There is a lot of competition in catching the attention of the subscriber in the email world. In order to distinguish from the rest of the clutter, communication must be made easier for the receiver. People always get attracted to things which are easy and go away from things which are difficult to do. Because of this hallmark of services and products like Google AdWords, Turbo Tax, etc., they have gained popularity all over the world.
Like they say it is easy to say but difficult to do, so is the case with making each and every thing easy for the customers and subscribers. Sometimes it might happen that the things which are easy for a group of customers might not be easy for the rest. This case is true especially with new customers.
The very first step in making things easier is to have a simple email address, link or opt-in form field in a promotional email or newsletter. Also this information must be included on every page of the website. There should be provision of a web version of the emails which are in HTML. It helps to include a send-to-friend link or functionality in every message. The subscribers must be able to take actions in spite of the images being blocked. Every submit button should be labeled with the action to be taken like ‘buy now’, ‘Subscribe here’, etc.
If any of these functionalities are missing, then Email Management and Accessing Content should be considered for simplification.
Email Management
Subscription must be made easier by working on email ids, links and sign-up form and post this information on every page. Every email should have the subscribe link in order to tempt the readers, especially those who have received the message from a friend. In order to subscribe, the steps to be taken should be minimum. According to a survey, marketers who had cut down the subscription steps from 9 to 3 saw an increase of 300% in the subscription rate. More personal information need to be collected from the subscriber in order to send more relevant emails. It also helps in maintaining the email list effectively. But email marketers should know where to draw the line as too much information can turn off the subscriber, especially those who haven’t subscribed yet but intend to do so. A separate page can hold the opt-in form to collect relevant information. The critical fields on the form should be marked with a star and the other extraneous field should be left on the subscriber’s choice to fill. The setting and updating of the customer’s preferences about the content must be made easier. Password can be allowed along with the inclusion of link for the retrieval of password, in case it has been forgotten. These links should stand out on the web page and in the email. The email should have software which provides ‘Mail-to-friend’ option and it should be easier than the forward function.
The email should stand out amongst the rest of the emails. The sender should be easily recognizable and the subject line should be catchy. Emails should have provisions to take action in an easy way. They should be text based as well as HTML based. Include a link of the web version of the email, so that more vivid information can be seen. Obviously, the emails should be printer friendly; if not a printer friendly version of the email should be provided.
It is very important to check the working of each and every link, including the unsubscribing link. Clicking on the link, it should take the reader directly to the web page, image or file. Subscribers find it very tedious to hunt for the desired content. Another important point which most of the marketers forget is to make the unsubscribe option easy. This strengthens the trust of the subscribers. More can be gained out of the unsubscribing process by including various options such as address change or changing the frequency of emails.
When all these points will be pondered upon, you will be certainly surprised with the subscription turn out.
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