Silverpop found in a recent study that only 12 percent of companies gave customers the chance to change their preferences in addition to simply opting-out.

The study was surprising because while many marketers are seeking other tactics to maintain and grow their lists, an email preference center is a great and easy way to be CAN-SPAM compliant while at the same time add subscribers and prevent defectors.

Simms Jenkins of BrightWave Marketing’s founder has ten ways to prevent unnecessary email unsubscribes. See these as the ingredients of a strong preference center:

• Complete description of email offerings. Make sure you have an overview of what they should expect, the title, description and frequency of the emails.
• Sample of each newsletter. Give subscribers a chance to view a sample newsletter.
• Profile/email address change. Allow them to quickly add or change their profile.
• Unsubscribe all emails/a la carte. Allow users to unsubscribe from one or all of the newsletters from a company.
• Promotional offerings. Entice subscribers when they opt-in with free product or service to raise awareness. Be savvy about how and what you cross-promote.
• Viral component. Make your subscribers feel like they are a vital part of the community and encourage them to help grow it.
• Revenue/partner opportunities. Place a select partner offer or promotion box during or after new subscriptions if they are related to your website or newsletter.
• Privacy policy. Always have a link to your company’s Privacy Policy where your subscribers are subscribing, adding/editing profile pages, etc.
• Customer service/Contact us. This is as important as the Privacy Policy.
• Subscribe leaving/Last chance/Stay with us offer. Offer them the chance to stay as a subscriber by providing a “carrot”, subscribe to another newsletter or service or simply ask for the reason why they unsubscribe.

These tactics are worth as much thought as you would for a site redesign. Make sure they are accessible on your website and emails, not just when someone wants to opt out.

My comments: Unfortunately, while not all email service providers allows such a flexibility in email preference center. Most of them don’t have this feature, while others simply have the option to change or edit data and provide a reason to unsubscribe.

Some of these tactics are very easy to implement so I would guess that if enough people beg for the features, the ESP is going to integrate them into their service.