e-mail form best practices and customizing the subscribe process mass e-mail user group june 2009
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E-mail Form Best Practices and Customizing the Subscribe Process Mass E-mail User Group June 2009. Part I: Forms in e-mail. Desired outcome: a form is submitted Usually, the form is linked to in the message The forms are on Web pages (HTML) E-mail can have an HTML part - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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E-mail Form Best Practicesand
Customizing the Subscribe Process
Mass E-mail User GroupJune 2009
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Part I: Forms in e-mail
• Desired outcome: a form is submitted• Usually, the form is linked to in the message• The forms are on Web pages (HTML)• E-mail can have an HTML part• Why not embed that form in the e-mail itself?• Great idea!
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Example: form in e-mail
• First, scroll past the plug for their cookies.• A single field to submit an address for
forward-to-a-friend.
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Does it work? Campaign Monitor
“Given the sporadic support for forms in emails, we recommend linking to a form on a website rather than embedding it in the email.”
continued
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/entry/674/using-forms-in-email/
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Does it work? Campaign Mon. II
“This is the safest, most reliable solution to pairing an email message with a form. More people will see it and be able to use it, and as a result participation will increase.”
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/entry/674/using-forms-in-email/
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Does it work? Lyris HQ
“At Lyris we always recommend directing your users to an outside Web page to submit their survey or form. [...] ...while forms may work in some email clients their days are numbered. Moving your forms to an outside Web page gives you the greatest chance of success.”
http://www.lyrishq.com/index.php/Blog/The-Form-Debate.html
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Does it work? MailChimp
Writing on surveys in HTML e-mail:
“Surveys are basically web forms. And forms don’t work so great when you send them in HTML email.”
http://www.mailchimp.com/articles/how_to_send_surveys_via_html_email/
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What’s the problem?
• Some clients disable forms• Some clients identify them as possible
scams and warn or filter to spam folders• Some servers block or filter to spam folders• Some clients just don’t work
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What’s the problem? II
• Forms don’t go in the plain text part– Think students, think GopherMail
• Expect a high rate of non-functioning forms– Hotmail won’t work and had a 15% market share in
March 2009– Outlook 2003, 2007 and Yahoo! Classic also fail
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/stats/email-clientshttp://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/entry/674/using-forms-in-email/
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In short
• Link to forms on the Web• If you absolutely need to know who submitted a
form, ask them, pass data into the form using the URL, and recombine the results with recipient information
• A single text field, as in the Girl Scouts example, might work but could also disservice and frustrate recipients
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Questions?
?
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Part II:Customizing the Subscribe Process
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Subscription best practices
• Getting users to subscribe to a publication or other e-mail channel is preferred over opt-out messaging
• Subscriptions can be Web or e-mail based• E-mail based (un)subscribes, at least with
Lyris, can be tricky for some users• Web forms are the ticket
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Subscription best practices II
• Double opt-in (also known as confirmed opt-in) should always be used
• Adhere to CAN-SPAM requirements for messages sent to subscribers
• Update language in message from “opt-out” to “unsubscribe” when using an opt-in list
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Our needs
• The standard confirmation and hello messages are too generic
• We were missing an opportunity to drive people toward subscribing to other e-mail publications of the University News Service
• This doesn’t apply to opt-out situations, only opt-in lists/publications
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The default messages
• What is urel_uns-todays_news?
Confirmation
Hello
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General problems
• List names aren’t useful for your average reader (urel_uns-todays_news)
• The e-mail commands can be problematic– A signature block can cause a request to not be
processed– The messaging from Lyris when this happens is
frustrating
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Create a subscription form
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Create a subscription form II
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Create a subscription form III
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Create a subscription form IV
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Create a subscription form V
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Using the form I - submit
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Using the form II - confirm
We can do better!
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Using the form III - confirmed
We control the web page you land on following this page.
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Using the form IV – hello doc
We can do better here, too!
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Create a new conf. message
• Use plain text only• Keep it succinct
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New confirm content I
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New confirm content II
• Name the content• Tweak the
messageheaders
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New confirm content III
• Brevity and clarity is key
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Create a new hello message
• This can be multipart.• You can track the message but... where do
those numbers go?• In short:
– confirm that they’re subscribed– introduce them to the identity right away– drive them to your site & other subscriptions
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Create a new hello message II
• Same basic process as the confirm content
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Associate the content
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Test, test, test
• Subscribe• Confirm• Hello• Voila!
http://www1.umn.edu/news/subscribe/UR_CONTENT_096484.html
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What of unsubscribes?
• Unsubscribe confirmation and goodbye messages can be customized, too
• Recipients using an unsubscribe link in the e-mail should not receive a confirmation e-mail
• Using an open (unauthenticated) web form can send a confirmation message for opt-in lists only
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Unsubscribes II
• You’re losing a reader• You can try to reengage them in the
goodbye message• The primary, central, “above-the-fold”
purpose of the message needs to be informational, e.g., “You have unsubscribed from _______.”
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What to take away
• Provide a Web form to take in subscriptions– For anything open to the public this is a no-
brainer– And it’s easy
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Takeaways II
• You can’t readily get at tracking data for the hello/goodbye messages– But they’re relatively quick to customize– Quick wins can be good
• Squander no opportunity; engage your audience and identify yourself at every turn
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Engage!
Not in the mood to argue fair use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PatrickStewart2004-08-03.jpg
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Questions?
?