Genuine list growth is an important part of any email marketing strategy. But what if your sign up form is actually scaring away potential subscribers, instead of encouraging them to join your list?
Here are some common mistakes people make when adding a sign up form to their website, and how you should fix these issues.
Subscribers will not fill out your form if it’s not crystal clear what content they will be receiving. The form needs to have a simple and clear design. It’s also a good practice to explain how you will use their personal information, and how often you’ll be emailing them.
Does your form require subscribers to give out too much personal information? Asking for too much information increases the perceived cost of completing the sign up process, which means that less people will subscribe.
However, we understand the dilemma: the more information you have about your subscribers, the more targeted you can make your segmented lists. So use a discerning eye on the fields in your form. Does each field have a valuable marketing purpose, and will it yield greater list quality? For example, if you hold events in specific cities, knowing where someone is located might be crucial. Trim any excess fields that aren’t necessary for your business.
Many people may hesitate before handing out their cell number, address, or other contact information that sales people could use to harass them. So again, review each field and consider what information is crucial for your business to know about the subscribers. The less information you ask for, the more likely they’ll be to subscribe.
Nothing cools off interest as much as a boring and bland call to action. Your form’s call to action needs to be persuasive and compelling. Use a big bright button and carefully choose the words. It’s always a best practice to use strong verbs in the call to action.
If you don’t have any security on your sign up forms, bots may try adding bad emails to your list. It’s recommend that you use double opt-in to confirm the subscriber’s email before adding them to your list. You can also use reCAPTCHA to make sure that a human is filling out the form, instead of a bot. Once you decide what option you would like to use, you can easily pick either of those options with the Critical Impact form generator to make your forms more secure.
