Capture More Customer Data with Profile Update Pages

Profile, or preference, update pages are vital to making it easy for your subscribers to change their email address, format or other preferences. With an estimated 30 percent of consumers changing their email address annually, a profile update page is mandatory for email marketers.

A preference update page can also be a great means to capture additional vital information from your subscribers that enables you to send them more relevant (personalized and segmented) content and offers. As your email program moves away from a batch and blast approach, the profile update page becomes a key means to capture new information that you may not have been prepared to use previously.

Follow these tips to create a mini-campaign to learn more about your subscribers:

1. Update your opt-in forms to be consistent with the data fields in your newly created or updated profile page.

2. Add a profile update link near the top of your messages and in your “subscriber management” area near the bottom.

3. Add a brief note in your emails encouraging subscribers to update their preferences so they can receive “more relevant emails.”

4. Send a special email to subscribers asking them to update their profile or preferences. Explain why it will benefit subscribers to update their profile (content tailored to their interests, discounts or product selections that match their preferences, etc.).

5. Include a relevant incentive, such as free or reduced-rate shipping on their next purchase, price discount or free product with the next purchase, special report or whitepaper download, free trial, etc.

6. Send reminder emails to those subscribers that don’t open or click on the update request email.