Eye-Catching Email Opt In Forms

Having an opt-in form on your website is the single most important marketing action you can take if you want to capture online leads into your sales funnel.

But what makes a good opt-in form? Where should you put it? How do you encourage the most number of visitors to hand over their email addresses?

There’s a lot that goes into an opt-in form. The essential elements come down to:

• Placement
• Offer
• Trust
• Simplicity

Let’s take a look at how some of my favorite opt-ins make it happen:

Webinar Opt-In From Alicia Cowan

 

What I like about this opt-in:

• It’s super clear visually and super-simple to sign up. Your eye is definitely going right to that sign-up form.
• The offer (her free upcoming Facebook Leads webinar) is an enticing one.

It actually looks like Alicia is using Derek Halpern’s Webinar Bridge plugin – one that streamlines the double-opt-in process from Aweber or MailChimp to GoToWebinar. Derek endorses it as a well-tested conversion format, so good choice on Alicia’s part.

Suggestions? Testing?
I think Alicia could add her newsletter as a bonus here “As an added bonus, you’ll get my popular weekly social media tips!”

The Mogul Mom

This is one of my favorite opt-ins. It’s right on Heather’s homepage and it rocks.

What I love about this opt-in:

• Your eye is going nowhere but this opt-in. It’s all above-the-fold.
• Social proof is out the wazoo – with the as seen on logos on the right, to the high subscriber number at the top of the form – you can tell this is a list you need to be on.
• The offer is incredibly targeted to her target market – right away you know this newsletter is for you if you’re both a mom & a business owner

Suggestions? Testing?
I love being above-the-fold but the text is a bit tight. I’d suggest trying to move the “Your First Name” and “Your Email Address” to below or within the field boxes as a space-clearing move.

Anne Samoilov

I love the simplicity of Anne’s banner opt-in which appears on every page of her site.

What I love about this opt-in:

• The color pairing! I have to admit I have a *bit* of a color crush on Anne’s site. It’s crisp, clear and has one of my favorite shades of blue/turquoise as the call to action. Nice contrast.
• The simplicity – Anne asks for name and email because that’s all she needs. Simple. To the point. Low barrier for newsletter entry.
• The promise is clear – I know exactly what I’m getting & how often I’m getting it.
• Again really targeted at her target market – if you want to learn about launching, you want to sign up for this list.

Suggestions? Testing?
In my Chromebook browser, it looks like the opt-in language is cut-off (I honestly did not notice this before writing this post so may not affect opt-in rates that much). (Did you know you can use Google Analytics to see what screen sizes and browsers your visitors are using?)

Amy Porterfield

I love this opt-in on Amy’s homepage.

What I love about this opt-in:

• Visual impact. You are definitely checking this one out. It has all the key elements for attracting a visitor’s eye: human face, contrasting colors, above-the-fold placement.
• Clear focus. You know you want to be on this list if you want to learn more about using social media for your business.
• The social proof – a quote from a popular social media expert easily transfers trust to Amy (assuming her visitors are familiar with this expert)

Suggestions? Testing?
The expectation. How often will I be getting emails in my inbox?

The required drop-down question. I bet this data is awesome for Amy to have but unless it affects which segment of her newsletter I’m put in, requiring an answer is just one more barrier to sign-up. I’d suggest making it optional.

(and actually, I signed up to Amy’s list after reviewing her form)

But, Of Course

It all comes down to testing. I don’t have access to any of the analytics data for any of these forms, I’m simply offering up a few best practice elements to consider testing for better opt-in conversion.

Each of these women is putting out seriously quality content – no incentive required for opt-in. Opt-in form suggestions aside, I highly suggest you consider getting yourself on these lists if you’re looking to do more with your business online.

Your Turn

Do you have an opt-in form on your site? Share a link to it below! What have you taken away from this post? Any other opt-in forms out there that you’d like to add to the list? Let me know in the comments!

photo credit: horizontal.integration via photo pin cc