11 Tips to Create a Great Subscriber Form
Creating a usable subscriber form is one of the most important things you can do to build a good mailing list. A good experience here can set up a good long-term relationship that can keep subscribers around, reading and clicking, for years.
Your opt-in form must collect the information you need to start the subscription, and it must be correct. However, you also have to establish yourself as a trustworthy email source. Anything you can do to look more legitimate in your subscribers' eyes will help you build that good relationship.
It can be a tricky balance. You want to learn as much as you can about your subscribers in order to give them the most personal messages possible. They, however, don't know if they can trust you with a lot of personal or identifiable information.
11 Tips for Better Opt-Ins
1. Make the initial opt-in form simple and fast to fill out. Collect only the most basic information you need to start the subscription: email address and name if you plan to use it for personalisation.
2. If you need more information, such as demographic data or buying behavior to target emails, send follow-up emails asking for this a little later in the relationship. However, don't ask for any information you don't plan to use or isn't relevant to your emails.
3. You also can add a couple of fields after the required fields but mark them clearly as being optional fields. Don't use more than five; even if they're optional, your subscriber may be hurried, or they don't like what they see, so they could skip it entirely and leave without opting in.
4. Use a form script that can detect typing errors. Or, ask users to enter their email addresses twice to eliminate errors. This is essential if you use only single opt-in, which doesn't ask subscribers to confirm their data in a follow-up email.
However, even if you use double opt-in, which keeps incorrect addresses out of your database, you should still try to eliminate mistakes as much as you can so that more confirmation emails go to good addresses.
Also, use a blank field that's wide enough to show all the characters typed in without having to scroll from side to side.
5. Tell subscribers up front what you plan to do with their data. Will you will share, sell or rent their information to others? State it in one plainly worded sentence in the form and link it to your privacy policy.
6. Clearly label whether a field is required or optional, with asterisks or a "required" or "optional" label, maybe in a different color from your regular typeface.
7. If you ask for more detailed information at opt-in, add a brief explanation using a link that will put up a small dialogue box if they click or mouse over a link. One common example is asking for a birthdate or mobile phone.
8. Use blank tick boxes that the subscriber must tick to give permission both for the opt-in and to share their information with your third-party or co-registration vendors. This way, you'll know for sure that your subscribers are opting in voluntarily; they didn't just forget to untick the boxes. That can mean fewer inactive subscribers and spam complaints down the road.
9. Don't try to trick subscribers with confusing instructions:
Bad: "Un-tick this box if you don't wish to share your information with our third-party vendors."
Better: "Tick this box to share your personal information with our trusted third-party vendors."
10. Don't mix blank and ticked boxes. For example, don't use a blank box for the opt-in permission and a pre-ticked box for sharing information with vendors.
11. Tell subscribers up front if you require them to receive third-party messages or offers you send on your vendors' behalf, even if you don't share that information with the vendors. State that in the opt-in. Don't hide this in your "Terms and Conditions" statement.
Make Sure Quality Rules
Yes, this advice means you will likely end up with a smaller list than if you use tricks and subterfuge. Don't forget, however, that when it comes to email lists, quality has to reign over quantity.
A large list won't do you any good if 90% of the names on it ignore your mailings. If you try to sneak in extra mailings or share their information with other senders without notice or permission, subscribers will strike back by filing enough spam complaints to get your messages blocked at the ISPs.
Honesty really is the best policy.
Kath Pay is Marketing Director of Ezemail, an innovative company that provides comprehensive email marketing solutions. For more information on how easily email marketing can be implemented, please contact Kath at kath@ezemail.com.
©Kath Pay 2008
