Proactively offer a partial opt-out on promotions to reduce unsubscribes.

The risk with sending promotional emails to your list is that many will unsubscribe. Keep them around by proactively offering a partial unsubscribe front-and-center in the email.

When Alex Hillman of Stack the Bricks sent out a Black Friday promotion, he knew he might lose subscribers. So he nipped it in the bud by proactively offering an opt-out, specifically for promotions. This decreased unsubscribes for that email by 25%, meaning that he kept about 140 subscribers who otherwise might have bailed. You can check out the exact words he used here — it was direct and friendly, giving it a nice personal touch. Right at the top of the email, he acknowledged that they may not want promotions and gave them a link to opt out without unsubscribing from the list entirely. This approach can be used instead of (or in addition to) preference centers.