Growing Your List Using the Subscribe Feature in Campaign Enterprise

By Jim Kinkade

List building through viral marketing is a new and important trend for mass email marketers. Adding new subscribers while engaging them with useful, exciting content is an ongoing challenge.

When an active subscriber passes your email message to a dozen or so friends, wouldn't it be great if some of those second-degree recipients also subscribed to your email newsletter? That's the essence of viral email marketing. If you notice your email messages are frequently forwarded because of unique and /or excellent content, you'll want to take advantage of this list growth opportunity. Therefore offering viral customers a page where they can easily subscribe is essential to growing your email list.

Built-in subscription form
Campaign Enterprise can help you gather new subscribers with its built-in email subscription form. If done correctly, you can turn your regular email newsletters into an effective viral marketing email campaign.

Arial Software introduced the subscription form in Campaign Enterprise 10, replacing the old email-based subscribe feature, which was simply a confirmation email. With the new subscribe feature, anyone can click on the subscribe link in an email message, and add their email address, name, and other information to an email list.

This handy feature allows you to invite current subscribers to join to a separate newsletter they may not currently receive. It lets a person who received the email message from a friend subscribe himself or herself to your list, and the person who forwarded the email message can be indicated in the database. This feature also can be used as an opt-in confirmation for email contacts obtained from a tradeshow or convention, and can be a point where more contact information is obtained.

To use the subscribe feature, Campaign Enterprise must be configured with a public IP address or domain in the main configuration area. If click through tracking or opened email tracking is enabled and working properly, everything should be all set to use the subscribe feature.

Configuring the subscribe feature
On the Setup Campaign tab in the campaign edit screen, check the box next to the Subscribe Processing feature to enable. The Subscribe tab will appear. Campaign Enterprise requires that the campaign be connected to a table before editing the Subscribe tab. Once the source table, email address and unique ID are selected in the Datasource tab, you can edit the Subscribe tab.

At the top of the Subscribe tab, select the table to which records will be added. It does not have to be the same as the source table specified in the Datasource tab, but it does need to be a table in the same database. Once the table is selected, enter the name of the email address field for the specified table. As with all table and field names, there should be no spaces or special characters in the names.

Next, enter the hyperlink text for the subscribe link. This is the link on which the reader will click in order to open the subscription form. This can be a simple text invitation like "click to subscribe," or a web based image. When using an image, simply input the HTML image tag in the subscription text field. Make sure you include a "border =0" in the tag so there is no blue box around the image in the email message. Here's sample image tag:

<img src="http://www.domain.com/imagefolder/image.gif" border="0">

When the subscribe link or image is clicked, the server hosting Campaign Enterprise serves the subscription page, which is why it is necessary to configure Campaign Enterprise with a public IP address or domain name.

The code for the web form and the confirmation page are shown in the text areas at the bottom of the Subscribe tab. These are both fully configurable. You can preview how the pages look by enabling the editor, but modifications to the web form should occur in the HTML code directly. Campaign Enterprise offers a default form, which is a good starting point for those who are not familiar with web forms. The form is bare, and other elements need to be added to the page to brand it, and inform the person signing up more about what they are getting into. The web form must contain the merge field {Action} in the form post line:

<form name="form1" method="post" action={ACTION}>

The default form provides an email address field, first name, last name, company and phone number field available, but only the email address field is required. The field names in the input types need to match the names of the fields the form is updating in the table. For example, if the email address field is "email_address," then the input type must be "email_address." Any other modification of the form will work as long as the {Action} merge field is included. A web designer should be consulted to make major changes to the form or submit button.

The confirmation page is also fully customizable and is served up by the Campaign Enterprise server. Links on the confirmation page could lead the new subscriber to the index page, or other areas of your website.

Don't forget the subscribe link
In the message tab, ensure that the {SUBSCRIBEHYPERLINK} merge field is placed somewhere in the message body. When the email message is sent, the pertinent campaign information is merged in the link, including the unique id of the original recipient. This way the original referrer of the email can be tracked and noted when the new record is added to the selected table. Make sure you test everything out before including the subscribe link in a live email marketing campaign.

If there is a subscription page already on your website, you can track subscribers that reach it through an email message by setting up a click-through tracking link to that page.

With a little work, the content you provided to your subscribers can generate high interest and drive a viral campaign. Take advantage if your newsletter is getting passed around and make it easy for those who receive it subscribe for a copy themselves. This is a great way to build a solid email list with people who have already demonstrated an interest in what you offer. -- Arial Software

Go to Technical Tips