The Email Election

Sign-up

The first phase we’re looking at is the email sign-up process on each of the 3 main political parties' sites. In perhaps a clear sign of the importance that each party attaches to email marketing, the sign-up forms for each are prominently displayed above the fold on each website homepage.

The Conservatives make the sign-up the most obvious and have a nice call to action by personalising the email as “David’s weekly email”.
Labour refer to their email sign-up as “campaign news”. The Lib Dems use term “email updates”.

It is also worth noting the prominence of social networking links on each of the websites too.

The sign-up pages themselves are all very similar, with all three asking for basic information including first name, last name and postcode. The Conservatives and Lib Dems go one step further by asking for a mobile number as well – although this is not compulsory (a wise move so as not to put off potential subscribers).

All three parties confirmed my email subscription on the website, but the Labour party and the Lib Dems were the only ones that sent a confirmation email. They both used this well, by flagging a number of other opportunities that might be of interest, including their Facebook and Twitter social media channels.

Conclusion

So far, so good. All of the parties seem to be clued up in terms of the importance of making an email marketing sign-up process quick and easy, collecting enough information to help personalise (by name) and segment (by location) early emails.