It's All About the Offer

By Dennis Malaspina
VP, Sales and Client Development

Practical Ecommerce has a great article on how to improve your email marketing results with co-registration. They cover many of the basics, including payment, finding partners and tracking performance. But they missed one big component that we find is crucial to success for our co-registration clients: The offer.

In our experience with hundreds of clients, throwing up a checkbox and praying for rain rarely gives you the results you are hoping for. Consumers and businesspeople alike are inundated at every turn with offers for email newsletters, so standing out from the crowd is crucial to success.

What makes a great co-reg offer? Generally it's all about the content. What does your email offer subscribers that other emails don't? Some ways to think about it:

Make me smarter: Offering information that is either unavailable elsewhere or that has been made more practical for the reader is a time-tested way to attract and keep subscribers. This can be true for both B2C and B2B. For the business crowd spotlight information that will help me get promoted. For consumers think about translating news into news I can use.

Make my life easier: Again, this type of content can work for business and consumer offers. Working folks need ideas that can make them more productive - ideas to work smarter, not harder. Consumers need ideas that streamline their home lives to free them to enjoy the few leisure hours they have.

Make me look better: Let's face it, we're vain. Tips on beauty and style can be big hits - especially if you can find a way to bring a fresh, new slant to it.

What all these ideas have in common is this: they focus on the subscriber. By focusing on what your readers want for themselves, then weaving your messages around it, you'll build your list faster and keep readers engaged longer.

The trick is then to translate these benefits into response-driving copy that will make your co-registration offer a big hit. This isn't easy, but it's made easier when you have great content to offer. The benefits generally flow quite naturally from the content you are including to make my life better.