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E-mail Form Best Practicesand
Customizing the Subscribe Process
Mass E-mail User GroupJune 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
• Why not embed that form in the e-mail itself?
• Great idea!
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.
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/
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/
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
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/
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
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-clients
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/entry/674/using-forms-in-email/
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
Questions?
?
Part II:Customizing the Subscribe Process
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
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
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
The default messages
• What is urel_uns-todays_news?
Confirmation
Hello
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
Create a subscription form
Create a subscription form II
Create a subscription form III
Create a subscription form IV
Create a subscription form V
Using the form I - submit
Using the form II - confirm
We can do better!
Using the form III - confirmed
We control the web page you land on following this page.
Using the form IV – hello doc
We can do better here, too!
Create a new conf. message
• Use plain text only
• Keep it succinct
New confirm content I
New confirm content II
• Name the content
• Tweak themessageheaders
New confirm content III
• Brevity and clarity is key
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
Create a new hello message II
• Same basic process as the confirm content
Associate the content
Test, test, test
• Subscribe
• Confirm
• Hello
• Voila!
http://www1.umn.edu/news/subscribe/UR_CONTENT_096484.html
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
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 _______.”
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
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
Engage!
Not in the mood to argue fair use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PatrickStewart2004-08-03.jpg
Questions?
?