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How to succeed in gaining new subscribers
01.12.2009 | Page 4 of 6
Martin Bucher
Responsible and fair
We marketers are fond of our recipients’ data. We orient our messages to the needs of our recipients and generate impressive statistics on our target groups.
However great this may be from a marketing point of view, we must not forget that personal data is highly sensitive and deserves to be protected. This is why we must put aside our own interests (great statistics) and prioritise the interests of our subscribers (protection of their personal data). The best way to protect personal data is to neither request nor store it.
A good subscription form therefore only asks for data that is strictly necessary. This is usually the email address.
Exemplary subscription form at UnitedCooks.co.uk
You can, of course, ask for further details, however, these should only ever be given voluntarily. Subscribers are usually happy to provide such voluntary information, if they expect to gain some tangible benefit by doing this. Naturally, they need to know why this additional information is being requested.
Information on the interests of a subscriber can be used to customise the content of a newsletter to suit their specific needs, for example. The advantage of collecting the name and gender of a subscriber is that they can be addressed personally instead of with ‘Dear Subscriber’.
The voluntary nature of the information and its purpose is clearly evident. The subscriber is treated very fairly here. Inexperienced users divulge more personal data on the Internet out of sheer ignorance when a form is unfair and unclear than they do when a subscription form is fair and clearly designed. Exploiting a user’s ignorance in such a way is not particularly professional.
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 Martin Bucher,Managing Director
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