Where Do I Sign Up? 2

Last year I penned a piece on some ideas for a brand's email sign up page Where Do I Sign Up?.

Essentially it boiled down to

1. Make It Easy to find and do – ideally above the fold Top Right, but it’s worth testing this.
2. Provide only one newsletter subscription page that includes information about all available email newsletters
3. Clearly state when users have navigated to the newsletter sign-up process
4. Don’t pre-select any newsletters for users unless they have clicked on a link that named a specific newsletter
5. In multi-step processes, let users know how many steps remain
6. Explain the ‘value proposition’ – what’s in it for me?
7. Manage expectations – what will I get when and how often?
8. Have a clear Privacy Policy and if you use incentives - be transparent
9. Send a confirmation email, or maybe even the last newsletter – but tell the subscriber to look out for it
10. On the confirmation page / email get subscribers to add you to the contacts list!

But of course the brand website is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to where you can begin that email relationship. The opportunities are endless...well, almost....so here are a few suggestions

Point of Sale - A quick request of email address and name with POS integration to your email platform can result in a welcome email literally as the customer walks out of the door

QR Codes - These can just about be added to anything and everything with a link to the registration page. Imagine next time you're in the queue at the cinema..and next to you is poster with a QR code promoting the venue's newsletter?

Facebook - No need to direct fans away from Facebook either. Just register them for the email where they are. But maybe make it look a little more appealing than this Reiss attempt

Twitter - Perhaps promoting the email program with any welcome Tweet to new followers

SMS - Great if perhaps promote using outdoor media at large events such as football games. It's been a very successful tactic at Wembley I know.

Foursquare - Great opportunity to capture email addresses during check-in registrations for promotions and as part of any location based loyalty programme

Apps - An article in the Observer this weekend reminded me about the power of apps ( especially the momentum of Android). It's a real opportunity to grab an email address, especially when you consider that a large number of downloaded apps remain that...downloaded and unused!

Product Registration - We recently purchased a new washing machine and was amazed that at the point of registering my machine for it's guarantee, not no real argument was made for me to give an email address - at the very least offer to send me the Guarantee via email?

In-store - In a previous post I've mentioned this great piece of work by Best Buy and how they used interactive screens in store to capture email addresses from customers who were just about to walk out...and maybe buy elsewehere.

It's All About the Call To Action

Click to Enlarge

If you have ever read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell you will recall that talks about Thinking without Thinking and that most of the decisions we make are actually made in a matter of seconds.

This of course applies to how consumers react to emails. Their decision to move onto the next stage is made within 2 or 3 seconds, so we need to make sure that we do everything we can to ensure that we inspire action.

Litmus have produced this great infographic to give us the inspiration to do this better

Personalised Search a Customer Experience Too Far?

A recent study in the US from Pew, came up with consumers fears about search engines using past search to filter future results. In particular:

65% say it is bad.because it may limit the information you get online and what search results you see ..and indeed this may result in less innovation going forward. ( See the origin of the word Serendipity for a slight distraction)

73% say it would  NOT BE OKAY with a search engine keeping track of your searches and using that
information to personalize your future search results because you feel it is an invasion of privacy

A summary of the findings can be found on this pdf

Email Holding It's Own

 

According to SkyIQ and as reported on emarketer , email in the UK is still very popular with B2C marketers.

Despite the noise being made from the Social side of the fence, it still seems that delivering tailored content via email is key to many marketers marketing plans.

There is of course a view that Social has merely replaced TV as the broadcast channel of choice, without really being able to deliver the personal content that email can.

With the Ehrenberg Institute talking about less than 0.5% of 'fans' interacting with brands on Facebook and IBM talking about a considerable gap between what consumers want from social media interactions with a brand and what the brand thinks they want, there would seem to be still a great role for email - even if it is based on delivering promotions and discounts.

Connect Europe 2012

I'm looking forward to this years Connect Conference from eCircle.

In particular the Integrate sessions from We Are Social on Heinz's use of Social Media and ''Integrating Content, Social and Email'' by Dave Chaffey from Smart Insights

But most of all, am looking forward to attending a conference without the need to prepare a presentation!

Tall Latte - That's Not My Name

Excuse the blatant abuse of The Ting Tings' song title, but it did ring a bell when I received an email from Starbucks this morning.

From Wednesday 14th March, Starbucks Cafes will use your name in store as a way of making the experience much more personal.




The actual transcript is as follows


Have you noticed how everything seems a little impersonal nowadays?


We've all become user names, reference numbers and IP addresses.


That's why at Starbucks we've decided to do things differently.


From now on we won't refer to you as a latte, or a mocha, but instead as your folks intended, by your name.


Okay, we know it's only a little thing but hey, why don't we buy you a coffee on the morning of the 14th of March, and you can introduce yourself. 


We're Starbucks. 
Nice to meet you.


It is only a little thing but it does go back to the old days of customer service when the local shop keeper knew his customers by name and not by an id or loyalty card number. And of course knowing someone's name is a great asset when starting up a conversation

Admittedly Starbucks don't make my favourite espresso, but in terms of of how they are getting to grips with today's consumer ( iPhone payments, intelligent use of data with their Starbucks Rewards card and Crowdourcing through My Starbucks Idea ) they certainly get top marks for effort.

I for one will be in store 14th March for my free Tall Latte.

Let's hope there aren't too many Gianfrancos in the queue!

Have a Beer on Me

 

Buying someone a beer no longer requires you to be in the same pub or bar.

Tenfour have created Tweet-a-Beer to let you buy someone a beer long distance. 
Tweet-A-Beer uses Chirpify — an e-commerce platform that lets you buy, sell and donate money — to sync your Twitter account to your PayPal  account. You can send your friends $5 beer money.
It does now mean that it can still be your round even if you're not there.


Cheers!!

Integrating Social and Email

Interesting video conducted by my friend Jim Ducharme from Get Response with Sundeep Kapur of Email Yogi at the Marketing Sherpa Email Summit . 


Yogi answers this question: “What is the optimal way to integrate and connect the activity of your social and email marketing efforts?”


In particular Sundeep talks about using Social to get more customers, cut costs and improve email marketing results.

What Do Teens Really Think Of Email?

>Data and infographic by AWeber Email Marketing