No one is going to be on your site all the time. Using features like email and phone-based messages is a great way to maintain mind-share and to drive repeat visits. For example:

  • Email/Phone Alerts
  • Newsletters & General updates
  • Stats updates - profile views etc

Retailers have embraced this in a big way - every single one I’ve purchased from in the past 6 months sends me a newsletter with ‘exclusive savings.’ While this was great at first, when you start getting three emails a week from Target it starts to get a bit much. While it’s easy enough to turn these off, it would be great to be able to control the frequency with which I received canned information. I’d love to be able to say “I’d like a general newsletter once a month at most, but if you ever have a great deal on Mountain Hardwear Jackets, send me a text message.”

You’ve got to strike a balance between keeping the user informed and being annoying. Ideally, you’d get to the point where you were keeping in touch regularly enough to be meeting business goals but with enough of an interval that user’s would still be looking forward to hearing from you.

If you can put users in control of the type of content they get and how often they get it, I bet you could get more people to give you their email address. If users feel like they control the interaction, they’re more likely to interact with you in the first place.