6 Secrets to Designing an Effective Website Opt-in Form

6 Secrets to Designing an Effective Website Opt-in Form
The one asset that is considered to be the gold in your
online business is your email list. I constantly tell my
clients that their #1 goal at events and primary call to
action in their online marketing strategies should be to
asking people to join their list.

The best way to get people on your list is to create an
effective opt-in form on your website. An opt-in form is a
sign up form on a website that asks for key pieces of info,
like email address and name, for example, in return for
sending the visitor something of value, like a free report
or ezine subscription.

What are the criteria that need to be considered in the
design of this form?

1. Page Placement. On what page of your website should
your opt-in form be placed? That's easy -- every single
page of your site. Most people erroneously believe that
every visitor will come to their website through their home
page. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because
every page of your website is a possible landing page,
ensure that someone can opt into your list from whichever
page they are taken to within your website. In fact, about
60% of my traffic comes to my site through one of the
articles I have written, and so I have my primary call to
action -- an opt-in box for my ezine -- visible on every
page of my site.

You can even add this strategy to the checkout process when
someone makes a purchase from you. Add a check box to join
your list to the checkout page of your shopping cart, ask
the purchaser to opt-in to your list via the thank you page
your purchaser is sent to after purchase, or include the
request in the email autoresponder follow up that the
purchaser is sent post-purchase.

Another place to insert your opt-in form is at the end of
any articles you have on your site or your blog. Create
some short (1-2 sentence) sales copy that ties your content
in with an offer to opt into your list. If the visitor
liked what he read, you'll catch him at just the right
moment to want to opt-in to your email list.

2. Location on Page. Marketing wisdom says that the best
location for an opt-in form is the upper right corner of a
page. Regardless if it's on the right or the left, the
opt-in box definitely needs to be "above the fold", to use
an old newspaper term, i.e. in the top of the page that's
immediately visible on the screen so that the visitor will
not have to scroll down to see the opt-in form.

For maximum impact, the opt-in form needs to stand out and
be noticed. Putting the opt-in form into a box with a bold
outline or eye-catching color will help, as will creating a
graphic icon that the visitor will immediately see, like an
image of your ezine or your special report or bonus ebook.
In order for your visitors to take action, your opt-in form
needs to be the first element on your page that attracts
their attention.

3. Type of form. There are two basic types of forms you
can use for your opt-in form: an inline form and a popup
form. The inline form is the traditional form you see on
many websites that request the visitor to fill in his email
address and name, for example. The pop-up form, or
pop-over form (which is unblockable by pop-up blockers), is
disliked by many people. However, from my experience, the
pop-over form (one that slides onto the page from the top
or side of a page or one that jumps into a page and bounces
a bit (also know as a hover ad) is very effective, provided
it is used properly.

Your best strategy is to use a combination of the two
forms. Make sure that your inline opt-in form in present
on every page of your site, and use the pop-over form
selectively throughout your site only on certain pages.
Don't ever use the pop-over form by itself, as having that
repeatedly appear in front of your visitor is a sure way to
annoy him and cause him to immediately leave your site.

4. Opt-in Benefits. Why would someone want to part with
his name and email address for you? Your visitor is
seeking the WIIFM (What's In It For Me) factor. There has
to be a very compelling reason for your visitor to part
with his name and email address these days. One way to get
that information from your visitor is by offering a free
email newsletter, but even today that's not usually enough.
In order to get a visitor's attention today, you have to
up the ante and offer a free report, ebook, audio or video,
or ecourse that helps the visitor solve one of the pressing
problems that led him to your site.

In order to build that trust and confidence and further
bolster your opt-in success, let your visitor know your
privacy policy, or how the email address will be used; set
expectations for how often and on what occasions he will
receive emails from you; and what happens next in the
signup process.

5. Information to collect. How much information is a
visitor willing to give you? For many years simply an
email address was considered adequate, but with the advent
of broadcast services that have well-developed features
that let you personalize email broadcasts, you may want to
request additional info. At a minimum, get the first name
and the email address of your visitor. If direct mail
marketing or telemarketing is a part of your future
business marketing strategy, you may want to collect
mailing address, city, state, zip, and phone number as
well. However, if you make that information mandatory, you
may lose many opt-in opportunities. If you want to collect
this extended information, put asterisks on your opt-in
form to denote which fields are mandatory (like name and
email address) and which are optional. You'll be surprised
at how many people will give you their mailing address just
because you asked for it.

6. Post-form process. Create an online video or one-page
tutorial with screen captures to walk your subscriber
through the next desired steps in the opt-in process. Most
visitors don't want to think, so if you can take them by
the hand and show them step-by-step how to get on your
list, they will happily follow along and do as you ask.
This is especially helpful for newbies who may not have
experience in joining lists.

With an effective opt-in form and opt-in process, you can
exponentially increase the size of your lists in a very
short time. Then, you have a ready and willing list of
potential clients to whom you can begin to market your
expertise, products, and services.

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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals
learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their
expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To
claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask
Donna an Internet Marketing question at
http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com .