New Chart: Does Anybody Know (More Than) My Name?

I've been traveling on this road
I get the feeling it's getting on
I keep moving on, I keep rolling on
Does anybody know my name?

The Kinks, "You Don't Know My Name"

In my continuing series of email marketing blog posts, I’ve covered challenges , objectives and tactics , but to make things happen in the land of email marketing, you need email addresses.  Plain and simple.

And, the most effective email names are those that have opted-in. That’s one of the key elements to inbound marketing – after they find you, you want them to convert by giving you their info.  Simple, right?

Marketers usually ask for as much from their prospects as they can during the email data collection that takes place during a registration of some sort – registering for a webinar or white paper, subscribing to a newsletter, opting in for more information.

According to MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report , in addition to an email address, most companies ask for personal name, company name and lead source. After that, other information does not seem to be as important according to this chart.

At HubSpot , we ask for a fair amount of information since we are more concerned with determining the quality of the lead than amassing large numbers of email addresses.  But each company must select their own criteria for their form, based on their industry and sales pipeline requirements. More importantly, you need to test the forms so you can achieve the right balance of quantity and quality leads.

Figuring out how much information you need to establish a quality lead is the first step.  How many form fields do you feel are too many?