Today I got an email from Infusion pitching some company called StomperNet. Interestingly their signup form consisted only of an email address (see the site here: http://stomperf5.com/is/tt1/).

When I signed up for Infusionsoft, and in my conversations with Infusionsoft, I've been told that first name and last name are essentially required fields for any form of email marketing from Infusion. Yet here is a company promoted by Infusion asking only for an email.

What gives? Has the "best practice", and as I understood it, required practice, changed?

Thanks,
Sean

Most of the industry allows for one name like a username and an email. Not sure why Infusionsoft requires both. They are more concerned about spam and abusive practices than any of the other systems so maybe this is why they do this. It really is not necessary and the less information you ask for upfront the better your chances of getting their email address. When a site ask me for my details beyond what I am willing to give them I just break my username up into several parts. The boxes will take anything so it is silly to think just because you will ask for it you will get anything that is valid.

Like all clients, StomperNet is permitted to be creative and unique in their marketing efforts. We advocate collecting the first name at minimum of contacts as it enables their email to be personalized.

If you have strong subscriber loyalty, you will have dramatically lower spam complaints and as such, the adage of requiring a name is pointless.

The referee of the game here is ISP spam complaints. If the complaints go up, practices need to be tightened, if complaints remain low, you can leverage (not liquidate) the relationship you have with your contacts.

However, to maintain CAN-SPAM compliance, IMPORTED contacts MUST retain the name of the individual. If we didn't require the name of the recipient, it places both Infusionsoft and the client at a much higher risk among anti-spam providers. It also adds layers of accountability when performing imports; and minimizes list abuse.

Hope this helps!

Hi Joe,

This seems to be another poorly thought through policy on Infusionsoft's part. That email only is ok one way (webform) but not another (import) is non-sensical. But enough with the policy question... I still want to know what best practice is on this issue given the desire to maximize visitor lead conversion, vs. the desire to minimize spam complaints.

Looks like stompernet, a featured Infusionsoft partner, and a proclaimed expert in marketing thinks best practice is email only.

So my question remains: What is best practice for converting visitors to leads???

1. Just email?
or
2. Email, First, Last

Would love to know if anyone here has tested both, and if so what they found.

I know that Infusionsoft's policy leads to better all around practices and minimizes potential for spam complaints but it does not optimize or maximize the potential for web form sign-ups.

Best Practice depends on you goals. If your goals are to minimize complaints and keep things as targeted as possible knowing that you may lose some opportunities in the process than both names should help. But that being the case, the more info you ask for the more likely the prospect is on board and less likely to complain about your email marketing.

According to many of the email marketing programs, they suggest the best practice is to ask for as little information as possible.

AWeber recommends you limit it to just username and email as much of the name information is never real anyway. You might make me give you my email address which I use for junk mail anyway, but you can't make me give you my real name. Here is where Infusionsoft is flawed as their policies assume that the world is perfect and that you get good information from everyone.

Check out this article:

target="_blank">http://www.aweber.com/blog/articles-tips/maximize-signup-conversions-by-asking-for-less.htm

Great point djbbiz. I'd rather have just email, then made up firstname, lastname data.

To earn permission to market, we offer something of value. Free download, newsletter, etc. In exchange we have permission to be personal and relevant with our communications. I ask for first name, last name, and email address. No phone. I don't seem to have a problem getting this. And if I can't get at least a first name, my communication is less than personal. So my thinking is, why bother in the first place. Dear, I don't know your first name cause I wasn't sure if you'd give it to me. Just my opinion.

I can certainly respect that opinion Cliff, and many people marketers feel the same way, but for me, it is all business until I reach out to engage in a relationship with you. So I sign up to get your information and receive your newsletter specifically to see if I want to engage in a relationship with you. In the mean time I don't really care if your canned marketing auto-responder computer...knows my first name or not because I know for fact you don't. The public is getting very sophisticated, nobody is impressed by the fact an email comes with their first name on it any more. I think it is more important that they asked for the info and are willing to accept your emails in a time when everyone is tired of getting hit with junk mail. As such I think the focus needs to be in the content of your landing page and web site and any give-away offer you might have and not if you have my name or not as at this point I prefer you did not.

I agree with much of the points everyone has shared. Best practices for email vary between industries. While it may be more appropriate to collect as much information as possible, it COULD be as desirable to collect as minimal information.

It's all about managing expectations. When I sign up for StomperNet, I'm not expecting free iPod offers, I'm expecting great tips on copy and marketing. Given that, I am not disappointed when Andy sends me exactly what I expect. (And even more, his humor...)

Personally, I think it's safe (and fair) to ask for a first name and email address. As the contact warms up, you can collect more information with Web Forms down the road.

I can attest that requiring a legitimate name for data imports IS good sense for us to do. Especially when you could be suffering from someone's error of importing a list of 100,000 email addresses that they harvested. Having correct information is about data integrity and it assures us that you have the necessary documentation that they did opt-in.

When we have a Web Form opt-in, we retain the IP address, hostname, opt-in form ID and the timestamp as evidence for regulatory compliance. Our data can't be manipulated or changed, we trust you trusting us. (Which is why we're slightly more liberal in this aspect...)

Just to recap -- it's OK for email only leads, except for imports. Email is something that should be valued and not treated like dross on the Web. I hope that clarifies the e-mail only leads.

~Joseph

Hey there,

We have found the best success with first name and email in a first encounter with a prospect while offering something for "free".

Getting the first name allows us to personalize future correspondence.

Some of the pains of this approach were:
- people still often type in first and last
- without a last name, future batch import actions won't run

While this will be child's play for you code jockies, we did whip up a quick php script that we run via a "post" action after sign-up to clean up such messy inputs:
- splits a full name into first and last
- cleans up the case
- creates a dummy last name "." if there isn't one

By no means comprehensive for all the wacky stuff people enter but covers 95%. Attached for your enjoyment...

Chris