The signup process is a powerful opportunity to show your subscribers that you value them and care about their experience with your brand.
Permission
Subscriber consent is the golden rule of email marketing. You should only send emails to subscribers who want to receive them. The email address is a personal space, as personal as a home address. Entering that space without permission just creates frustration. Let the subscriber make the decision to receive email from you and reap the rewards of a happy start to an ongoing relationship and excellent inbox deliverability.
Best practices for the signup process
1. No pre-checked opt-in boxes.
Part of having great customer service is being kind to your subscribers. Allowing subscribers to check the box to opt-in to your email program is really the only way to achieve that. Pre-checked opt-in boxes—especially when hidden in the purchase path—lead to higher rates of unsubscribing and spam complaints down the road. Be kind and let your subscriber decide if they want to opt-in.
2. Set expectations.
The subscriber acquisition process is not just about adding another address to your list, it’s about setting expectations about your email program and the value it provides. Use the subscribe landing page to explain your email program to subscribers. Set out what your objective is and what the incentive is to the subscriber. Be clear about your mailing frequency (once a week, 2-3 times per week, daily), as well as from name and from/reply to address you will be using. Also, share some of the design upfront so that subscribers know what to expect from the start. Transparent business practices help set guidelines both for your program and for the subscriber.
3. Get the right information.
The subscribe process is the perfect time to collect all the information from a subscriber that you need to send relevant emails. We’ve already discussed the importance of asking customers for permission. Additionally, you should always give the customer what they want.
Collect communication preferences and interests from every subscriber so that you are able to send targeted and relevant emails. Relevant emails lead to higher opens and clicks, and higher traffic to your website often means an increase in commerce. As an added bonus, higher engagement with your email leads to better deliverability for your email program.
4. Get confirmation.
Make sure the subscribe process is double opt-in. Many ISP blocklists will filter out emails from programs that don’t confirm signups. Make sure your subscribe form is using double opt-in to validate that the addresses exist and that real people signed up for email. Also, we highly recommend using reCAPCTHA for added protection against robot email signups.
WordFly signup tools
WordFly’s signup options—Subscribe page, embedded signup, and lightbox—meet all of the above best practices for collecting email signups. There are no pre-checked boxes, you can add preferences and adjust text on the page to explain your email program and set expectations. You can even add a link to one of your WordFly campaign archive urls to show an example of what will be sent out. These subscribe options are double opt-in. Any subscriber who signs up will receive a confirmation email with a validation link that they must click to be added to your list.