The Email Wars

Being a subscriber to the Daily Beast – fun daily email if you have not seen it – I noticed some odd things on the home page of the site that I wanted to take a few minutes to share. These things were multiple opt in forms to sign up for the newsletter on the home page. Now at first glance I had a hard time finding them, yet notice I had not scrolled down yet, but once I saw them another thing popped into view. Two different types of newsletter opt in form. One being the long – give me everything about you – and the second being the just the email please. It got me wondering if this was a test of the form length on the page or just a tactic as the daily email is a primary driver of traffic to sites like this where daily news is the driver of opt in.

The first in the top right hand corner of the site asks for 9 fields, some check boxes and some opt in frequencies. It also allows you the ability to create a user ID and password for the site. I was not sure exactly why I needed a U/P but maybe it is to comment and interact. Odd for a news site to require this instead of just using comment forms. The other strange thing to me was that ALL fields were required to sign up for the newsletter in this form (in small type at the top) yet there were not any required indicators next to the fields. Little bit of a disconnect to me if someone misses it and I am requiring it for opt in.

The first two opt in boxes were default checked but yet the third which opts you in to 3rd party emails was not. This was a good thing as I hate it when they check that last box. Sure it might work for their partner programs but many people do not realize that it was checked until they start getting emails that they did not expect. Checking that box leads to a bad user experience in the short and long term and from past programs I have worked on show a high general opt out rate not just for those programs but from all opt in. And who wants to lose people due to your aggressive pre-checked box?

The second form towards the bottom of the site is the standard enter your email address opt in that I think suits this site more and give the experience. The benefit of this type of form is that you can get the opt in, then take them to a next page where you can progressive profile the user and ask for preferences and any other information that might help you with the email marketing/daily newsletter experience. This is my preference to engagement as if they do not give you more, you still have a path to start down with learning and asking as time goes by.

What was a great thing to find was their use of other methods to engage with them next to the opt in at the bottom of the site. This being iPhone, Facebook, Twitter, iGoogle and Blackberry – and once again email. nice use of the area to let people make decisions of where they want to interact with the Beast during the day.

They failed my final test of the Thanks, Confirmation email, and Welcome email. Such a missed opportunity to start a dialogue, set expectations and expose them to areas/features of the site that they might not have found/explored yet. Even a Thank you page was not provided where they could have immediately engaged me with news, features or something special to new subscribers.

So even with an email newsletter I look forward to getting each AM during the week I feel that there are still some things that they could be doing to make the overall experience better and help to lift the engagement metrics of their email marketing programs.

Are you making sure to check out your site to see if you have the above? Should be on your short list this month.