Question

Topic: Website Critique

Get Newsletter Subscriptions

Posted by Anonymous on 4/19/2006 at 11:58 AM ET 250 Points
Hi,
We have launched our first newsletter last month and sent it out to all our contacts (B2B, we are an equipment manufacturer). We had 30% opening the newsletter and received quite good critique from our customers and partners.
What we are still missing out though, is getting new people to subscribe. In order to promote the newsletter, we added a tag line in the email signature of our sales and marketing staff; and we put a little animation on our home page. Still, some people click on it (we track that), but very few do subscribe.
Any ideas what we could do better to get new subscriptions?

Thanks -
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 4/19/2006 at 12:12 PM Member
    Hi Guni -

    What is your Web site address . . . I'd like to review your newsletter sign-up processes and the animated gif on the home page to better understand the user experience and offer my advice . . . Thanks!

    Michael Melone
    Gumption Media
  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 4/19/2006 at 12:16 PM Accepted
    Hi Guni,

    One thing you must do is add a privacy statement to the signup up front, I don't see a policy anywhere.

    Studies by Marketing Sherpa show this one element can dramatically increase signups.

    Also, you might be better just having a signup box on the homepage instead of the animation which is distracting.

    The visual element of the box against the text would serve to draw the visitors eye to it as much as the animation.

    Or, better yet, run an A/B testing for a couple of weeks, 1 with animation and 1 with signup box.
  • Posted on 4/19/2006 at 12:40 PM Accepted
    Hi Again Guni -

    I checked your Web site and saw the experience.

    The animated GIF does not graphically stand out to me. Maybe because your product image is very pronounced in the center of the page. The sign-up GIF really got lost to me.

    Placing the boring but effective newsletter signup "Envelope" image upper right will most likely draw more attention.

    The experience after clicking the GIF or the "Newsletter" main navigation (I'm glad that it is main navigation) could be improved.

    When I click through, I expect to see the sign-up form immediately . . . Three choices creates another click to get things done. My recommendation would be the following.

    Create a "Communications Center" when people click-through, they can do the following:

    Get support
    Sign-up for eMail communications
    See archived newsletters and press releases
    Read about news and events, etc . . .

    By calling it a "Communications Center" you set an expectation for multiple "Contact us / We can contact you" scenarios.

    Additionally, you may consider adding a "sign-up for our newsletter" link to the bottom of all outbound communications.

    I noticed that you are using Constant Contact (as am I) . . . Recently I ran accross an EXCELLENT self-serve and cost-effective eMail solution by a company called Intellicontact . . . Very powerful . . . and allows surveys, unlimited custom fields, and email creation by downloading from a Web page . . .

    Just my $0.02

    Michael Melone
    Gumption Media
  • Posted by NatashaChernavska on 4/19/2006 at 1:03 PM Member
    Hello, Guni!

    It's hard to say something since you are not showing neither your newsletter, nor your website.

    Essentially, people do not like subscribtions. They subscribe only if they really need information you provide in a newsletter. Just imagine how many junk letters we receive every day...

    Think like people do. Do not try to sell, try to do something useful for people, something they will really need. Facts, numbers, advice, researches. If you just sending them your news, even if they are important for you, if they are useless to the people, they will not subscribe.

    And, of course, if you gave us at least an example of your newsletter, we could tell you more!

    Good luck!

    Natalia.
  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 4/20/2006 at 9:53 AM Accepted
    I wish the colors were a little more vibrant.

    I believe you need to do more to tell people why they should sign up...

    The world has way too many email newsletters these days...
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