Newsletter owners already know how to get people to provide their own email address and full names, and it’s actually the easy part. What’s difficult is getting people to provide more in-depth information, like birthdays, ZIP code, preferences, etc – because people are naturally paranoid over giving out their personal info over the net.
This is a shame, because it’s those same personal data that can be used by newsletter owners in order to provide better service and content that is relevant to their interests. If you’re one of these newsletter owners who are struggling to get people to fill out their profiles on a regular basis, you need to learn how to motivate subscribers to give more information about themselves, here are a few things you can try:
Optimize Your Signup Form
Of course, if you want people to do something, the first thing you have to do on your end is make it easier for them to accomplish. When it comes to signup forms, make sure that they’re not a chore to fill out even if it has fields for all the extra info you want.
You might want to put yourself in the position of the user this time: when filling out forms, what are the ones that you’d wish were easier to accomplish, ones that made you abandon the form entirely, or ones that made you just pick the first one just to get things over with?
For instance, instead of having the user scroll through a lengthy list of months, years, and dates just to provide his birth date, you can simply give him 3 blank text boxes where he can provide his birthday in the 00-00-0000 format. Or instead of a blank text field for gender, just give him a drop down or tick box for all four choices. The point is, make sure your signup form doesn’t take up too much time or effort to fill out.
Create a Promo That Incentivizes Keeping Info Up to Date
It’s common knowledge in the industry that the best way to make people do something is by providing incentives, and promo campaigns are the most popular means of doing so. It’s actually very easy, you can send any offer – whether it’s free coupons, a free software, an exclusive ebook, or discount codes – as reward for keeping their info up to date.
Just send them a newsletter with an enticing copy (and probably a graphic here and there) telling them what’s in store if they keep their information up to date, and then give them the link to the update profile page, which in turn provides the link to the reward upon completion.
Lastly, Explain the Benefits of Providing Extra Information
As mentioned above, users are generally paranoid about giving out personal information. They are afraid that once their personal info goes online, it will open the floodgates on spam and identity theft. So your job as a newsletter owner is to allay their fears and explain the reason for asking extra information – that it’s actually meant to make their experience better and will in fact prevent spam, because the newsletter that they will receive from you will be relevant to their interests and not random sales pitches. Lastly, don’t forget to provide a disclaimer that you’re not going to use their info for anything else or give it away to third parties.
