I had the pleasure of presenting at the DMA E-mail Marketing conference recently and discussed the subject of using forms in e-mail marketing campaigns as a method of data collection. This seemed to touch a few raw nerves with some of the delegates I spoke to afterwards who are finding it increasingly complex to include this functionality in their campaigns. This certainly tallies with our experience but this tactic can still deliver great results if implemented cleverly.   So I thought I’d use this blog to share e-Dialog’s experience in this area.

E-mail compatibility across multiple e-mail clients is a major challenge for all e-mail vendors. Now, with the recent boom in e-mail on mobile devices, the possible browser, machine, operating system, and e-mail client combinations jumped from 20 or so (of the most widely used software) to tens of thousands.  One of the most contentious issues with compatibility is the functionality of data collection forms within e-mail. AOL.com, Hotmail.com and Outlook 2007 have stripped form functionality from their e-mail clients, though Gmail has yet to follow suit.

Our approach has been to offer the functionality of forms by offering the capability to merge in textual links and calls-to-action to web-based versions of forms for AOL.com and Hotmail to get around this issue.  Search forms in e-mail still remain the most popular features of our clients’ e-mail campaigns, consistently ranking in the top 3 of links clicked in their campaigns. We have also found a significantly high number of AOL and Hotmail users clicking through to the web-based versions of the e-mail to complete forms.

So called ‘Drip-Poll’ programs which use a series of single question, prioritised, data acquisition forms to complete a customer’s e-mail profile are still some of e-Dialog’s most effective and popular campaigns for our clients. Interestingly we have not noticed a significant decrease in the submission of embedded forms in e-mail since AOL and Hotmail limited form functionality over a year ago. In fact, we’ve seen many more clicks to the hosted versions of e-mails, activating imagery and forms for clients in webmail clients and mobile browsers.

So yes the use of forms in e-mail, like the channel as a whole is becoming more complicated. However, if your e-mail marketing partner offers you the proper tools, you can still deliver the most interactive, relevant marketing experience to your customers and collect valuable data through forms at the same time.

Hope this helps

Simone Barratt, Managing Director, e-Dialog EMEA