Making email opt-in pages more effective is most important yet all too often overlooked and forgotten task of a company’s marketing agent whose job is to increase sales through email contacts. Design and presentation of the opt-in pages determines the quality of email lists and the rate of company growth in addition to meeting or raising subscriber’s expectations. All of these in turn lend a helping hand to the desired email performance.

The first and foremost step toward maximizing the opt-in pages is to entice and persuade recipients of the emails to complete and submit them. The second step is the task of designing the opt-in page.

Drawing visitors into the company’s website is an important goal but once there, visitors should be persuaded to sign up by going to the opt-in page. The path to that page, therefore, must attract attention to itself by being clearly and attractively visible and links to the opt-in page should appear on the Home page as well as on all the other pages on the company’s website. 

The website should offer an easy and friendly environment to its visitors by displaying promotional boxes as side bars, plainly announcing the existence of its e-newsletter, links to navigation areas should be legible and apparent and the language used on the website must be known and understood by the general public and, of course, the average visitor.

Assuming that there is enough space for it, promoting the most recent e-newsletter along with its link on the company’s website Home page is a good idea. An effectively functional website contains a “Knowledge and Resource Center” where articles and back issues of e-newsletters are kept in chronological order for visitors to browse through at will. The link to the opt-in page should be included here as well.

Since the sole purpose of the opt-in page is to convert as many readers as it can into signed up subscribers, the design, structure and layout of the opt-in page should be similar to the landing page and it should radiate confidence, value and reliability. Links to sample e-newsletters should be included so that the interested readers will get an idea what they are signing up for. A small screenshot displaying the e-newsletter is not a must but it can most certainly help. A list of positive testimonials from other subscribers of the e-newsletter in a pull-down format could prove to be a beneficial selling point.

There is no such thing as a free lunch nowadays. Thus it is important to remember that when readers finally decide to subscribe and relinquish their well-guarded email addresses, they expect something of at least equal value in exchange. This is the key reason for displaying images, providing samples and reader testimonials of the e-newsletter right on the opt-in page. “Email only special deals” are nice added bonuses that will be appreciated by subscribers and goes a long way toward promoting the company and its products. Such “email only” offers can also increase the number of subscribers which in turn will increase sales.

A brief statement or disclaimer must be visibly displayed near the “Submit” or “Send” button along with a link to the company’s detailed privacy policy that will fully explain, among other important points, the e-newsletter frequency, format and content. In addition, a confirming and welcoming email must be issued as soon as an opt-in page is submitted.
In designing and structuring the opt-in page, it is crucially important that the form does not require too much personal information, yet it is equally important that it asks for as much information as is needed for the company’s present as well as future marketing and sales strategies. It is advisable to distinguish between mandatory information and optional information and mark those distinctions beside every field by using different colors, asterisk or actually spelling it out. A programmed script should be included within the opt-in page to check for syntax errors. Furthermore, to reduce possibilities of making typing errors while entering the email address, two consecutive but separate fields should be provided. The minimum required fields should include first name, last name, email address (twice) and format preference, while the optional fields could ask for secondary email addresses (also entered in two consecutive but separate fields) and various demographic details.

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There could be many factors that drive away potential customers and they end up turning their spam protection programs against unwanted emails. The single most important among all other factors is the relevance factor. Not recognizing and addressing this crucial factor and ignoring relevance or lack of relevance of any electronic correspondence to a particular targeted audience leads to an unsuccessful email campaign and consequently loss of business.

Electronic marketers should realize that celebrating readers’ direct feedback is insufficient to determine their success. They should also look out for feedback from readers who chose to communicate through alternate channels such as their own websites or via telephone lines.

It has been proven time and time again that the best emails provide readers with the opportunity to offer comments and suggestions through an email link as well as by communicating directly with the company’s customer services by using the provided email address or a toll free telephone number. It has also been proven that the best email marketers collect all the feedback that comes from whichever means and attend to it in a timely and appropriate manner.

Some readers feel compelled to reply to all their received emails. It is therefore not a good idea to limit the options or to add statements that try to discourage replying. When a reader wants to keep a channel of communication open the email marketers should never attempt to close it, for there is no telling where it may lead.

Effective feedback management is not limited to taking care of customer initiated comments, complaints or questions. It should not even stop with a purchase, large or small. Effective feedback managers should proactively reach out to their existing and potential customers through direct email communications, through surveys, through specials offers, through e-newsletters and web links and through email transactions.

Seeking out readers and collecting their feedback is an important tool that will help even the most experienced among the electronic marketers in planning, strategizing and attaining the goals of their email campaigns. In addition, feedback will help electronic marketers in structuring their emails and e-newsletters in a way that it will reduce readers’ dissatisfactions, in a way that it will increase deliverability of the emails and in a way that it will boost sales.

To avoid the possibility of overdosing readers with too much communication, email marketers should focus of four main points of interaction. The first main point of interaction is when readers sign up for the email program. The second main point of interaction is after two or three months when the reader who has signed up for the email program may have strayed away from it. The third and critically important main point of interaction is when readers make contact to complain or to air grievances. And the fourth and final point of interaction is when readers communicate in response to a sudden influx of spam emails. All four main points of interaction are wonderful opportunities to get very useful information from readers — information that would likely not have reached the marketer under different circumstances.

Finally, a central key to better feedback management is the overall cooperation within the company itself. Sharing of data and any kind of knowledge about customers and prospects among the various departments and personalities will likely improve the email program and boost email campaign deliverability.

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