Are You Using Every Opportunity To Collect Email Addresses?
It is no secret that I love Southwest Airlines (SWA). We’ve highlighted them on this blog, List Growth The Right Way. Whether or not you are personally a fan, I think it would be hard to argue that Southwest Airlines understands marketing. From their witty commercials to their nutty blog to their personal, human Twitter account, SWA just gets it.
So it didn’t surprise me when, on a recent SWA flight, I flipped over my napkin and saw this:
Wow, right? SWA is using cocktail napkin real estate to promote their email marketing! They even provide options: “Sign up online or text your e-mail address to #83793.” Now that is impressive.
Suggestions For Southwest Airlines
While it’s hard to be too critical of SWA for trying unique methods of email address collection, I have a few thoughts if they choose to move forward with the “napkin campaign”.
- Provide Incentive: What’s in it for me? Why should I sign up for their emails? The copy says “Click ‘N Save”, but I’m not really sure what I’ll be saving. Better or exclusive flight deals? More options? Be clear. Be explicit. Give me a reason to hand over my email address.
- Be More Creative: I’ve never claimed to be the most creative person; however, I think the SWA napkin could use a bit more imagery – maybe an email symbol (@ sign, envelope, etc) or something else that jumps off the napkin to evoke a positive association with email.
- Add Unique Tracking: How will SWA know if this campaign is working? I’m assuming that the text number (#83793) is exclusive and tied to the napkin campaign, but what about if I sign up online? A simple answer would be to print a unique URL on the napkin – say, Southwest.com/napkin or Southwest.com/emailnapkin.
Are You Using Every Opportunity To Collect Email Addresses?
Based on the above effort by SWA, I think they understand the value of an email address. When an individual gives a company their email address, it’s like gold. Yet for some reason, many organizations are either making it difficult to sign up or are not leveraging various channels to encourage subscribers to opt-in.
As an email geek, one thing that drives me batty is going to a website and not being able to sign up to receive emails. Now if your organization does not have an email marketing program, that’s one thing, and maybe we should talk! However, if you are collecting email addresses on your website, yet are making it hard for potential subscribers to find the form, you are missing a huge opportunity.
Besides just the obvious – website – there are countless other opportunities to collect email addresses. In the eBook we released a few months ago, we list 50 ways to grow your email list. The list includes using social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc), offline channels (i.e., SWA’s napkin), and a host of other methods to help grow your list.
What creative methods are you using to collect email addresses? Here are Big lists of Consumer email Database
