To some extent this depends upon what email subscribers expect when signing up. If it’s just to get hold of a free lead magnet using a single opt-in list, then I’d suspect there’d be a higher unsubscribe rate regardless of the content. However, if new subscribers are made aware of what they’re signing up for (eg. daily emails of a conversational nature with tips and some recommendations) and double opt-in is used, unsub rates would likely be much lower. But if anyone gets mad with the content / link relationship (or sometimes lack thereof), their unsubscriptions are welcome and helpful for maintaining a clean, responsive list.
Matt

Hi Janet

Thank you for that great comment!

The psychological mechanism of “opening the loop” with cliffhangers in every email, creates an ongoing, endless (soap opera style) narrative, keeping subscribers curiously opening your emails and they get to know, like and trust you.

How you relate your cliffhanger stories to your offers, or whatever you’re linking to, is down to your creativity, wit and humor. They could even be completely unrelated! For instance, simply closing with; “…Oh and by the way… this really caught my attention today (click here). Let me know what you think.”

Once you have subscribers enjoying your little day to day stories and the lessons they may teach, their like of, and trust in you will naturally make them more likely to look at whatever you choose to link to in your emails. If you can relate these little stories to the content or offers you’re linking to in some creative or comedic way, so much the better of course.

All the best
Matt