Today most websites has Newsletter Subcription Sign Up Form. The concept behind it is Email Marketing. When visitors of your website think they are willing to get connected with you, they fill in (their email address) the newsletter subscription sign up form. Subscribers are not expecting spam emails from you, but their intention is to get something useful (such as tips and tutorials), get connected with you (such as product releases) or get free stuffs (such as free ebook).
In this post I share 10 tips to develop newsletter sign up form with email marketing concept in mind. It would be useful for your website or your client’s projects. As web designers, email marketing is another skill or selling point for your projects.
Email marketing requires you to maintain a comprehensive list of unique and exhaustive email addresses. So how do you get a hold of these in a straightforward manner? Through visitors to your web site of course. The most common method employ is to provide your site visitors with a sign up form where they are required to enter their mail IDs. In other words, your sign up page poses as a crucial part of your entire email marketing strategy. A poorly designed sign up form can literally drive your potential clients away, but it is sadly left as a low priority issue when people design their web sites.
Why not recognize the fact that the sign up form is the gateway to your site, and design it with due diligence and care? Do you have experience in developing email marketing for your or your client’s website? Please share your experience in the comment form below.
1. Place the Form in an Easy to Find Spot
This may seem like too common a piece of advise, but just take a look at some of the sites live on the web today and you will see what we mean. Many sites place their sign-up form links at a corner of the page, maybe even out of site on the welcome screen. How do you expect people to sign up if the sign up form is like looking for a needle in a haystack? Would it not be wiser to place it on the top of EVERY page on your site?
2. Win the Trust of your Visitors
Nobody wants to give away their mail IDs to a site that may sell its entire data base of mail IDs to spammers. Try and win the trust of your visitors with a statement such as ‘This site NEVER shares your personal information with a third party’. Is that not the least that one can do to reassure people that their mail IDs remain safe?
3. Be Specific on What your Visitors Get
People have earlier tried keeping their visitors unaware of the kind of content they would get into their email inboxes, not until they sign up at least. Realistically speaking, the average Internet user has experienced too much spam to fall for this ever again! So speak of what the user can expect in the inbox before you expect them to fill out a sign up form.
4. Speak of the Frequency of your Emails
You need to set a frequency expectation with your clients, and stick to it. If you can you are going to send out mails fortnightly, do NOT send it at a higher or lower frequency. Sending out too many mails could result in people spamming you out of their emails. Sending too few mails could mean they simply lose interest. So be bang on target with frequency.
5. Why Not Give a Sample
It is a great idea to let your viewers get a glimpse of at least a part of the kind of content you would be mailing them week after week. If your sign up page already seems too cluttered, you could always link out to a sample email page. Most folks would rather see a sample first before they spend their valuable time filling out a sign up form.
6. Ask for a Primary Email ID
People are not going to give you their primary mail IDs unless the finally wish to, but there is no harm in using a word like ‘main’ or ‘primary’ email id next to the email field. As any advertising ace could confirm, you never know the power of a subliminal message until you try it!
7. Do Not Use Sales Jargon
Being in the marketing business you would yourself be familiar with jargon, but please do keep in mind that the average Internet user may not. Use the right language! Personally I’d rather ask people to sign-up, than ask people to ‘subscribe’. A subscription is usually something people think they have to pay for, and this word may send out the wrong message even if you do not mean this. Subliminal messages can work against you too!
8. Get the Mail ID first, and THEN Ask for ANYTHING Else
It is a great idea to have only a couple of fields on your initial sign up page, and maybe any other information on the NEXT page. Seeing dozens of fields to fill out can simply annoy your visitors into leaving. If they give out their email addresses and THEN leave your site, you at least have something to follow up on, don’t you?
9. Be Careful With Syntax
If your site has the capability, it is great to be able to have a system where obvious typos are automatically detected. Your user may make a true error and type in the wrong mail id. That would be a pity wouldn’t it? Most email providing services have this as a built-in feature. You don’t want people signing up with IDs like ‘Marc@hotmail’. That’s an obvious error. Now you know what we mean!
10. Put it to Test
The best way to learn something is by trial and error, and there is no substitute to real time experience. If you feel you could improve on one of the points mentioned here, why not test it out for yourself? Try changes with your own experiments and track the effects of the changes to get the most out of your experiments. Try putting the sign-up link on the left corner for a week, and on the right for another. Your site aesthetics finally define what is most suited to your needs.
We hope this article has set you on the right track to help improve your sign-up forms. All the best with your email marketing!
