Form Do's and Dont's
Once someone has decided to enroll in your email program it's important to design your registration page so that it's simple and easy to sign-up.If it makes sense for your business, collect email and postal address information.
Do's and dont's of the registration process
- Do re-state the benefits in a quick, straightforward way
- Do consider asking for the email address twice (to improve your odds of capturing a good address)
- Do add a link to your privacy policy
- Do engender trust. Include a statement (if this is the case) such as “We will never share their email address.”
- Don’t make the form too long. Good design can overcome this
- Do use a vertical form – usability studies show this is more efficient
- Do use a yellow background for mandatory fields to be completed
- Don’t ask for too much information. The longer the form – the lower your chances that people will fill it out. If you want to collect additional information include it as a secondary screen after the individual has signed up
- Do highlight mandatory fields
- Do track your completion rates (how many viewed the registration page and completed registration). If the percentage is too low, test different versions
- Don’t forget you may want to capture IP address, date/time, etc. as proof of permission
- Do include a thank you or confirmation page after the sign-up is complete
Study of 118 top retailers and registration forms
- 55% make email address only required field
- Popular required fields are name (31%) and zip code (18%)
- 45% include link to privacy policy
- 12% provide links to sample emails
- 12% offer text option
- 7% tell how often they send emails
- 3% use double opt-in
Source: DMA Email Experience Council Benchmark Study