The Email Wars

Typically I would not be even mentioning the two people in these ads, but I noticed these on a political news site the other night. Yeah, I follow politics. Who doesn’t? But ads typically don’t catch my attention much anymore. Just clutter around information in most cases.

But these two were calls for newsletter sign ups, so my interest was piqued of course. So I clicked through the first one which was for good old Newt. I had wondered where he had squirreled off to anyway. The lead capture page was good. It was clear what it was about, offered content to support why I would want to opt in, and then showed me a sample email. Great tactics.

View image

But alas I did not opt in and hit the back button. Which to my surprise then loaded the Ann Coulter ad in the spot Newt’s was prior. Was this a behavioral ad? I assumed it was as it was produced by the same group and followed the same technique.

View image

Well this had me thinking about using ads to grow opt ins. If the ad is served in an environment where the content is relevant then it makes sense. I would think that the opt in rate would be high and the churn rate of unsubs would be low as they were clear, showed me what I would be getting and if it follow suit of not too many promo ads or even cross promotional ads people would most likely stay engaged.

So what can we learn?

One: Your call to action should be clear
Two: The placement of your opt in action should stand out
Three: The landing page at subscription point must present value

Are you doing this?