Co-Registration Marketing in Action

Co-registration for email marketing is not a new acquisition strategy, of course, but brands are typically much more ethical in their approach than in years past. When customers clearly know what they are getting into, the program will be more effective as recipients won't consider messaging from the partnering brand as spam.

Let's take a look at some co-reg marketing in action and how brands are setting customer expectations for the campaigns they will receive going forward.

HubSpot and Buffer

Companies with complementary products, like those offered by HubSpot and Buffer, make great co-registration partners. These two companies teamed up for a webinar that relates to both of their audiences and made it very clear that the information entered to register for the event would be shared with Buffer and would result in being contacted with content or more information by each of the companies. See live example, here. 

The co-branding on top of the landing page and the disclaimer wording following the registration form, both work to set participants' expectations of how their information will be used.

Similarly, Website Magazine partners with technology companies to bring webinars to our audience, and co-branding ensures participants understand the relationship with our event sponsors.

Alex & Ani and Fabletics

Alex & Ani - a jewelry company - partnered with Fabletics - a women's activewear brand - to grow its list by gaining access to email addresses for a similar audience. Fabletics emailed a contest message to its list and when recipients signed up for the contest, they were acknowledging it was OK to enroll them in Alex & Ani emails as part of the contest rules. The important thing to take away here is that the companies were very clear that it was a joint effort and each company's messaging was on-brand. 

Spotting Co-Reg

As consumers, we understand the annoyance factor of receiving marketing messages from a brand we didn't know we signed up with. As Web professionals, we can often respect a brand's efforts for list growth. It shouldn't be a consumer's job, however, to spot co-reg efforts. Rather, the Web professional should make it absolutely clear what a person is getting when they fill out their personal information.

The more transparent a brand is, the more likely targeted recipients will respond to messaging. A small group of individuals who understand they will get partner promotions is worth way more (clicks, conversions) than a large group of people who were tricked into providing information (unsubscribes, spam reports).