Exploring the E-Mail Newsletter Signup Form

Introduction

There are many websites today that have an Email Newsletter Signup Form, the main purpose of which is email marketing. When you visit a website, you might be presented with such a form. If visitors want to get connected to a site, they fill the signup form detailing their email address, expecting to get newsletters with useful tips and tutorials and know more about any latest product releases, free eBooks etc. Email marketing offers a great selling point for your website. Websites get hold of such email addressed through the visitors to the site by offering them a signup form. It is important to design an effective sign up form, as a badly designed one can drive clients and visitors away. However, very often, web site designers don’t treat this as a priority issue. Signup forms need to be created with great care and diligence.

Some of the important aspects to cater to are the location of the newsletter signup form, the colors and layout, the graphical elements that make it unique, its ease of use, and so on. One of the focus of the marketing efforts should be through the email newsletter signup form. For instance, Groupon has more than 115 million subscribers and thus a great business. Businesses don’t give the sign up form much attention and just throw something together. Later they complain that the lead generation online was not effective. Here are some samples that could show you sign up forms that can really convert.

Samples for Location

You can display the email newsletter sign up form in several standard places. It is better to stick to such standards, as visitors are used to such patterns in websites and will expect to see them in the same conventional spots. For instance, below is provided an example of a site, copyblogger.com, showing the sign up form below the header. The green checkmark icons draw attentions to certain specifics and the box to the right shows clearly the number of subscribers to the newsletter. The graphic elements used make the text stand out clearly.

ChrisBrogan.com

Adding a photograph to the newsletter sign up form makes the site more credible. This is especially so if the person shown is an eminent person of that community, as in the above case. It adds a personal touch to the form. Here again, the sign up form is below the header.

Social Triggers.com

The above newsletter form is a fairly big sized one. In the above website, the large sized one is used on the home page and a smaller version of the same form is also offered in the sub pages of the site. The sign up form is placed below the header, drawing instant attention and convincing the reader to sign up, as it has already grabbed his attention.

Top Sidebar

In the above site, the form is placed in the top sidebar widget. This is a very popular location for placing an email newsletter sign up form and everyone looks for it in such a location. It is important to place it right at the top of the sidebar, so that it is very prominent, as shown above. The orange color chosen for the title background draws greater attention. There is also a lot of space inside the sign up box as well as space around the box. The boxes showing sign up and the box for the email address are also of different sizes, so that they stand out prominently.

After the Post

Here, the sign up form is placed after the post and provides a last chance to ask the user or the reader to subscribe to the newsletter. Once the visitor has read a post, it provides the perfect opportunity for asking them to take action and sign up before they leave the site. Sometimes, this works well here than in any other place. Another attractive feature here is that the sign up form is connected icons of social sharing, such as Twitter and Facebook. Contrasting colors have been used to improve visibility of the form. Notice the different background behind the form as well as the arrow.

Adding a Profile

Here, a personal profile is also added in order to get readers more convinced about the site and encourage them to sign up for the newsletter. This increases trust among the readers. There is also a display of a free eBook, which attracts readers to sign up. The graphics are also attractive, such as the one showing ‘free’. You can add such buttons, icons, ribbons and bursts to promote anything free or new. There are plugins in WordPress for creating such graphic elements.

A single Field

In the above sign up form, there is only a single field to fill up. This can provide a good lead and is capable of triggering more responses from readers. It can be placed in any sidebar. A noticeable feature of this form is the link that it provides to actually view newsletters. The form is also very small, so there is no need of a separate page and it can be placed on the home page itself.

Links for Individual newsletters

This is a sidebar sign up form. There is an area for name and email and also links that the user can access to read individual newsletters. There is also an attractive combination of functions, as the visitor can know all about the recent topics published, he can read them by just clicking on one of them and then take a decision about signing up. The signing up is also easy with just two bits of information to provide.

Opt in Pop ups

The above samples shows an excellent way to convert visitors to the website into subscribers, with the use of opt in popups. It is in the form of a layover popup box that requests people to opt in and sign up with their name and email address. There are many such off-the-shelf packages available with default settings, but you can experiment with them. The headlines are perfect and state exactly what the subscriber will get if he signs up. It also caters to desires of users who want to make money online. The statement about the’7 simple tricks’ uses specificity to draw in the visitor and the words ‘Limited offer’ makes it seem urgent. Visitors are enticed with something valuable, so that they feel it is worth their time.

Option for RSS feeds subscription

The above sample makes use of inline field labels that are clearly visible. Users who are not ready to sign up are asked to subscribe to the RSS feed. This is a smart step as you still have access to the email address of the user and can always convert him into a regular subscriber to your newsletter, though not immediately.

No additional fields

Less is sometimes more. Keep the form short. There is no need to provide additional fields that will only result in losing future prospects. Only ask for the data that is required as shown above. You don’t need the name, the phone number, the fax address and the address of the person, unless you are planning to ship him something. The above form asks only what is required and can surely see an increase in subscribers.

This is just what is not required in a newsletter sign up form. What is the first thing that comes to your mind on seeing this? The goal is just getting a lead and not a lot of unnecessary information.

Revealed in Google search

The above form really works into a high conversion rate, because of the terms used in the form. These terms will reveal the form through Google Search, as the search terms are matching with the offer mentioned in the sign up form. The user motivation is matched by the offer and it results in maximum number of conversions.

Conclusion

Today, businesses are so much caught up in social media that they can quite forget email marketing. Email marketing through email sign up forms offers them a great channel for broadcasting news and content about their company. Such sign up forms need to be placed in the right spot so that the visitor finds it easy to locate, they should be attractively designed with arrows and pointers and presented in effective contrasting colors to grab the attention of users and encourage them to sign up. The form should be designed in such a manner that it should win the trust of the visitors, showing if there are any free offers, accenting and making it stand out with the use of graphical elements and use different colors and layout.
Newsletters are the most popular way to inform users about content updates and are an effective content strategy. The sign up form is a call to action that informs the visitor to the site that they offer regular updates and expert information and articles, which it takes just a few clicks or strokes to subscribe to. The forms should be simple and have as few fields as possible, with just an email field alone being quite sufficient. It should be placed in key locations and should be present across the site. There are many variations available in the sign up form.