Make Your List BIG : Part 2 - Implement a website subscribe form

Make Your List BIG, Part 2 - August '09

In this issue:

• Make Your List BIG! Series - Part 2
• Generate your website form plug-in
• Deciding how your website form should look
• Tips for designing an effective subscriber opt-In form

We have had really great feedback about the new design, thanks for letting us know what you think, and your feedback helps us keep improving. On that note, we have improved two features (you may have spotted them already) to make your viral campaigns more effective:

1. An advanced "SEND TO FRIEND" which lets the person that utilises the send to friend feature edit predetermined parts of your message before sending it to his/her friends.
2. And a "WAP PUSH" facility for sms campaigns, this lets you send a link to a mobisite or website in your sms campaign.

In this months article we will explain exactly how to design and setup a subscriber opt-in form on your website. This is a great way to grow your list, no matter its current size. So put the coffee on, follow these instructions and start capturing leads.

Part 2: Implement a website subscriber form

Generate your website subscriber form plug-in

TouchBasePro has a new button that will make setting up your contact form for your website really easy, here's how to find it.

1. Login to your account on TouchBasePro.com and click on "Subscribers". This will show you all of the lists that you have set up on the system. By default everyone has a pre-setup list called "Newsletter signup list (website)-Trust Subscribe™". You can use this default list to create the plug-in for your subscriber form or you can use any other list you may already have (or create a new one specially).
   Note: If you want to capture more information than just the default: name and email address, be sure to create your custom fields before you continue with generating the website plug-in.
2. Now click on the list "Newsletter signup list (website)-Trust Subscribe™". This will open up the options and settings for this list.
3. Now scroll down and click on "Subscribe Options":
   
   
4. When you get to subscribe options, click on the button "Generate Website Form" to get your website plug-in
   
   
5. This will bring up a page with code that you can copy and paste into any page on your website. If you aren't sure how this works, or are not the person that handles your website, pass this information (and the piece of html code generated) on to your relevant website admin/support person.

You can edit the appearance of this form on your website to fit in with the look of your website and logos, but make sure that the action and ID's of all the controls remain exactly the same, otherwise the plug-in won't work.

Deciding how your website subscriber form should look

By default the plug-in you generate will make your subscriber form look like this:

You should dress it up a little and add a description to let people know what they are signing up for by saying something like "Fill in your name below to receive our monthly newsletter with fantastic articles about XYZ" or "Give us your details and be first in line for our special offers". This way, the client will know what to expect when they receive their first communication from you.

Your job now is to design a contact form that will make people want to join your list. As we discussed last month there are three rules you must remember for designing a contact form:

1. Make it enticing
2. Make it safe
3. Make it easy

Here are some examples of effective website subscribe forms, this is the kind of thing you will be setting up, notice how they follow the three rules:

1. It's enticing: These subscribe forms promise people a good read and valuable information every week/month.
2. It's safe: You get to see a sample of the content they promise to send you before signing up. You could also use TouchBasePro's "Trust Subscribe" system to make your optin feel more safe.
3. It's easy: All you need to do is fill in an email address and one or two details and click "subscribe".

1. It's enticing: These subscribe forms promise to either make things easier or save you money. Technically these are more than just subscribe form they are for registering on a site to enable certain functions – but email addresses can be collected during registration.
2. It's safe: These are pretty well known companies (Kulula and Europcar), if you are a smaller business wanting to do this it would help to provide a link to your privacy policy, and guarantee removal upon request at any time.
3. It's easy: All you need to do is fill in a name and email and click "subscribe

1. It's enticing: This subscribe form is used by an animation and design company, their optin promise is simple. They will send you snippets of their latest work as they release it. Their work is really good and inspirational so that is enough motivation to get signups.
2. It's safe: There is not much here in the way of a guarantee that you will not be spammed – including a reference to a reputable unsubscribe system like "Trust Subscribe" would improve this forms performance on a website.
3. It's easy: Once again, really easy all you need to do is fill in a name, email and profession and click "subscribe"

1. It's enticing: Yes Bribery will work too. This site offers subscribers the chance to win amazing prizes. Entry is free all you have to do is sign up and fill in a questionnaire.
2. It's safe: A link to the "winners list" here is your proof that these guys make good on their promise and dish out prizes to people from time to time.
3. It's easy: All you need to do is click on "register" fill out the form and then click "submit". They then send you a verification link by email (you can do this by creating a double optin list on TouchBasePro). And they then also send a questionnaire that must be completed. Not too tricky and worth it to enter a competition for really great prizes.

Tips for designing an effective subscriber opt-In form

Before you can foster a relationship with your subscribers, however, you have to get them to subscribe. By convincing people to subscribe, and removing barriers to them doing so, you can bridge the gap between a website visitor and another soon-to-be-devoted reader of your email marketing campaigns.

Here are a few ways you can make your web forms more effective:

Put the Form in a Prominent Location.
Your aim is to capture the details of everyone who visits your website so that you can convert them into clients. If visitors don't see the form, they won't sign up, so put it in an easy-to-find spot. For most sites, this means near the top of the page. If you have a multi-page site and your visitors tend to browse the entire site, put the form on every page.

Keep it Short and Sweet.
Most people will not tolerate long opt-in forms. As a rule it should not take someone more than 10 seconds to sign-up. Remember, your competitors are only a click away. Ask yourself what information you need to get started with your subscribers. If you absolutely need your subscriber's phone number or some other detail right now, then ask for it, but if not, get it later as you continue to communicate with him/her.

Give Visitors a Reason to Subscribe.
No matter how much value you're delivering to your subscribers, your emails still take up space in their inbox. Your visitors, who haven't yet experienced the value you're delivering in your messages, already get dozens to hundreds of emails a day. Why Should They Make Room For You? Clearly and concisely detail the benefits of subscribing. Use bullet points, bold text and other techniques to tell them why they're going to be better off getting your emails. This not only helps to get visitors to become subscribers, it also helps to build expectations which you can then meet to build trust and relationships with them.

Create Subscriber expectations before they sign up
Part of creating trust is demonstrating that you can meet expectations. And that's a lot easier to do if you can set those expectations yourself. The minute potential subscribers become aware that you're offering something by email, they begin to make assumptions about that offering, assumptions like:

• What they'll get from you if they sign up
• How often they'll get it
• The value/benefit to them if they sign up (or the lack of it)
• The cost to them if they sign up (their time and privacy, plus: are you going to share their email address with someone else?)

If you don't replace these assumptions with expectations that match what will actually happen, then these potential subscribers either won't sign up, or they'll be confused/dissatisfied/angry when what actually happens doesn't match those assumptions.

Clearly Explain, In or Near Your Opt-in Form:

• What kind of content you'll be sending (you may even want to link to a sample email)
• How they'll benefit as a subscriber (this is your email's value proposition: why should someone subscribe?)
• When/how often the subscriber will hear from you (estimate if need be)
• What you do and won't do with subscribers' information (this may not be necessary in all cases - especially if you already have the visitor's trust - but in general it's a good idea)

In Conclusion

Busy-work for this month:

• Decide what you want your website subscriber form to look like and what reason you will give people to sign up.
• Generate your website plug-in and send it to your website administrator to upload with your description of how it should look.

Coming in Next Months Issue: