It’s so easy to avoid this.
I’m always trying to widen my horizons, learning new things that impact marketing and advertising (and more personal subjects – I’ve got a few books on psychology at the moment).
So if I see newsletters or webinars that cover something interesting, I’m keen to sign up.
However, my experiences of doing this have not given me a very good impression of the companies involved.
They make what I call 2 fatal mistakes (one of which is actually illegal) and you need to avoid doing this if you want to build new relationships with clients and prospects.
No.1 mistake: asking for too much personal information!
No.2 mistake: making you agree to marketing in order to sign up! This is the one that’s illegal
These actions really make me feel, despite reams of copy to the contrary, that they don’t actually care about these subscribers/prospects. They’re just going for numbers – the vanity metrics of social media.
You might get hundreds signing up for a webinar, but if you make these 2 mistakes they will not be potential new clients.
Some will immediately unsubscribe as soon as the webinar ends, and many will do the same over the following days (especially if you send out 7 emails in one day – as experienced by one of my clients!)
And what will be their lasting impression of the company? Certainly not a favourable one.
Needless to say, when I came across a sign-up form for a newsletter which asked me for
First name
Surname
Company
Email address
Mobile number
Postal address
my heart sank.
Not again!
However, when I took a closer look, none of the fields had the * indicating I had to complete them.
I, therefore, added my first name and email address and pressed SUBMIT
I was in! And I didn’t have to agree to email marketing.
I was so happy (I know, a little sad to be happy about this).
With hindsight I should have asked why they wanted so much information about me, just to send a newsletter.
The lesson: ask for the minimum information you need to do the thing they are signing up for, and give them a choice as to whether they want to receive your marketing.