Wizemail details e-mail capture techniques

Wizemail has considered the various methods available for gathering visitor e-mail addresses and what practices companies should try to avoid.

A worthwhile house e-mail list is the one prerequisite of any e-mail campaign.

But 'worthwhile' does not mean 'big'; it means 'specific'.

In compiling your e-mail addresses, you should target those you want and go after them, rather than passively waiting for them to contact you.

This requires careful planning and dedicated execution.

Your plan should not limit you to one source, or even just a few.

You should go where your potential customers are, rather than where it is easiest for you.

There is a variety of sources for e-mail addresses.

Each must be treated to a limited extent as a separate campaign but there will be considerable overlap.

Focusing on one source alone is not normally an efficient use of resources.

You can divide your targets crudely as online and offline, or as existing customers and those unknown.

But this is useful only for planning and should not obscure the fact that most will have much in common.

This is axiomatic as it is you who want them and you will have specific requirements.

In other words, while your e-mail addresses might come from different sources, there should be a system to bring them all under one overarching plan.

The most obvious method is via the company website.

Indeed for business-to-business (B2B), opting in for direct e-mail marketing should be one of the main aims of the site and only slightly less for a customer-based one.

Even a simple sales-based site should be seen as a permanent source of addresses for e-mail marketing.

Incentives should be present at all times to capture e-mail addresses; offers and special benefits for those willing to tick the box should be designed into the structure.

Conversion of visitors to opt-ins should be one of the major pointers to how successful the site is.

The search parameters used by those coming to your site can be a useful guideline as to what to include.

If 'home dog-grooming' comes up time and again then offers of clippers should be on the first page they come to.

There are many other methods of drawing potential subscribers to your site, such as a competition or other offer publicised offline that has a requirement to log onto the site to enter or to claim the prize.

Other considerations are an online advert on, for instance, a third-party site or newsletter or even a rented list - both of which ask the reader to click through to a microsite where they will be tempted to sign up to your list.

A viral campaign can be a valuable tool.

A customer sends the video link to a friend or colleague, who will log on and be presented with an opportunity to opt in to your e-mail list.

Care should be taken to ensure the medium does not overcome the message.

Any offline communication with the customer, such as the paperwork attendant on delivery of an item, order form, invoice or correspondence, should be seen as an opportunity to point the respondent towards your website.

One method of encouraging customers who might otherwise be reluctant to visit your website might be pointing out the percentage reduction in invoice costs if they pay online.

While a major benefit of direct e-mail marketing is the lack of printing, packaging and posting costs, direct mail has its place, and that is for collection of e-mail addresses.

The intent is to get the recipients to log on to the site.

Failing that, they should be encouraged to include their e-mail address if responding by phone or the Freepost envelope.

Every face-to-face meeting between an employee/agent of your company and a third party should be seen as an opportunity.

A sales representative, sales-counter staff, demonstrator, tradeshow representative or those at a conference should be trained to encourage potential subscribers to your lists.

Incentives such as offers, competitions or prize draws - especially where they might not be expected - can give a good response.

A sales pitch that is not persuasive might be turned around if the customer is still allowed entry to a competition if they give their e-mail address.

Telephone contact can be seen as face-to-face in this context as well, and not only in the telemarketing sense.

A mention of the competition at a suitable time by call-centre staff could be helpful.

There is a word of warning over the e-mail addresses supplied offline.

Two difficulties occur: one practical, the other legal.

Taking the latter first, collating and keeping vast paper records destroys some of the benefits of direct e-mail marketing and in any case might not be the most dependable of opt-ins.

Giving incentives to staff to collect addresses with a tick in that particular box might well lead to disputes at a later date.

Give consideration to an automatic check, such as an e-mail reminding that person that they signed up.

The other difficulty is that of handwritten e-mail addresses.

Three simple steps can lower the percentage of illegible addresses: allow an ample space for the address; ask for it to be in caps; and only reward the person for addresses that are valid.

You do not want just anyone on your lists.

Direct e-mail campaigns should be targeted to get the best from them and the only way to do this is to know specifics of your subscribers.

A long list of personal questions at the sign-up stage is off-putting, so you need other methods to understand who they are.

You might have decided to try and convert your newsletter subscribers to your direct e-mail marketing list.

One method is to include an article of limited general interest.

The reader is intrigued and reads on.

At the end of the article they are told that more detail will be found at the end of a click-through.

If you capture them and they subscribe to your e-mail list then you will already know something of their interests.

The same goes for those whom you acquired via staff at a trade fair.

Directing a potential customer to your website in the vague hope that they might stumble on the page where the sign-up procedure appears is obviously not enough.

The dangers are that the person might become lost, disinterested or distracted.

Remember that your website has been designed to grab the attention of visitors and it should, if designed properly, distract them.

In order to lower the possibilities of visitors wandering around your site before they have signed up for your direct e-mail marketing, you should ensure they arrive initially at a campaign-specific landing page or microsite, custom-designed to encourage sign-ups.

If they have been tempted by an offer, they should not have to hunt for it.

Online attention span is measured in seconds and frustration can reduce this even further.

One landing page will probably not be enough.

A basic strength of direct e-mail marketing is the fact that it can be targeted.

Those who have come through by way of a link from your newsletter might require a different approach to those who came via an advert hotlink on a third-party site and therefore are unfamiliar with your company and products.

The latter might need re-assurance of your business practices and ethics.

It is impossible to give precise guidance on the amount of information you ask for on the initial signing-up process.

Too little and all you end up with is a person with unknown requirements and tastes, while asking for too much is a sure-fire way of putting people off.

Consider what the people themselves might assume is reasonable in the circumstances.

For B2B, title, position and responsibilities seem more essential than reasonable, but specifics on budget responsibility could be seen as a little intrusive initially.

If there is a specific item of information you feel they might be reluctant to share but that is essential to your requirements, explain the reasons behind your request.

Emphasise that you do not want to send them e-mails that they have no particular interest in.

Allow the subscriber to leave that particular box empty just in case your explanation was not persuasive.

Be aware that there are legal restrictions as to how much information you may keep on a person.

One of the eight principles of the Data Protection Act requires that: 'Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.

This is not a problem as such, as too much information on a person can be as bad as too little when it comes to targeting e-mails.

Like any other procedure in direct e-mail marketing, acquisition of e-mail addresses requires planning from the initial stages.

There is no need to limit the catchment as the various sources can be treated as to their needs when required.

Detail is essential, of course, but be careful not to put off the nervous newcomer by asking for too much initially.

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