I admit I have a tendency to get more worked up than the average customer about bad form in email sign-ups. Most people, I'm sure, will groan and put up with it, fill in the form with false information, or simply not bother with it and move on.

But for me, it seems daft to go to all the effort and investment of persuading people to engage more closely with you - and then make it so difficult for them to actually get on your email list.

There is really only one piece of information email marketers should "require" to send someone an email. Yep, the email address.

Take a look at this form: the email address is the only thing that Q has NOT required you to give. Madness. 

All the other information is useful, I agree. But if you don't get it immediately, it can still be gathered later … a really good email welcome programme is a much better time to gather more information. Anyway, surely it's better to be in contact with someone you know only a little about than to lose them completely because they don't want to share their full address, mobile number and date of birth with you, isn't it? (Read: Nurturing New Opt-In Email Subscribers)

I've worked with a lot of companies on their email sign-up processes and subsequent email marketing programmes. I’ve analysed which data you hold on someone is the best indicator of customer value – for retailers and for media companies. Believe me, there are many more important things than having all these required fields.

Please, Q, stop making your would-be e-newsletter subscribers jump these barriers to entry. You'll thank me for that advice – if you follow it!

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About the Author

Mike Weston is VP UK & EMEA Sales for Lyris. He's a leading figure and a regular speaker on the London digital marketing scene, with a particular focus on customer communication tools including email marketing and social media marketing.

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