Survey Finds Top Tactics to Get E-mail Subscribers

Digital marketers recently shared both the most popular and the most effective ways they use to acquire e-mail subscribers in a survey by ExactTarget. Unfortunately, some of the most common tactics are not also the most effective. A general e-mail sign-up form on the website was the most common e-mail gathering tactic, for example, used by 74% of the 395 digital marketers surveyed. But those website sign-up forms were rated as effective by only 42%. Conversely, some tactics rated as very effective in capturing e-mail addresses are not widely used. Effective but underused tactics included paid search ads driving to landing pages with opt-ins (50% rating as effective but only 27% using); opt-in options with mobile app content (59% rating as effective but only 12% implementing); and requiring an e-mail address to register a mobile app (seen as effective by 55% but in use by just 13%). Business type and facilities led to low usage of some other highly rated tools: Capturing e-mail during inbound sales calls (71% rated effective), inbound customer service calls (63% rated effective), and in-store loyalty program registrations (67% rated effective) were limited to the survey's marketers with brick-and-mortar locations and call centers. For more on e-mail acquisition tactics and trends, see the MarketingProfs report on the ExactTarget survey at http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2013/12044/the-most-effective-tactics-for-acquiring-email-subscribers