5 Opt-In Best Practices For Any Email Marketer
Ensure your subscribers say yes the right way
A recent report found that email marketing is still one of the top marketing channels, according to both marketers and consumers. Its ROI is the highest for any online marketing path, and it can offer better rewards than most offline marketing channels.
The effectiveness of your marketing depends on the quality of your list. The better the match of the mailing list to your target audience, the greater the effectiveness of your campaigns. Likewise, how you sign subscribers up to your list can make the difference between conversion or not.
The opt-in process can be challenging. There are legal restrictions to consider as well as how your subscribers might react. Here are five best practices to help you create the perfect process.
1. Give The Audience A Choice Of Email Frequency
In the recent report from Marketing Sherpa, the survey found that customers prefer to set the frequency at which they receive emails from the brand. Therefore, by offering your subscribers a chance to determine how often you contact them, you can get your relationship off to a good start.
The top options to offer could be weekly, fortnightly, and monthly. While you might think that this stifles your marketing efforts; using segmentation could automatically reduce the number of emails sent to an individual subscriber that complies with their request.
2. Confirm Subscription
This is a legal practice in most countries – but not all. When someone enters their details on a sign-up form, send an immediate email to confirm their subscription. The new subscriber will then need to click on a link to confirm their subscription.
In the United States, this is a legal requirement. While it is not a strict requirement under UK, Canadian or Australian law – it is highly recommended in all countries. It does also provide you with some protection. These countries have strict anti-spam laws, and double opt-in provides you with evidence that the subscriber had intentionally subscribed, and it wasn’t entered by a robot or another person.
3. Collect The Right Amount Of Information
The more information you collect from subscribers, the better you can segment your email list and send relevant emails, and the easier it is to maintain your list.
In contrast, the more information you request – the fewer new subscribers you’ll attract to your list. Consider what information you really need and what information you could collect from your audience through your email marketing campaigns.
For instance, you could collect a name and email address and then ask subscribers to provide more details further down the line, or, monitor their behaviour to collect further information.
4. Provide Value To Your Opt-in
To increase the number of new subscribers, you should entice your audience with an offer. Free ebooks, discount codes and other freebies are the perfect gifts to attract new signups if the offer has value to the audience.
Don’t give away your freebie too easily either. And don’t use a pop-up that will give them access as soon as they’ve signed up. Instead, wait until after they’ve confirmed their subscription via double opt-in and then send their reward via another email.
5. Don’t Use A Pop-up
From January 2017, Google will introduce an algorithm change in their search engine that gives a negative rating for any pop-ups that aren’t required by law. The target is pop-ups suggesting the audience subscribe to a mailing list.
Therefore, using landing pages for offers is going to be the better option when generating subscribers and will enable you to still rank highly on Google search results. If people can’t find you – they can’t subscribe.
Conclusion
Email marketing is one of the best channels to sell to your audience. It helps you build trust and give relevant offers to list members. To get the most out of your marketing campaigns, you need to have the best quality lists, and this starts with your opt-in process.
Using the tips above you can start to manage your business’ email opt-in process and acquire a better marketing list to help you grow your revenue.
What are your email list opt-in tips?
Let us know in the comments below.
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The Importance Of Keeping Your Email Subscribers In The Loop
Communicate with your clients to keep them on your list!
Email subscribers are an important asset to your marketing and sales team. They are the ones that are likely to purchase products and expand the reach of your brand. However, the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns can be greatly reduced if you don’t have the right welcome email. This email, the first they receive, should have a lot of information contained within it, yet still be concise.
There are numerous benefits to having a proper welcome email for your subscription list. It can reduce unsubscribe rates, encourage higher interaction rates and the chance to reduce the time to sale. So what should you include in your welcome email? Here are a few suggestions:
Why They Are Receiving This Email
Sometimes, your subscribers won’t remember that they signed-up for your email list. This can make it awkward when you send your first email to them, and they then unsubscribe citing spam or that they hadn’t subscribed. Instead, by reminding them that they gave permission to receive your commercial email, you are reducing that risk.
A Thank You
A good first impression is not just important; it is essential. The right impression will help you generate a strong bond with your audience and encourage them to see you in a positive light. By saying thank you, you show that you are courteous and have manners.
Demonstrate Your Importance
People want to know why they should be reading your content. Therefore, give them some examples of why your content is important. There are several ways that you can achieve this:
- Direct them to previous campaigns containing useful information.
- Demonstrate the benefits of your products/services.
- Demonstrate content on your blog that might be useful.
- Include testimonials from others.
Set Email Expectations
Email expectations are an often forgotten but necessary element for retaining the trust of your audience. If you can demonstrate that you won’t just randomly email them whenever there is an offer but will only email them a specific number of times, then you can be sure they’ll stick around for longer. Of course, you have to keep that promise and not forget the level that you first set.
Ask For Feedback
Another key component of your welcome email should be asking for feedback. This can be taken in many different ways, either by the audience directly replying to you, or by setting up a survey online and taking the results from there. This opportunity can generate useful information, like where the subscriber found out about your brand, what content they would like to read and more personal details that can help segment them.
Website And Social Media Links
Don’t forget to place links to your website and social media profiles onto the email itself. This helps to build up a following over a wider set of communication channels and convert the prospect into a brand advocate.
Opt-Out Information
Remember to keep all the necessary, and legal information within your welcome message. This includes how the subscriber can opt-out of your mailing list, which should be an easy and quick (immediate) process, like clicking through on a link.
Reward Your Subscribers
The subscriber is an important asset to your company, show this by offering the new prospect a reward for subscribing. This could be a discount, free download or a humorous video that is visible only to subscribers.
Conclusion
Your subscription welcome email is a valuable marketing tool for your business. It helps to please prospects that you might not have met and can help to keep them engaged with your brand and more receptive to your marketing messages. By using the tips above, you can generate a highly engaging welcome message to entice audiences to consider your products or services.
How do you keep email subscribers? Do you send a welcome email?
Let us know in the comments below.
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