Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / How Email Design Affects Unsubscribe Rates
Transcript
- Lucas: So let me ask you this: when was the last time you unsubscribed from an email list not because of the content, but because of how the email actually looked? Luna: Honestly, a lot. There was this one retailer — I won't name them — but every email was a wall of tiny images, no alt text, and the text was this light gray on white. I couldn't read it. Lucas: Right. And I think we underestimate how much design drives that click. There's a study from Litmus a couple years ago — I'm going from memory — that said nearly 70% of subscribers will delete an email if it doesn't render well on mobile. But it goes beyond rendering. Luna: What do you mean? Lucas: I mean the layout itself — the visual hierarchy, the density of information, the placement of the unsubscribe link — all of it communicates something to the reader. If it's cluttered, it feels spammy. If the unsubscribe is hard to find, people get frustrated and mark you as spam instead. Luna: Yeah, that makes sense. Actually, a friend of mine — Lewis, he runs email for a mid-size e-commerce brand — told me about a redesign they did last year. They cut their unsubscribe rate by 22 percent just by switching to a single-column layout and adding more white space. Lucas: 22 percent? That's huge. And single-column is a no-brainer for mobile, but so many brands still use these multi-column layouts that look great on desktop but turn into a mess on a phone. Luna: Exactly. Lewis said their open rate actually went up too, because the subject line was more visible in the preview pane. They had been hiding key content in a side column that most email clients clipped. Lucas: That's the thing — email design affects every metric downstream. If the layout doesn't guide the eye from the preheader to the headline to the call to action, you lose people before they even start reading. Luna: So what are the top design mistakes that drive unsubscribes? I want to make sure we're not making them. Lucas: Sure. First: too many images, and no fallback text. If images don't load, the email is blank. And people don't wait — they hit unsubscribe. Second: tiny font sizes. I've seen emails with 10px body text. That's a nightmare for anyone over forty, and frankly for anyone on a small screen. Luna: Right. And there's a third one: hiding the unsubscribe link. Some brands make you scroll to the bottom, use a tiny gray font, and surround it with 20 other links. That's a great way to get a spam complaint. Lucas: Which is worse than an unsubscribe. A spam complaint hurts your sender reputation. So legibility and clear navigation aren't just nice to haves — they're deliverability factors. Luna: And what about color contrast? I see a lot of brands using light gray on white, like I mentioned. That's hard to read, especially outdoors. Lucas: Definitely. Accessibility guidelines recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text. But most email marketers don't check. It's one of those things that seems minor until you have a subscriber who can't read your email and just leaves. Luna: So the redesign Lewis did — he also moved the unsubscribe link to the top of the email, in a subtle but readable font. And he said complaints dropped by 30 percent. Lucas: That's counterintuitive to some marketers — they think making unsubscribe harder keeps subscribers. But it actually backfires. If you make it easy to leave, the people who stay are more engaged. Luna: Exactly. And the people who were going to leave anyway? They just mark you as spam when they can't find the link. Lucas: Another element: the preheader. Most brands leave it as the default 'view in browser' or something generic. But a well-written preheader can set expectations and reduce confusion, which reduces unsubscribes. Luna: Totally. If the preheader says 'Your weekly rundown of marketing news', and the email delivers that, people are less likely to feel misled. Lucas: And then there's the balance of text to images. If an email is mostly images, screen readers can't read it, and people with slow connections see nothing. That's a big accessibility miss. Luna: We talked about accessibility before, but it's worth revisiting. A clean design is inherently more accessible. Larger fonts, good contrast, descriptive alt text — they all make the email usable for more people. Lucas: Right. And usable emails get read. Unreadable emails get trashed. So the design choices you make directly affect your retention. Luna: One more thing: personalization tokens in the subject line or body can sometimes backfire if they look clunky. I've seen emails where the merge tag didn't populate, so it says 'Hi ' — that looks terrible and erodes trust. Lucas: That's a fail on the technical side, but also a design fail. Because if the email looks half-finished, it signals that the sender doesn't care. And if they don't care, why should you stay subscribed? Luna: So to summarize: single column, readable font size, high contrast, alt text on images, preheader that matches content, and an easy to find unsubscribe link. Lucas: Plus, test it on multiple devices and email clients. What looks great in Gmail on desktop might look broken in Outlook. And always send a test to yourself on mobile. Luna: You know, if these conversations help you avoid mistakes like that, and you find them useful, we keep the show ad-free thanks to listener support. If you want to help keep it going, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but it does help. Lucas: Yeah, that's true. And it's listeners like you who suggest topics, like this one on design. So thanks for that. Coming back to the design point — one thing I'd add is that you should also consider the psychology of white space. Luna: White space makes it feel more premium, less desperate. It gives the reader room to breathe. Lucas: Exactly. A cluttered email feels like a used car lot. A clean email feels like a well-edited newsletter. And that feeling alone can be the difference between a subscriber staying or leaving. Luna: Alright, I'm going to audit my own email templates this week. I'm definitely guilty of some of these mistakes. Lucas: Me too. I think we all are. But the good news is, these fixes are relatively simple — a few hours of work can cut your unsubscribe rate significantly.