For a long time now marketers have tried to hit upon more and more direct ways to get in touch with their customers. Direct marketing came into the picture because marketers wanted to speak directly to their customers and take products to their doorsteps, rather than waiting for them to arrive at their shops. The same motives underlie marketers’ actions these days but the situation has changed a little bit when the Internet and Email came into the picture.

Most consumers these days connect to the Internet at some time or the other and most of them also have an active email account. The timeliness, convenience and efficiency of emails have made it a favorite tool among marketers for communicating with their customers. Moreover, most marketers prefer to send emails to their customers these days because it is much cheaper than sending out posts. Not to mention that a message that might take days to reach via snail mail can reach your customer within seconds through email.

Lots of people choose to join some kind of mailing lists so that they can get emails straight to their accounts. Mailing lists are a good way of staying up to date with organizations and groups that you are interested in. But that is the keyword: Interested! Everyone must have had the annoying experience of spam flooding his or her email accounts. And this is completely different from the mailing lists that one decides to join. The issue of spam does make email marketing slightly murky but good marketers are taking steps to see that their messages are going only to those who are interested in reading them.

The one thing that differentiates valid marketing messages from spam is permission. If a customer has given you permission then it is okay to send him or her email messages. But if that permission has not been granted then anything you send would be considered spam.

This is where opt-in forms play an important role. By signing up via an opt-in form the customer is telling you that he or she is looking forward to getting more of your messages. The name itself points out that opt-in forms are the customer’s choice. The fact is that opting in or out of your mailing list says a lot about how interested your client is in your business. But always keep in mind that no means No! You will only worsen your reputation with a client if they had not asked for mails from you and you continue to send it to them.

Marketers sometimes assume that because a client has opted in to the mailing list, that client would want to keep getting messages from you. It is possible that after some time your client might want to opt out. Make sure that is also an option for your client. A subscriber should always be given the option to unsubscribe. Either ways, there is no point forcing messages onto an uninterested client because those messages most probably won’t be read.

Do not ignore your opt-in page when you are designing your website. In fact, the design and content of your opt-in page might attract or deter your clients. You should make the most of it while you still have the chance of getting them to sign up. A big no-no is to sign them up automatically without their knowledge, this will reflect badly on your site.

You need to be clear about your privacy policy since, after all, these clients are giving you their personal information. This is where the issue of trust comes in. Keep the page simple and clear, both, in terms of design and content. You want to keep your customers as comfortable as possible and that means not overdoing anything. It is not a good idea to ask for a lot of information, but at the same time, don’t miss out on the important stuff. You need to figure out what the necessary information is and include only that into your opt-in forms. You do not want to tire your customer with endless blanks to fill up.

A retail site owner needs to be aware that customers will not come hunting for the newsletters. It is your responsibility to put the opt-in form in a place where visitors to your site will spot it quickly. Make sure that it is put in a place where customers are likely to spend a bit of time.
Try to be innovative with your opt-in forms without being complicated. Having an example of your newsletter might be a good way of convincing your clients that opting in to the mailing list is a good idea. By glancing through your newsletter they will get a good picture of what they are opting in to. There has to be some reason why the customer would want to subscribe to your newsletter and make sure this reason comes through in your opt-in form.

Opt-in forms are all about giving your customers options. No permission means no newsletter. It is possible to build your form in such a way that customers will be more likely to opt-in to the message you want to give them. At the end of the day, it is really about how you handle your website and the visitors who arrive there.


Tags: little bit, long time, spam, marketers, email messages, convenience, consumers, email accounts, snail mail, efficiency, one thing, email account, direct marketing, taking steps, doorsteps, motives, timeliness