New email notification added to site

gavin681's picture

They have: 184 posts

Joined: May 2001

Hello everyone,

I have just added an email notification form to my site. We will be printing our ebooks and would like to notify previous visitors when the book is in print.

I have one question: I have included a first name field as I feel including a first name in an email campaign will be more effective at generating sales. Does this look out of place or should I add a last name field also? Maybe I should just have an email field only?

http://www.grannyjo.com/notify_little_rhymes.htm

What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Gavin

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

How about just change that from "First Name" to "Name".

disaster-master's picture

She has: 2,154 posts

Joined: May 2001

I agree with Megan on that.

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Yeah I agree as well, that way people will put whatever they are comfortable with.

They have: 11 posts

Joined: Oct 2001

I think it's good with "First name". Your users will know that you use the name for informal contact.

gavin681's picture

They have: 184 posts

Joined: May 2001

Interesting feedback.

>>How about just change that from "First Name" to "Name".<<

But when I bulk email all these people I wanted to personalise the email. You see it maybe a month or so before the ebook is in print. Most people will have forgotten about Grannyjo.com

If I insert their first name they may be more likely to read it and not discard it thinking it was just junk email.

Should I include just:

(A)email field
(B)First Name and email field
(C)First Name, Last Name and email field
or
(D)Just Name and email field

I've seen several big time marketers use (C)

Maybe this would be the best one to use?

Gavin

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

I would go with just name & email, if it was me filling it in I would just put Julia anyway.

They have: 29 posts

Joined: Sep 2001

Putting my programmer head on, I would say just get the name, it shouldn't be too difficult to grab the first name out of the name entered, just programatically cut the string from the first character to the first occurence of a space. As an example, in an Access query, it would be

SELECT left(fullname, instr(fullname, ' ') - 1) as firstname
FROM registration

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

It depends what kind of tone you want to use. If you want to be businesslike and formal, use both first and last. If you want to be more informal and friendly, just ask for first name. If you want to cater to their needs ask for just "name" so, as The Webmistress said, they can put in whatever they're most comfortable with.

gavin681's picture

They have: 184 posts

Joined: May 2001

>>It depends what kind of tone you want to use. If you want to be businesslike and formal, use both first and last. If you want to be more informal and friendly, just ask for first name.<<

Magan you hit the nail on the head. That's exactly what I was thinking.

Great thanks everyone for all your comments.

Peace, I’m out
Gavin

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