By Harry Kaplowitz, iContact Strategic Advisor
There are several dirty phrases in email marketing, and whenever I suggest them to clients, I?m often met with the coldest of shoulders.
One such phrase is the dreaded ?double opt-in.? This is when you ask your new sign-ups to confirm their email address before they can receive any further emails from you.
I?ve heard all the reactions: ?But my list will shrink to nothing!? ?No, my list is different!? ?I can?t do that, I?ll lose sales!? ?That?s just for spammers!? To which I say, ?You?re missing the point.?
First let?s get the obvious out of the way. It?s been noted throughout the Interwebs that as much as 20 percent of web form submissions are DOA, and that doesn?t even take into account user error in your old-fashioned brick-and-mortar sign-ups (?Is that dara@aol.com or clara@aol.com??). So, in the case of double opt-ins, less can actually be more ? the less volume of sign-ups you have, the healthier your overall list is. Back in May 2007, Marketing Sherpa reported that only 68 percent of online users entered a valid email address all of the time. Do you think the Internet has gotten more trustworthy in the last five years? Me neither.
Secondly, double confirmation isn?t just for spammers. Do you want emails from CNN? How about CNet or Microsoft? Kohl?s? Oprah? Well, all of them are double opt-in, along with many, many other businesses. And if I?ve learned anything from marriage, it?s that if Oprah is doing something, it?s probably a good idea. Companies large and small have taken to double-confirming their email subscribers because they recognize it?s a proven method to achieving a healthy list.
Now, asking subscribers to confirm their email address doesn?t have to be all doom and gloom. You can make it worth your potential subscriber?s time, I swear. And when you make it worth their while, they?ll make it worth your while. Take a look at this confirmation message I got from Redbox:
From top to bottom, this is a fantastic approach to double confirmation requests. They?ve got a direct subject line (?Action Required: Confirm your email address?) and a text-only appeal in their pre-header, so even if you?re not displaying images, you?ll know exactly what the message is about. They use not one, not two, but THREE strong, clear calls-to-action in the message body. And, perhaps most important, they?ve incentivized a simple mouse-click. Confirm your subscription, get one free rental. Another great element is that they?re not muddying up the email with lots of ancillary content to distract you from the email?s only purpose.
Do you double opt-in? What methods have you seen work well? Do you disagree with this post entirely? Let us know in the Comments!
Source: http://blog.icontact.com/blog/double-confirmation-isnt-double-trouble/
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