Where Do I Sign Up? 3

Or 'How do I start an Email Conversation?'

Where Do I Sign Up? talked about some best practice tips on making email registration easy, while Where Do I Sign Up? 2 highlighted some of the roads that can lead to registration.

I just want to look at the  post registration pages that show how different brand are confirming that you are now subscribed to their news letter or web service. I decided to look at the Top 10 Online Retailers in the UK based on the Experian Hitwise Research

Email Registration? What Email Registration?

Impossible to find for Apple - but that's Apple for you, playing by their own rules. Both John Lewis and  Play.com wanted me to create an account. Now I don't know how much effort that's going to be and as I only want your newsletter give me a break! 
It also shows that you are ignoring the number 1 channel for providing customers with offers. 77% of people in the Exact Target 2012 Channel Preference Study backed this up.

Simple Thank You

A truly appalling effort from M & S, in particular as they had made a very good attempt at offering a choice of newsletters to choose from

I'm assuming all Next customers are female. This is the image I got and I wasn't asked if I wanted male products or even if I was male.

Tesco did offer me a selection of newsletter variants of which I picked 2, but all I got was this

Argos went one better by telling me I would get my first email soon

Lack of relevance is the main reason people unsubscribe from your emails - and you've just walked straight into that bad habit either because you haven't tried to tailor my content or reflected my choices from the start. 45% of people unsubscribe because the content was not relevant to them ( Exact Target The Social Break Up)

Confirming Your Registration

ASOS?

And as I selected the Male variant, that was confirmed as well. This didn't get it's own page , however, just appearing at the bottom of the homepage so I could have easily missed it


I liked the Amazon version as it was linked to my account teling me how many newsletters I was signed up to, as well confirming the one I had just signed up to.

Nice touch with a link to other newsletters on offer again

Making Sure it hits your Inbox

Aside for the Experian list I recently registered for Minster FM's SoundCheck, a service that allows listeners essentially to influence what gets played on the station.

This was my registration confirmation page

Key Takes Outs

1. Creating an 'Account' sounds a bit like getting married when all I want is to to start to get to know you at this point in the relationship. So offering an email newsletter sounds like a much easier option
2. A simple thank you goes some way to starting the relationship but can certainly be improved upon
3. A Thank You page that has an image that has no relevance to me, isn't thanking me, its thanking them..the masses. Of course you're not going to help the case if you don't ask anything about me to start with. So ASOS beats Next. But  M & S  asked about me but then chose to ignore what they knew.
4. If you've offered me options in terms of Newsletters and possibly frequency of contact then why not confirm those choices on the Thank You page. It seems to make sense that you are setting my expectations at this point. Well done Amazon. Tesco please try harder
5. What next? Am I going to get an email from you ow? Tomorrow? Next week? Let me know !
6. Getting your newsletter into the Inbox. The customer has gone to some length to sign up. Wouldn't it be a shame if they never saw the email? The Minster FM example sets us off in the right direction as it tells us that an email is on its way and for me to look out for it. But why not add the email address its coming from as well to make sure it gets added to a contact list?
7. Did we forget to be social? Don't forget the option these days of using Social Sign In as a means of registering people for your newsletter and the benefits that can give you in terms of linking email and Social data. But what about even simply suggesting once they've registered for your newsletter that they also follow you on Facebook or Twitter?
8. Instant Rewards? You want them to buy something? Why now encourage them to start shopping now with a link to the main pages, or even with a little incentive?

Enough said...I'm off to unsubscribe from them all to see what happens!