List Building: Get & use First Name or skip it?

If you only ask for the visitor's e-mail address you will
see an increase in your visitor-to-subscriber conversion
rates.

By asking for additional data like first name etc, you will
see your opt-in rates decrease.

However, you'll need to test your own list to find out
whether asking for the first name hurts or helps your
overall business metrics.

In some niches (especially those unfamiliar with the idea
of autoresponders) people still think that you're typing a
personal e-mail rather than sending a broadcast!

I usually ask for just the e-mail address at the start of
my process (i.e. the squeeze page) because I know that
I'll get their fuller contact details later if they choose to
become a customer and move onto the more important
list of buyers.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

I'm pretty sure this problem is solved by making all form fields required before the opt-in is able to be registered. Unless I'm misunderstanding you.

Very well said. Thanks for sharing your experiences. That's some good information and I'm thinking it will be hard for anyone to refute these points.

In fact, your response is starting to make me believe that acquiring "First Name" is, in fact, sub-optimal (Although, I still wonder why some of the biggest sites and communities on the planet still do this).

I wonder if anyone can share any testing or experience in which getting and using "First Name" clearly won out over not using it.

Robert M Gouge: What obin94 meant is that when a name is required on a form, there are many people who will put in a fictitious name.

These people don't want to give out their real name, and they may even be savvy to the phony personalization of auto-responders which greet them, "Hi David..."

So, when they receive your emails, they know it's not personal at all. In fact, it has the complete opposite effect. They see you addressing them by the wrong name, and it only stresses you are just sending them impersonal automated email messages.

I agree with Alexis.

The problem for me is when I get a message like this and it starts with

Hi (name)! or Hi {Name} or Hi [FName]

I can see that he has failed to replace my name (perhaps I never gave it to him) and the email stands out as a template and very impersonal.

With an autoresponder I think it would be difficult to examine all your outgoing mail to make sure the placeholders were replaced correctly.

The more placeholders you use to try and make the email more customized and personal, the more chances to send out an incomplete template.

I don't find "Hi" any less personal than "Hi Mahlon". But "Hi (Name)!" kills it for me.

90% of my friends start their emails "Hi" (or use no salutation), not "Hi Mahlon".

As someone posted earlier, if a person I don't know starts a conversation with me by using my first name then I feel like I am being approached by a slimy salesman.

Mahlon

The trouble with that is that people will put bogus names in just to satisfy the form requirements - if they care enough to bother.

Personally, when someone tries to extort unnecessary information from me, I put in identifiers that let me know I didn't really 'volunteer' the information.

In this case, I'd likely fill in the first name as "Sucker", so that the emails would be flagged with the subject line "Hi, Sucker, this is urgent".

There's another aspect to this.

The information you ask for can be used to filter your responses.

You just want as many emails on your list as possible.

Ask for the email only, and go for the single opt-in.

You want to filter out time-wasters.

You ask for more and more information, and put more and more hoops up to jump through, until you get the kind of prospects you want. Ask for a first and last name, mailing address, phone number, employment and income qualifiers, whatever. This is quite common on sites like lead generators for PI lawyers. If you don't live in areas in which they practice, they don't really want to hear from you. So they ask for your address and phone number.

Not willing to give it? Not serious about hiring a lawyer.

Not willing to give general financials? Not a serious mortgage or refi prospect.

In theory, that makes sense.

In practice, it depends upon the list and the market.

For example, in markets like Internet Marketing, people
know the e-mail isn't personalized and some people do
not put in their real name. A significant number use
identifiers or obviously bogus names like Bill Gates,
Sally Big Tits, Bigus Dickus, etc.

You need to test it for your specific list.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

The sweetest sound (or vision) in any language is the sound of a persons own name.

IMO names are needed.

Here's another angle, related to the market niche's psychographics.

Some of the markets I serve are populated by well-off, older people. Having a business acquaintance, especially a younger one, casually address them by their first name actually offends them.

With these folks, it's Mr, Mrs or Miss (never, ever Ms) until invited to address them differently.

Sometimes I'll even change the text on the name field and ask 'how do you prefer to be addressed - John, Mr. Smith, etc.'. I've gotten comments back commending my good manners. Which definitely starts things out on a positive note...