A great idea that got lost along the way

January 18th, 2007 by Kelly Rusk

Ok, don’t get me wrong, I love MediaPost - I subscribe to a bunch of its publications and regularly read & love them. However, today, I got a new one called “Performance Insider”, so out of curiosity I open it up and pleasantly to my surprise, it has this note attached introducing me, explaining what the new newsletter is about and why they think I might be interested (because I already subscribe to other similar MediaPost newsletters)

So anyway, I find the note compelling enough and decide I want to subscribe, so I click the link… but it brings me to a registration page (strange, since the note sounds like the email was only sent to those who are already registered) but no worries, I easily find a link for existing users. Then it prompts me to login.. I try once - invalid login, I try again - Invalid login, one more time - same thing.

Now I registered eons ago, and I’m sure I checked the “save my login info” because I ALWAYS do… but it’s not there now, and now after so many steps I’ve lost interest and won’t be subscribing to this new newsletter…

This is why it’s always important to make things quick and easy for subscribers, why couldn’t I just click a link and it automatically subscribes me to this email. I mean I’m already subscribed to their other publications, so it’s not like they need any additional info from me.

Posted in Email marketing |

One Response

Vince Says:

August 16th, 2007 at 11:53 am

One click subscription seems to me like it’s skirting along the edge of data protection and privacy issues. Anyone who somehow gets hold of the original email (forwarded/computer left on/etc) could easily subscribe you up.
I’d still make them log in, but I agree - send them to the log in page and then to the subscriptions updated confirmation page straight after login.