Hey all I picked up a little tip the other day from some guy's video on Youtube and I thought I'd post it and see what you think. This may be a new concept to some and probably not to others. This guy said he'd been an affiliate marketer for 15 years and in that time had built mailing lists of over 300k which he makes a lot of money from. His simple tip was this: Don't bother trying to get a name when list building. Simply ask for an email address if you are trying to get subscribers to your lists. You'll build bigger lists much faster. I have to say I kind of like this approach because it does rule out Mr M. Mouse and Kermit Frog subscribing to your lists all the time, and really, what is the main point of getting a persons name? To just personalize the follow ups?? Possibly find out their gender??? OK may be useful in certain areas. Anyhow, I'm now testing this idea out on some of my subscription forms and will post back with some results for you. Shayman
Why are you building the list? Most internet marketers are building the list so that they can send regular updates to the subscribers and once in a while include an affiliate link with recommendation. Personalization of the email comes handy in this case.
Don't bother trying to get a name when list building. Simply ask for an email address if you are trying to get subscribers to your lists. You'll build bigger lists much faster.
As i understood he said that its not needed that you know the name of your users. It only enough to know email address of them. Then after months you can make a big list of your customers.
I'm not saying either way is right or wrong, but I can see that asking for a name is more intrusive and could put someone off. People are probably wise these days about personalized emails anyway. I think using a name is just a token. It can also have a negative effect especially if someone uses lowercase for instance. e.g. Hi fred, or a false name...yes I sent a follow up to Kermit Frog just yesterday I believe.
It's a double edged sword, and there's no 'right' or 'wrong' answer. Yeah, if you don't ask for their name it certainly makes it easier to get the sign-up, however... Personalizing emails, no matter how 'wise' people are to it, nowadays, is a proven psychological benefit with gaining trust and promoting offers. It has been since the dawn of marketing and always will be. Depends what you're ultimately going for. If you want a huge list and don't care how targeted it is / don't care to build a relationship, you can fore-go the name. On the other hand, if you would like to build up some trust and gain your readers' confidence, it's nice to throw in their name. My two cents, Mike
Well interesting suggestion and interesting question. I personally ask for name because I am building not just a list but a community. I like to be personal with them when I send information. If Mr Mouse and Mr Dog like to call them as such then so be it but I think for the long run, it is good to have the name.
Maybe, we just ask for first name and email. That's it, 2 simple fields should be tempting enough for users to subscribe to your newsletters.
Here's how you determine the truth of this conundrum. 87% of all 'names' submitted on forms are 'Fred'. 11% are 'F*** O**'. Go figure.
Good point, as a list subscriber, I will still prefer that emails have my name. Even if you are talking about 2% genuine subscribers (from your calculations), those should be targeted with personalization.
The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it. - Adam Smith Just because they slapped their email into your field doesn't mean it's worth anything. I would argue to make it even harder for them to signup, as we know people only value what they put their time into.
OK Folks It's been a week since I posted my original tip and so I think I've made some quite interesting discoveries that some of you may find interesting..some of you may just yawn. So, I have several lists out there collecting on a variety of niches and so I decide for one week to collect email addresses only and see what happened and here is my conclusion: I have my own Clickbank product- www.asapiano.com and I have found a marked downturn in subscribers over the past week, in fact I had a couple of days where no one subscribed at all! Unheard of!! So I kind of think there is a bit of psychology going on with this. The site is quite personal because it's a teaching site, and Samantha, the teacher has her name and even her signature on the sales page. I almost think that people visiting this site feel happier giving their name than not, because it immediately forms a bond that I think they need and possibly want. I have now changed this back to collecting a name. I also have a few lists that are less personal and would you know it, these have shown a marginal increase over the past week. So there you have it. You can draw your own conclusions but this kind of now makes sense to me. Shayman
I have heard many times that having the name in the autoresponder does help, but I think it would help with sign up rate