10 ways to improve your sign-up process

An important part of email marketing is building quality address books. To do this, you must create a data capture form which entices people to sign up to your newsletters who are likely to open and read your email campaigns. Here are 10 ways which eShoutz believe will improve your sign-up process and ultimately build quality address books for your email marketing campaigns.

1. Ensure that the sign-up / data capture form is all over your website. You must give all visitors the opportunity to sign-up to your email newsletters. Remember that not all visitors to your website will visit the homepage, and therefore newsletter sign-ups should feature within the side navigation or footer of every page of your website.

2. Ensure that the newsletter sign-up form is easy to complete. A complicated form to fill in will put people off signing up. Explain any fields that you think people may not understand.

3. Use simple language on the sign-up form.

4. Gather as much information about the subscriber as possible, without making the sign-up form too long and messy. Think about what information will prove valuable to your email marketing. For example, if you are a travel company and want to send cruise offers to those who have an interest in cruising and ski deals to those who enjoy snow holidays, make sure you ask on the sign-up form the type of holidays people prefer. You can then use the dynamic content tool in eShoutz to tailor your email newsletters to subscribers' tastes.

5. Make all of the fields on the sign-up form mandatory. Don't give people the option to omit information.

6. Be honest about how you will use the information you are collecting. Inform the subscriber that they will receive regular newsletters if this is the case.

7. Make the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter clear. Include information on your website stating that subscribers will receive the best offers first, or offers that are tailored to their needs.

8. Promotions are an effective way of encouraging people to sign-up to your email newsletters. Prize draws for new subscribers are great for building up your address books.

9. Make any third party opt in or opt out boxes clear. This can instill confidence in subscribers.

10. If you send a confirmation page to subscribers, use it as a selling opportunity. Include offers on the page that they have just expressed an interest in on the data capture form.

For more information on building quality address books, visit http://www.eshoutz.com/building-quality-address-books.

For more information about eShoutz email marketing visit the eShoutz.com website.