Should you collect the subscriber’s name and email address for your mailing list? Or should you just ask for their email address?
Do you like to be addressed by your name? Others do and that is why many Internet marketers want to personalize their emails by using the subscriber’s name. They feel that it helps build relationships.
If you look at websites of prominent Internet marketers, many are still asking for Name and Email. Why would they do this if it wasn’t effective?
As well, how serious or qualified is someone who doesn’t want to give you their name?
The less information you ask for, the easier it is for someone to subscribe. Many email marketers are reporting increased opt-ins by NOT asking for the name. This is especially important when you are using paid advertising to obtain your leads.
Apparently, in the Internet marketing field, many subscribers have become jaded and see personalization as a marketing gimmick. Some even use bogus names when they subscribe. Worse still, some don’t subscribe at all.
Some Internet marketers feel that you can build relationships with great content instead of using first name and last name.
The fact that prominent Internet marketers are still asking for name and email address could mean that they have thoroughly tested this and found it more effective. More than likely, however, they simply haven’t got around to changing it because they are busy with other things.
Also keep in mind that when a subscriber becomes a customer, he or she will supply their personal information to your shopping cart in order to complete their purchase. Thus, you will be able to capture their name at that time. In the meantime, you may well have them as a subscriber only because you did not insist on getting their name.
If your tests show that getting the name and email address is better then, by all means, ask for the name. Some markets may not be as impervious to personalized emails as the Internet marketing crowd.
Also, you may want to deliberately qualify someone before allowing them to subscribe. If you want to follow up by telephone, you might ask for their name, email address, telephone number, and best time to call. If you are shipping a physical product, you would need their name and address. If you are offering loans, you would need to know their name as well as other personal and financial particulars.
- List Building: Get and Use First Name Or Skip It?
- Email Marketing: Should You Use Their Name or Not?
