Co-Registration: The Process of Capturing Names and Addresses

Internet marketing strategy using co-registration

A co-registration website publisher specializes in acquiring and reselling the names and email addresses of Internet users who have expressed an interest in receiving information on a specific topic.

To accomplish this, he begins by aggregating on his own website numerous offers for free email newsletters and other online information. He then develops a media plan and drives traffic—specifically Internet users in search of free information—to his co-reg website. Owing to an economy of scale, he typically can accomplish this with more efficiency than the publisher of a single title.

The publisher of the co-reg site expects that the website visitors will register to receive not one publication, but a multitude of free offers, trials and sample email newsletters. His site typically offers a wide variety of offers from other online publishers, including free information on such diverse topics as personal finance, home cooking or model airplanes.

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People who already subscribe to one newsletter are the best candidates to subscribe to another newsletter. First, because they are proven consumers of information. And second, because they are responsive. By having already responded to an offer in a newsletter, they have demonstrated they are willing to sign up for other online offers.

In its most familiar configuration, a co-reg website provides a short registration form where a visitor can submit her email address, and displays a selection of check boxes where she can sign up for a variety free email newsletters or request additional information about other online publications.

Over time, the co-reg website publisher collects hundreds of “permission-based” sales leads. That means the consumer, by voluntarily submitting her name and email address, has given her permission for the publisher to send her information on a specific topic via email.

The co-reg site publisher then sells these names and email addresses to the publishers who have offered free information on his site. These publishers immediately begin to send their free email newsletters. Their expectation is to eventually convert some of the information seekers into paying customers for premium information products.