MindComet

Growing Your List

An easy, straight-forward way to organically grow your email subscriber list is to include a sign up form on your website.  It’s logical to think that if someone visits your website, they are interested enough in your product or service to receive email communication from you. Keeping that in mind, don’t bury your email sign up form on the “Contact Us” page.

Have a simple sign up, perhaps asking only for an email address on every page of your website.  It’s a good idea to maintain the same location for sign up throughout your site.  As new visitors come to your site, they may not sign up immediately, but after viewing a few pages, they may be compelled to sign up.  By keeping the sign up form in the same place, your subscribers will know right where to find it when they are ready to do so.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/“>Williams-Sonoma has a simple sign up form on the first page. I’m sure they could increase their subscriber list by including their simple sign up in the left sidebar on every page.

Williams-Sonoma used to ask for voluntary personal information including first name and last name by clicking a link on the confirmation page.  I am disappointed to see that they have changed this practice, and now offer a link to communication preferences. 

It strikes me as strange, because after opting-in, your choice in changing your preference is…

...Opting-out.

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Posted by MindComet on Jun. 06, 2007

Why Did You Send This To Me?

When you are a diverse company like Unliver, and you have a broad sign up process that doesn’t allow subscribers to select the messages they would like to receive, it’s a good idea to remind your subscribers why you are sending them an email. 

Lipton Tea, a Unilever brand, has just started this practice in their email marketing campaign.

Before Header - May 2nd, 2007

After Header - June 5th, 2007

With such a verity of brands, Unilever can build trust and take away doubt about why their subscribers are receiving these messages with something as simple as this new header.

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Posted by MindComet on Jun. 05, 2007

A Tale of Two Email Marketing Campaigns

Last week I talked about a correction message I received from a company I had just opted-in to receive. messages from.  Since that correction message, with the exception of Sunday, I have received a message every day.  Sure, I agreed to receive promotional messages and special offers from the company, but I am getting bombarded with messages.  I might have thought twice about opting-in had I known there were special offers everyday. 

After less than a week, I am close to “breaking up” with them.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is a message I receive every single day:  “Daily Tip from DrWeil.com”.  When I opted-in to receive these messages I agreed to daily messages.  And in case I forget, I’m reminded in the subject line of the message.  From a creative standpoint, these messages could use some help, but that’s a topic for another day…

So, what’s the difference?

The difference is, my expectations were set upfront.  I knew from the very beginning that I would receive a message every day.  I may not open the email messages from Dr. Weil every day, but I do open them often.  I’m not overwhelmed by the messages, unlike the messages from the other company.  There is some sort of physiological acceptance with these messages because I knew what I was signing up for.

The messages from the other company, in less than a week are becoming obtrusive.  This company should reconsider their messaging strategy or at least let their subscribers know they will get messages more often than not.

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Posted by MindComet on Jun. 04, 2007

Total Package

Email Marketing should be a piece of your overall marketing puzzle, not the entire kit and caboodle.

Jack Link’s Beef Jerky recently added email to their “Messin’ With Sasquatch” marketing campaign.  I signed up for their email campaign sometime last summer.  I don’t remember if I received a welcome message, but since September, the messages I received in May, were the first I had gotten.

The television commercials have run on and off for quite sometime.  The commercials are amusing, depicting campers playing slumber party pranks on Sasquatch.  The url displayed at the end of the commercial, http://www.messinwithsasquatch.com/ is catchy enough that I could remember it when I was done watching TV and I actually went to the site.  There are games, commercials, a journal and downloads such as wallpaper.

Another aspect of the campaign is MySpace.  Sasquatch has been my friend for nearly a year.  He amuses me so much, he is in my top friends.  Ahead of some people I actually know (Sorry BQ). 

During the month of May, Jack Link’s have sent two separate messages with the same subject line “More Messin’ with Sasquatch”. The site has been redesigned, is easier to navigate and additonal features have been added. The messages are simple and serve their purpose, driving subscribers to view new commercials, and play games for an opportunity to Win $50,000. 

I believe that this particular email marketing campaign could be much more, there is a lot of potential there. How cool would it be to get email messages from Sasquatch? 

That being said, the email messages I received in May served their purpose and drove me to their site. 

Mission accomplished.

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Posted by MindComet on Jun. 01, 2007