How to create a perfect subscription form

Subscription Form is one of the most important elements of the website or blog that attracts the target audience for your email marketing. For many sites, the subscription form became an integral part of signing in or even its replacement. It is convenient for subscribers because the data can be filled only once to review closed sections of the site easily, receive great offers and be constantly aware of your events and updates.

The beautiful and visible subscription form will increase the chances of getting more subscribers. I regret to note that the subscription forms of many local websites are securely hidden and are not so easy to find, though they deserve a prominent place. The visitor does not have to wander through the pages and searching for it. It is important to place the form not only on the home page but also on a few more pages as a reminder of the possibility to subscribe.

There are two the most important aspects of the subscription form: the content and design, which together can significantly expand its customers list, luring visitors to leave their information. But these two conditions are not enough if you do not give a good reason to subscribe to the site immediately.

I'm sure you are wondering how to create a subscription form for the site? So, the main conditions for effective forms of subscription are as follows:

The placement of the subscription form

Highlight the subscription form

To make visitors fill out the form, it is important that they notice it on the site. If your subscription form is easily passed by the visitors - you are throwing money away. So, here are some tips on registration, you can try to attract the attention of visitors to your form:

Separate the form

Add it in a visual container allocated as a separate window:

Guiding signals

Note the arrows indicating the form - people subconsciously follow the trail. You can also use images of people with the eyes directed at the subscription form. The THiNK Eye Tracking research showed that directional view at the product increases the chance that people will notice it on the page by 84% , so why do not use it for the form?

The description in the form

Clients do not always wish to give their address to third-party mailings and it is important to make it clear that it is profitable for them. You do not have to describe all the advantages of your mailing; it is sufficient to fit everything into one sentence. There are numerous of "free", "unique" and "limited" mailings, so first of all, emphasize the fact that will be useful to your clients.

Contrasting calls to action on the button and title form

Noticeable CTA button gives clients an understanding of what to do on the page. Only testing will tell you what color, shape, the heading will work better for your clients and increase the number of subscribers.

Add bullet points instead of long and tedious descriptions

The subscription form can immediately tell people what they get in exchange for the provided information. The font size of the title form must be slightly larger than the rest of the text.

Some people use bulleted lists to bring their offer to the subscriber:

People love to be up to date, so it is better to determine for the subscriber and you the frequency of emails. It is even better to specify the exact day, if possible.

Give a good reason to subscribe

Any video or dynamically changing images can distract the reader from the subscription form, so it is best not to use them. If you are offering a gift to any item - you can add it to a three-dimensional image, so the user wants to "feel" it.

Add social proof

Visitors are afraid to give their contacts into the wrong hands, but if hundreds of thousands of people have already done it - it's not so scary. The assertion that the client is a part of society dispels fears and clients are willing to give their information.

About the subscription form fields

If you want the client to stay and complete the form, think about little things that irritate you and eliminate them. Here are a few ideas that can help you reduce irritability, and improve the conversion:

Add address verification to the form

To prevent errors in the addresses and telephone numbers (ivan@mail>ru, 098,456,123,458).

In case of mistakes during the filling of the form, the correct fields must be saved, and other fields must be highlighted and explained what should be fixed. Repeated filling of the forms irritates the client and can make him/her unsubscribe. Display mistakes at once in the form, rather than being moved up or down the page.

The second stage - the subscription confirmation. Random passers-by do not want to go into their emails and to perform any additional steps. Such methods at least partially protect you from broken addresses and the inactive subscribers.

Make the subscription form shorter

Long shape with hundreds of fields unlikely makes anyone fill in. If you want to know additional information - it is better to add it to personal account settings page. Leave only the most important fields for the start: email and the name of the subscriber.

Try to set only the minimum. Remember, you can always ask for more information later. Some companies request to complete only the email address and did not even ask for the names.

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Add the optional fields

In addition to adding 1-2 Required fields, add not more than 5 optional ones.

If you include 12 fields in the form - please, make only 4 of them mandatory and you will not regret it. Just make a mark, visible and understandable, because not everyone is in the mood to fill in all the answers.

Here are a few fields that might not be added to the subscription form:

- Contact Name

- Company name

- Password

- City

- Phone

- Confirmation code

Please note that we only offer to eliminate these fields, but we do not insist on it. Check for yourself which of these fields make sense for your site.

Not too restrictive

The inscriptions like: "Enter a password between 6 and 12 characters. Be sure to use numbers and letters, but no characters:?%, *,, &, №, #, etc." repel. Users can have a favorite invented password, which he/she uses on all sites. So why should he/she change it and memorize the new one? Moreover, complex password system is annoying and can cause permanent errors during filling.

Let the clients enter a password, which is convenient to them. The same applies to phone numbers that are often divided into 2-3 blocks.

Stop using CAPTCHA

CAPTCHAs have become a real headache for users, as well as a killer for significant proportion of the conversion. If the picture is poorly displayed and the client is repeatedly wrong when he tries to log in - it can simply make him to unsubscribe.

The layout and other design problems

What is strange here?

Yes, the field has spread throughout the form. A well-designed form must be with smooth, crisp fields and the shape and size of the CTA button should ideally correspond to the length of these fields, or be slightly larger. As an example:

Make sure that your CTA button is large and noticeable. Aligning fields do not significantly affect the conversion, but it can improve the overall attractiveness of the form.

Look at your form. How will users react better: when the inscriptions are on the left from the fields, above the fields, or at the very line. Select the option that attracts more subscribers.
Include tips and useful links in the fields, where some people may not know the answer, such as zip code, metro station, etc. You can do it in a drop-down list.
Do not force to enter the same information twice. If the delivery address and payment is in the same place - you can simply check the box, and do not re-enter data. Pretty bad option:

It would be better to mark what to subscribe to, and not to enter four times the same email. It is unlikely that the same person will be chosen to sign the sections on different boxes.

Even if after the reduction the form is still long - you can break it into the 2-3 units for easy filling and visual perception.

It is better to use horizontal blocks with small checkboxes to avoid scrolling down the page to see all the forms and call to action button will always be visible.

The long form is incredibly tiring users and creates problems if it is not properly filled. A small trick: making the form smaller in size but with the same number of fields, the user will feel that he performed less work.

Leave the link to the privacy policy in the form or on the pages.

This variant is too cumbersome but also has the right to live. The client sees that spam senders will bear responsibility.

And the most important - test your subscription form

Perhaps something in your form will not be the way you planned. For any website, it is important all the time to experiment with a subscription form and analyze the results; this is the only way you'll learn what works best for your particular site.

Do not forget about the page itself, on which the subscription form is - it also needs to be well designed. If you need some help in creating cool email letters - leave a request to create a template and we will prepare a beautiful, modern email template within two working days, absolutely for free.

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