Ask for Email = Increase Sales

[Agent 4125]

This is from someone developing accounting software, but it still might help with games. They saw a significant increase in sales by asking for an email address before the trial download.

http://markmclaren.com/blog/2009/08/...-for-an-email/

As expected, the number of downloads dropped off when asking for an email. But the overall number of sales increased by 18%.

The key seems to be in the follow-up, not just in the asking...

So what do we do with an email address that compensates for the reduced download rate? We use it in two ways:

1. As soon as the user downloads the software, we send an email saying, “Thanks for downloading - here is a useful How-To guide”
2. Two weeks later we send another email (if they have not opted out) asking “Did you like our software?”

Definitely worth a try.

[jpoag]

Somewhat related:

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090701...to-buyers.html

Abandoned shopping carts...

[Qitsune]

But if we talk about physical goods (eg. buying physical stuff over the internet) I often abandon my shopping cart because it turns out that I can't get shipping rates without entering my paypal/credit cart information. That seriously pisses me off and it doesn't exist for downloadable or online games. Assuming that other people than me want to know about shipping, I don't think shopping cart abandonnement can be as high for games.

However, maybe people abandon because they have to fill out one too many forms to get their game?

Edit, I posted at the same time I was reading, turns out it's exactly what they say. Ooops.

[jpoag]

The OP article simply reminded me of this article I read in Inc magazine. The question is, how can you follow up on someone who downloaded your game without their email address?

It's not necessarily about shopping carts, but about following up on potential sales. Perhaps to try and get a higher conversion rate?

Following up on a sale isn't just about getting the sale but could be about getting feedback from the customer why they decided not to buy. Offer a $2 or 10% coupon for answering a short questionnaire about their shopping experience.

[GaiaDreamCreation]

This looks like a good strategy. I will look at this more closely. Thanks for posting.

I have question concerning the implementation. Getting the emails can increase the sales and that is right. However, if I force people to give me their email, I am sure that many of them will close the page and simply not download the trial. This strategy is good for increasing the conversion rate of those who wrote their email to download the trial, but I will get less people downloading. It might not be that much better in all cases.

The best solution is to give insensitive, bonus, giveaways for people who give their email when downloading the trial. If they download without giving their email, they do not get the bonus. Do you think we can the best of two worlds.

[jpoag]

This looks like a good strategy. I will look at this more closely. Thanks for posting.

I have question concerning the implementation. Getting the emails can increase the sales and that is right. However, if I force people to give me their email, I am sure that many of them will close the page and simply not download the trial. This strategy is good for increasing the conversion rate of those who wrote their email to download the trial, but I will get less people downloading. It might not be that much better in all cases.

The best solution is to give insensitive, bonus, giveaways for people who give their email when downloading the trial. If they download without giving their email, they do not get the bonus. Do you think we can the best of two worlds.

Lol, I think there's a whole other thread about the pros/cons of email harvesting. A couple of other threads, here's the first one I found:

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthr...+email+address

[Nexic]

I added an optional email field before downloading and signups went from like 2 per day to 20 per day. Prior to that I tried all sorts of incentives to get signups but never had any success.

[GaiaDreamCreation]

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=2036&highlight=collect+email+addr ess

Good thread. It says everything.

I added an optional email field before downloading and signups went from like 2 per day to 20 per day. Prior to that I tried all sorts of incentives to get signups but never had any success.

This seems a good strategy to get emails optionally. What is surprising is the comment "As expected, the number of downloads dropped off when asking for an email. But the overall number of sales increased by 18%."

My conclusion based on all comments is: that company got a good strategy and managed to increased the sales, but it could "probably" have done better by asking the emails optionally for downloading. I say probably because there seems have many factors. Nexic here got more emails with the optional method. I am not sure that everyone would get more emails if asked optionally. The kind of game, whole website, etc might affect the opt-in rate. Anyway, it makes more sense to me to have this optionally. I turned back many times when I was forced to enter my email address for a game that I only wanted to test for fun.