Question

Topic: E-Marketing

How To Effectively Collect Users' Details Online?

Posted by james on 11/6/2005 at 8:31 AM ET 150 Points
I need to ask questions like gender, job, address, etc when people sign up my free e-zines. The problem is, if those questions are mandatory, many would just go away; if they are optional, people may leave the questions blank.

Any suggestions? Many thanks in advance.

James
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 11/6/2005 at 9:46 AM Member
    Hi James -

    I agree with Vincent - you need to give them a benefit of providing you with this information. I also agree the fields should not be mandatory. You need to come up with an incentive that is relevant to your market and would be perceived as a fair exchange for this information - perhaps a free subscription to something offline or online, or some other offer or valuable information. I think you also need to guarantee to them that you will not sell this info to a 3rd party and then follow through on that promise.

    Good luck!

    Joy
  • Posted by adammjw on 11/6/2005 at 10:08 AM Member
    james,

    Both Vincent and Joy are absolutely right. You should not force people to give you information you need abt. them.
    They have to be convinced that sharing that extra private info with you makes sense and will give them extra value.
    Therefore you should give them some bite-chunks of your offering to sample and full-fledged value when they agree to fill in all optional blanks.The shorter the registration process the better the chance they will go for it.
    Naturally it has to be part of your privacy policy that you , under no circumstanes, sell or divulge their personal information to any 3rd party.

    Adam
  • Posted by Billd724 on 11/6/2005 at 11:02 AM Accepted
    Hi James --

    Everyone is giving you quality information to your question.

    One thing you can do is provide something 'in advance' . . . e.g. a mini-report or the like (as a 'freebie' if you will) that your target market member will find useful. Call this the 'bread on the waters' approach, but by being pro-active in providing value 'without strings' actually makes it easier to stimulate a reciprocity and, a desire to 'opt in' for your ezine.

    Sometimes 'we' marketers have to make the first move before 'they' (our readers) make theirs.

    Hope that helps!

    Bill
  • Posted by timo kruskopf on 11/7/2005 at 1:32 AM Member
    Do you know how many other business gurus were born in same year as YOU?

    Fill here your birthday and you'll immediately see the biography of the other successful people born the same year and even under same sign as you.

    And we wish you happy birthday! We will send you birthday gift free of charge if you leave us your job address.
    --------
    DID YOU GET THE POINT?
    I've used it many times and it works. Also what I've done is splitting the questionnaire into several consecutive 1 question polls on website. The database behind will gather info under the person.
  • Posted on 11/7/2005 at 6:22 AM Accepted
    James - you can ask a maximum of eight pieces of information from your the visitor, as long as you offer him something of interest. For his details offer him (or her), in a pop-up-box:

    1. Access to information he is interested in

    2. If your site contains lots of info, then you can ask for his details in order to continue his search. Give him around five minutes browsing before the pop-up box appears (this works very well)

    3. A free report or regular Ezine. This is the most common method.

    You can't ask for more than eight pieces of info. The stronger the incentive, the greater the number of people who will sign up. This is all the info you really need. What to do next? Brain storm and test a series of really strong incentives for that pop-up box!

    Peter Hobday
  • Posted on 11/8/2005 at 9:38 PM Member
    Collect basic info on the front end and have them add the sex, etc . . . as an incentive to complate a survey where more folks expect to answer those types of questions.
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