According to Unroll.me, which launched in June 2012, the site already has more than 100,000 subscribers, so how did they do it?
The answer, quite simply, is brilliant growth hacking.
The Growth Hacking Strategy
The growth hacking scheme behind Unroll.me is not fancy or complicated. However, it is extremely effective.
Unroll.me allows users to sign up and use the unsubscribe service for free for up to five “unsubscribe” email lists.
After unsubscribing from five lists, Unroll.me requires users to promote the company in some way—either posting on Facebook, sharing via email or sending a tweet.
This growth hack works because it is simple promotion and marketing.
However, it goes beyond simple marketing because it allows people to promote the product once they are happy with the service and want more, making the social-media share both an advertisement and an endorsement in one.
Unroll.me’s growth hacking system also works because it incorporates a smart UX.
Once you’ve unsubscribed from five email lists, the system prompts you to share your Unroll.me experience with others in exchange for more unsubscribes.
The site shows users a window where they can choose how they’ll share, and it doesn’t include a way for users to exit without also leaving their Unroll.me page until the info is shared.
A few users might find this annoying, but the company is smart in making it difficult for the user NOT to complete the share, ensuring that each customer is working to help promote the company.
Unroll.me continues to grow, as more and more satisfied customers share their experiences via social media, so much so that users want other social media outlets like LinedIn and Pinterest added to the share list.
What You Can Learn From Unroll.me
While Unroll.me continues to work out the kinks and develop a smoother system, it is providing some interesting and useful information.
According to the company, 1-800-Flowers is the most unsubscribed email list in the country, followed by TicketWeb, ProFlowers, Expedia, Active.com, Eventful, Oriental Trading, Shop It To Me, 1-800 Contacts and Party City.
The most rolled-up emails are Hulu, AmazonLocal, GoDaddy, Codecademy, Google Offers, Evernote, About.me, Groupon, and LivingSocial.
The company has also released information about the most popular subscriptions on the Internet—Facebook tops the list, followed by Google Plus, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Amazon, Pinterest, Apple, Groupon and Netflix.
Unroll.me not only helps users clean out their inboxes, it can also help businesses optimize their email marketing system and create the most desirable newsletters possible.