E-mail Marketing: Three Tips to Improve Opt-in E-mail Results

No doubt you collect e-mail addresses and other consumer information on your Web site. Perhaps you have a box on your homepage offering a free newsletter, or a special page that offers discounts if shoppers supply personal data. Regardless of the method you use to collect this information, you should send an immediate welcome message to these new names, note officials at Internet marketing firm Topica in a recent whitepaper. Following are Topica’s tips for maximizing the effectiveness of these Web prospects:

1. Gather the correct information up front. In an effort to acquire as many prospects as possible, many online merchants ask only for e-mail addresses when consumers sign up to receive e-mails. While this gets more subscribers into your database more quickly — and you always can ask for more information later — the potential customers are much less engaged with your brand because they’ve given up little about themselves. Asking for more information, such as product affinities or home addresses, can provide prospects who are more receptive to your marketing efforts, Topica’s officials write. Test whether your lead generation rates increase or decrease in response to more or less information from your prospects. “If the numbers aren’t matching the [program’s] goals set, then the forms can be made less or more restrictive,” the whitepaper notes.

2. Set expectations for the type and frequency of communications. Whether you choose to reveal this information to your prospects on the sign-up page or in your first welcome message, letting them know how often to expect an e-mail from you is the first step in establishing a rapport.

3. Remind prospects they requested your messages. Because your prospects daily receive myriad message in their inboxes, it’s important to let them know they’ve opted in to receive messages from you in the very first communication you send. To ensure they really want to receive your e-mails, provide them with a chance to confirm their e-mail subscriptions in the welcome e-mail, Topica points out.

For Topica’s whitepaper “The Basics of Website Visitor Conversion,” visit http://www.topica.com/resources/downloads.html