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I don't always talk about email.  Ask around.  Outside of the office, I'm more likely to talk about travel or the latest episode of "Heroes" than sending email.  But if someone asks, I'm all-in.

The other night, I was attending a fund raising event for the Movember Foundation and had a conversation with someone who, upon learning what I do for a living, asked me what they can do to get more people to sign up for their email newsletter.

Emailer: "What can I do to get more people to subscribe to my newsletter?"
Me: "Well, let's start at the beginning.  What does a subscriber get out of it?"
Emailer: "Ummm. Well, stuff.  They're on my website, so they're interested, and I have a signup form there."
Me: "Let's start there. Do you let the visitors see an example of previous newsletters?  Do you provide information on the kinds of information you'll be sending and how often?"
Emailer: "It just says 'Sign up for our newsletter.'"
Me: "Is the signup form on the main page?"
Emailer: "Well, not really.  Actually, it's a couple of clicks in... but it's with the rest of our publications."
Me: "When you send, do you include a means for the recipient to share the email with others?"
Emailer: "No.  Should I?"

At this point, I paused for a few moments to figure out where to start.  The other party had a look on his face that said "What have I done?  I was just making small talk."

Me: "If you're really interested in getting to the bottom of this, let's take a step back.  Why do you use email?"
Emailer: "To get people to buy our services."
Me: "Is that it?  Any other reasons?"
Emailer: "It's trackable.  I can see who is opening and clicking."
Me: "Good, so you're reviewing your data.  Do you use that to send follow-ups or different offers to those people?"
Emailer: "No.  I'm not even sure if I can do that with my provider."
Me: "How much time do you spend writing the copy?"
Emailer: "A couple hours per newsletter"
Me: "How much time putting it all together?"
Emailer: "Not much. We have a template."
Me: "How much time do you spend testing?"
Emailer: "Uhhhh... what now?"
Me: "Do you do any split-testing to see if one subject line is better than another?"
Emailer: "That seems like a lot of work."

My new friend realized that this was going to be a longer conversation than he anticipated, but was interested enough that we found a quiet place to talk some more.  He even took out a pen and started taking notes.  I explained that his approach is not unique.  I see it all the time. A lot of people start out knowing that they should be incorporating email into their marketing efforts, but do not put a lot of thought into strategy.  A recent blog post over at Red Pill illustrated this through a comparison to a South Park episode.

"Failures don't plan to fail; they fail to plan."~~Harvey Mackay

It is important to keep in mind that getting people to sign up isn't everything.   Think about why you're using email.  Think about how it helps you accomplish your goals, whether those goals are to spread information, sell more widgets, increase brand recognition... each of those should influence not only what you include in your emails, but the type of information you're providing to entice them to sign up, as well as what metrics you need to measure to ensure effectiveness.

Kris Dougherty| Deliverability & Operations