Personally, I ask for name and e-mail. Some marketers will go for just the e-mail, and when they do this, they PERMANENTLY DESTROY the opportunity to personalize their e-mail subject lines or their autoresponder / broadcast messages. Some say that not asking for the name increases opt-in conversions. Others say it doesn’t matter.

Some say that personalization of e-mails actually does NOT work because it’s “fake.” For every person who claims that, I’ll assert that people like seeing their own name. They’re more likely to open an email with their name in the subject line (which is why I use this tactic selectively and not on every broadcast) and even if it’s an obvious autoresponder followup…again….the first name…people like to see their own name!

- ARH