subject: Making an Easy-to-Use Signup Process [print this page] Making an Easy-to-Use Signup Process Making an Easy-to-Use Signup Process
So you've developed a great website, you're confident that your product, services, or content is great, and you've even offered a variety of incentives for your visitors to sign up for your email list. Unfortunately, nobody is biting, and your Internet marketing strategy is dependent upon a big email list. One of your problems might be that your signup process is difficult to find or difficult to use. Below, we'll go over a few tips to help make sure that usability and visibility aren't the reasons for your lacking email list.
Making Sure Signing Up Is Visible
There's a particular balance that needs to be struck when determining where you should place your email list signup button or form. On one hand, you want it to be prominent enough that no one will miss that it's there. On the other, you don't want to be so glaring and obvious that it irritates people, which will only drive them away from the site.
A great place to put a signup button or box is at the bottom of each post. This way, people will see it right as they finish reading an article, and if they really liked it, they will want to know when more come out. You could also customize a snippet of code to popup a bar at the bottom or top of the screen when an article is complete.
Regardless of where you place your signup, it should absolutely be in a very high traffic area, so it's best to consult your trusty analytics software before placing anything.
Make Sure Signing Up Is Easy
There are really only a few things that you should be asking for if your primary goal is building an email list: a name, an email address, and maybe a zip code (if relevant to your business/website). Even better, you should only be asking for an email address. The more characters that a user has to type to complete the signup process, the less likely they are to complete this process. Further, you should also set up your form to never require more than one or two clicks.
Making sure that your signup process is visible and easy will ensure that anyone that wants to be a part of your email list will jump on it. The moment any difficulty or confusion is encountered, you're bound to lose at least a few visitors, and in the game of email marketing, every email address counts, making this one of the most important lessons to take to heart when learning how to build an email list.
