The Electronic Product Registration Opportunity

Product registration cards are common in most purchased products these days. It usually takes a few minutes to complete, costs a few cents to mail (if the postage isnt paid by the company), and the consumer receives the satisfaction of knowing that if their product doesnt work properly, they have activated their warranty. The benefits to the company are more substantial. A direct line of communication with the ultimate customer is established. The data facilitates new customized and targeted marketing efforts that the company many not have been able to accomplish previously.

The data entry cost companys incur is usually between $.12 to $.30 per reg. card. Many companies farm this data entry work out to list brokers who enter the information for free, but also keep a set of the data for themselves. They then go on to sell the list to other companies, which jeopardizes the security and privacy of companys new customers.

Electronic media transforms the registration process into a more powerful vehicle for companies. Software companies configure their product installation programs to automatically dial modems or connect to the Internet to electronically transfer registration data, making it even easier and faster for the customer. It also improves the data quality, maintains privacy & security, and is less expensive than data entry.

Non-software companies should also use the Internet by giving customers the option to register their product on the web. With a web registration form, it enables a company to:
- Introduce customers to the web site
- Cross-promote new products
- Send customers e-mail messages announcing new products & promotions
- Establish a medium of electronic communication with the customer
- Capture more customers who dont send back the reg. card
- Have more timely and accurate information
- Maintain security and privacy
- Reduce registration postage and data entry costs

To send customers to the web for product registration follow these steps. 1.) Build a web form that is consistent with your reg. card and the appearance of your web site. Todays web tools make this a fairly simple task. 2.) Determine how to access the data. Should it reside as a file on the web server and download it regularly or should it feed directly into the primary registration database? 3.) Create an incentive for customers to register on the web site. ie. sweepstakes, additional service, etc. 4.) Print the URL address and incentive on the product information and reg. card to direct people to the site.

Marketers should do everything they can to entice the customer to register online by creating promotions, value-added services, and incentives for doing so. Its a simple method to begin communicating with customers in the electronic manner of the now and the future!

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