Email-only email signup forms?

Mimi Plato 2

For all of our email signup forms we ask for email, first and last name. Recently, we started asking for zip code too to help address the severe duplicate records issue we had.


I've been asked by our web team to create an email-only email signup form for use on the website. I'm concerned about not having names on records -- not being able to reconcile duplicates and also not being able to personalize emails.


Can others share their thoughts on email-only signup? Both pluses and minuses.


Thanks, Mimi

Kim Ethridge 2

We ask for the same things you do for several reasons. If your web team feels online signup is lagging and they need to boost acquisition you could recommend they only do this as a test and evaluate after a few months whether the benefits are worth the cost to data integrity. That said, I would hope they are implementing other efforts to improve email acquisition and not relying on this. If they are going to do this, I wouldn't start until you had a solid Welcome series prepared. I would also be prepared to report on conversions for this audience versus your current list acquisition.


Good luck.


Kim

Brian Mucha

I would definitely not want email only records in LO either. There's a difference between building an email list and constituents. You can make a fairly good starter record from just First name, last name, email address and zip code. Street address would sure be better though.


One thing I did once was start with name, zip and email address, but then used a second form as the thank you page which gathered more bio info. I showed them the remaining address fields and a nice picker of our email interests. "Thanks for Joining! Now fine tune your experience."  If they walk away from that second form you still have something.


If they really insist, what about using a survey text field that gathers just the email address, and then email them a follow-up from an outside service like Constant Contact? If that follow-up/custom welcome series gets an engagement like a donation only then they would get into LO. This is how we handled experimenting with purchased lists. Don't want that junk in my system, thanks.


Another thing to do is properly design your sign up form. Bio fields can be a lot less painful if you use html5 field types with autocomplete hints and.that sort of thing.


BPM

Mimi Plato 2

Thank you Brian and Kim! It's good to know I was on the track with this. With your help I was able to make the argument. The web team will work with us and include the additional fields!