What Data to Collect

Objective: Learn the right data to collect on your opt-in page to MAXIMIZE subscribers. What You’ll Accomplish: By the end of this les...

Objective: Learn the right data to collect on your opt-in page to MAXIMIZE subscribers.
What You’ll Accomplish: By the end of this lesson, you’ll understand why you should only ask for the email address on your opt-in page.
Estimated Completion Time: 5 minutes
Before you begin: You won’t need any major prep for this lesson. All you need are the opt-in pages you found in the previous exercise and a place to take notes.
The whole point of an opt-in page is to collect the emails of your visitors so that you can communicate with them again. It’s that ongoing communication that makes money for you.
So the question is… what information should you ask people for?
If you browse around, you’ll find all kinds of opt-in pages. Some ask for just an email.  Some ask for a name and email. And some collect a lot of information like first name, last name, email, physical address, gender, etc.

The VAST majority of opt-in pages collect just two pieces of information: name and email address.

Obviously, you need the email address to be able to send emails out to them. So why ask for the name as well?
The argument is that by collecting their name, you can personalize your emails. For example, you can have a subject line like, “Are You Frustrated, Joe?” You can even include their name in the email itself.
Sounds pretty good, right? Hold on a second.

In my experience, getting their name actually adds ZERO value to the quality of your email list!

Back in 1999, people were impressed when they got a personalized email with their name in it. But we’re well past those days.

In fact, my testing shows that the extra step of entering the name REDUCES opt-ins. And the name does NOT increase the responsiveness of the list!

Now you might think, gee, including the name is such a small step. Surely it can’t make that big of a difference. But it DOES.
In every test I have done, you can increase your subscribers by 5% or more by only asking for an email. Requiring BOTH the name and email address always lowers conversions.

Remember these definitions: A conversion occurs when somebody to take the action you want them to take, such as subscribing to your list. So if 62 people signed up for your list on Monday, you got 62 conversions that day. The conversion rate is the percentage of people who take action. So if 100 people visited your opt-in page, and 62 signed up, the conversion rate is 62%.

Therefore, for the highest possible conversions, ONLY ask for the email address. DO NOT ask for their name. Just do this:

Recap

• Most opt-in pages ask for both the email address and name.
• Yet my testing shows that asking for both REDUCES opt-ins.
• So only ask for the email address.

THE WISE MARKETER KNOWS This isn’t 1999. People aren’t blown away when their names appear in emails. Get that extra 5% (or more) of opt-ins and just ask for their email address!

NEXT: There’s one more important question to ask yourself about your opt-in page. Find out what that is in the next lesson.