stars and remove him from the inactive segment. Ideally, you should link to a dedicated page that thanks your subscribers for renewing. Note that you can’t link to MailChimp’s “thank you” page; the link should go to a page on your own site. Also, it can take up to 24 hours for member ratings to change after subscribers click the link in your reactivation email. The YES option for Email #3 should go to your MailChimp sign up form, which will provide your readers an opportunity to be added back to your list. The NO option should contain your unsubscribe link, which you can copy above or from any previous campaign you sent.

Unsubscribe

Regardless of the frequency of your normal campaigns, we recommend sending the reactivation series over three weeks, with one email per week. That way, you won’t overwhelm your subscribers with email, but the series will be frequent enough that you’ll keep the reactivation request fresh on their minds.

You’ll want to be sure you email compliance@mailchimp.com so they have a heads up that you’re sending a reactivation email. In the event that your campaign generates high unsubscribe rates, prior notification will help them be aware of what you’re doing and can help you avoid the account becoming temporarily disabled. When you’ve completed the series and allowed a week for subscribers to reply to the final email, go into your MailChimp list and remove the subscribers that still fit the inactive segment.

The problem was that these spam filters were also automatically clicking our one-click unsubscribe link. While it’s not a widespread problem (yet), we have started to receive calls about unwanted unsubscribes. We traced most back to Trend Micro.

Anyway, most people recommended a 2-step unsubscribe process in response to this. And that’s a logical recommendation.

But whenever I actually work up the energy to click an unsubscribe link, I want off. NOW. Taking me to a landing page where I have to click yet another button—or even worse—enter my email address again, is not acceptable. It just looks pathetic. Like it’s a lame attempt to keep me trapped on the list. Especially when the confirmation buttons are confusing:

“Yes, I don’t want to unsubscribe” and “No, I want to stay on the list.”

Our programmer (The Chad) came up with a novel workaround, allowing us to keep the one-click convenience, while using the 2-step as a fallback…

How it works

When you click a MailChimp unsubscribe link, it takes you to a landing page that has a JavaScript redirect on it. If you’re a human, and you’re using a browser with JavaScript enabled (most browsers), you won’t see this landing page. It’ll just say “You’ve been unsubscribed.” Basically, it’ll work like a one-click unsub link.

But if you’re a spam filter, you probably don’t have JavaScript enabled. So the redirect won’t kick in, which will leave the spam filter sitting at the landing page, requiring the 2nd click to confirm your unsubscribe. If you’re one of those cavemen using a browser with JavaScript disabled, that’s fine—it falls back to the 2-step process.