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As
a result, the co-registration form should have the merchant's brand
front and center and the registrant should be required to physically
check a box to start receiving e-mails. Pre-checked boxes are an
absolute no-no in e-mail co-registration.
Another
recommended safeguard is sending registrants confirmation e-mails
thanking them for signing up, and verifying that they did so. These
confirmation e-mails should require new subscribers to respond to
verify that they did, indeed, sign up to receive e-mails from the
merchant.
“Anytime
somebody doesn't sign up on your site, on your branded page, you should
do confirmed opt in,” says Pollard. “It reinforces that they really did
fill out that form.”
The
welcome e-mail should also make clear where the merchant got the
registrant's name. The reason: The merchant may be getting the names
days after the sign-up took place, giving the registrants a chance to
forget that they supplied their addresses. Reminding them where they
registered will help avoid, you guessed it, spam complaints.
Using
confirmed opt in during the registration process also ensures the
e-mail address is safe for addition straight into the merchant's house
file, says Pollard.
“If
you use confirmed opt in, you can be completely comfortable, because
that person took the extra step to say: ‘Yes, I really want to join
your list,’ ” he says.
Return
Path's Miller recommends setting up a series of welcome e-mails for new
customers and prospects gained via co-registration. She adds that it's
important to tell registrants in the welcome e-mail what they should
expect as a result of signing up.
“Think
in terms of campaigns,” she says. “Don't assume that a 15-second
co-registration experience will establish a relationship. Take the time
to create a welcome series of e-mails with an appropriate cadence that
greets prospects, engages them, and moves them through the sales cycle.”
This
is especially important for multichannel merchants who, contrary to
traditional DM thinking, must be extra careful to think in terms of
value for registrants as opposed to simply getting permission to mail.
“A
lot of merchants haven't seen a whole lot of success with
co-registration because while they can get people to opt in, the people
opt out or complain just as quickly because the message has no value to
the end recipient,” says EmailLabs' Pollard.
Catalogers
struggle because they have the whole “buy, buy, buy” mentality, he
says. “The consumer may have been interested enough in the original
messaging to take a second look, but that doesn't mean he or she wants
to take 10 or 15 looks.”
E-mail
is not about having a big list, he notes, “it's about having active and
engaged consumers. If you're just looking for eyeballs, e-mail may not
be the medium for whatever it is you're trying to achieve.”
Return
Path's Miller also stresses the importance for multichannel merchants
to avoid thinking in terms of tonnage when it comes to e-mail. “That's
the fundamental difference between e-mail and direct mail,” she says.
“In direct mail, there is no punishment for overmailing except cost. In
e-mail there is a penalty. It's getting blocked and having the sender's
reputation go down the tubes.”
Make me an offer
So
what types of offers tend to work in e-mail co-registration programs?
Return Path's Miller says that when determining what to offer, it is
important to consider the venue in which the offer is placed.
“If
you're on a site where people go to get free stuff and you put an offer
on there for something for $500, you're not going to get a whole lot of
takers,” she says. “Make sure you're offering something that's going to
be relevant to the people who are going to be on that site.”
She
also recommends making the offer as impulse-oriented as possible. “What
you're trying to do is create an offer that the consumer can make a
decision about in three to 15 seconds. So, for example, a lower price
point generally works better, and it should be something that is
instantly recognizable.”
And
it helps if offers are easily fulfilled, such as an instant download, a
white paper, a subscription or a free product. “Discounts can work, but
it's generally more effective to offer something specific,” she says.
“For
example, 10% off everything in the store is generally going to be less
effective than ‘buy one, get one free of this particular item.’ But it
all comes back to the fact that someone's making a decision in an
extremely short period of time, so the more specific the offer, the
better.”
Miller
also stresses that it is important not to think of the co-registration
effort in a vacuum, because recipients certainly don't see it that way.
The merchant's co-registration offer should work in harmony with its
other online efforts.
“If
REI is promoting ski equipment, then having a ski-based co-registration
offer makes more sense because that's what people are seeing everywhere
else,” she says.
What
works will vary from merchant to merchant, so test co-registration
offers on an ongoing basis. “Test as often and comprehensively as you
can,” Miller says. “Test the offer, your placement on the page or
series of pages, the call to action, your logo, the image and the
confirmation e-mail that gets triggered.”
In
any case, the most important concept a multichannel merchant must
understand when implementing a co-registration program is that there
should be no surprises for the registrant.
“The
key to a successful co-registration program is recognition,” says
Pollard. “Make sure you're not hiding and make sure registrants know
where you got their names.”
