It’s time for marketers to be pro-active and do more than just having a generic ‘Sign-up for our newsletter’ option on thier homepage, buried away where no-one will pay attention. Here are reasons why customers will sign-up to your emails.
You tricked them!
There are still marketers who hide opt-in boxes or indeed don’t even ask and just opt-in every email addresses submitted on any form. Not only is this illegal, it also creates issues around trust and may cause you to have delivery issues in the future.
Incentive for doing so
Take a look at Booking.com for their method for capturing email addresses on their homepage. First of all, they use a 10% exclusive discount above the fold, and if you scroll to the bottom you will see an alternative approach using the allure of potential 50% discounts.
In order for the customer to provide their details there needs to be a value exchange, and this is the most simplistic way of providing that value.
Trust
No-one is keen on providing their personal details if they think they are going to be sold on, or simply be inundated with too many emails. Moneysavingexpert spend a huge amount of time trying to acquire email addresses and overcome trust issues through their use of Martin Lewis activating as a trustworthy figure, talking about the 10M people who already get it, links to FAQ’s and even an option to unsubscribe.
You ask too much
We all want to send more relevant emails and preference data is a great starting point. However there are limits to how much you can ask for, and every question will lead to form drop off. Consider asking for just basic details, maybe just email address and then focus on getting the preferences on the ‘thanks’ page.
You asked proactively, at the right time
Interrupting customer journeys is a controversial area – you can distract them from the ultimate goal of purchasing. However, if done right, lightboxes and modals asking for the email address can treble the volume you collect onsite. Just don’t do it while they are in the checkout area!
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