Over the last month we analyzed 600 popular blogs from various different niches that utilized an opt-in boxes as a way to build their email list.

We specifically looked at how blogs used opt-in forms on their inner pages, not on their main landing page. The reason for this is consistency, as most have the same blog framework to play with.

The aim was to see how blogs used their opt in forms and see if we could back up what we believe to be best practices with some real data.

Our Criteria

We searched for various high volume keywords and selected the top 10 highest ranking blogs in Google. From there we looked through the list to find 600 blogs that used an opt-in form.

We then selected blogs that we actively promoting their opt-in form. Either through looking at their blog posts or from initial impressions.

From that list we then filtered out any blogs that had a Domain Authority of less than 30.

The Domain Authority of blogs were:

DA30-40 – 174 blogs
DA40-50 – 125 blogs
DA50-60 – 138 blogs
DA60-70 – 87 blogs
DA70-90 – 76 blogs

Check out our observations below:

Use A Simple Flat Button

I’m a strong advocate of flat design, as stated in my Web Design Trends of 2015, flat design has it’s roots in early modernist graphic design and has gained popularity in design trends over the last few years. There have been many cases put forward as to why it has become popular. Smashing Magazine break it down well here.

It’s no surprise that our web forms have followed suit and done away with the glossy, web 2.0 style button that were hugely popular a few years back.

98% of web forms used a simple, flat button. Sizes and colour did vary but the overall look of the button was largely the same.

Clean and minimal is what we have come to expect from our web form and using overstated glossy buttons or ones highlighted with a red pen mark around them is definitely a no-no. It looks tacky and if anything highlights the fact your web design is outdated.

If you want the button to stand out use scale and colour to create a more striking design. Don’t pull out the red marker!

Use Bold Text To Give Headings a Punch

The heading is arguably the most important part of the opt-in form. It’s what attracts the user to the form and should communicate exactly why the user should use the opt in form. A simple way to highlight the heading is to use a heavier weighted font.

Looking at the heading of 600 opt in forms we found 74% of all the headings used were bold.

Only 10% of heading used Bold and Italic together. On these headings the italic was used to accentuate just one of two words.

Don’t Use The Word ‘Free’

Many marketers believe that an email list should comprise of subscribers who will want to buy something from you in the future. If all you ever do is attract subscribers who want or expect stuff for free then you may find it harder in the future to convert these subscribers into customers.

Amazingly 78% of the opt in forms did not use the word free anywhere in their message.

Think carefully about the type of list you want to build. While it is tempting to seduce visitors to subscribe in exchange for something free, in the long run this could damage your sales and ultimately leave you with a large fee to manage an email list which doesn’t give you a dime in return.

Keep The Message To A Few Sentences

You should keep your message short and sweet when it comes to opt-in forms. When used in an article, bullet points are an excellent way to condense information into bite size sentences. You might expect them to be used in opt in forms as well……

Actually 96% of opt in forms did not use bullet points and 87% of these kept their message to 1 paragraph. 

Keep your message short, preferably 1 or 2 sentence max.

Only Ask For An Email Address

We all hate long forms and the same is true for opt in forms. 79% of forms only asked for an email and the remaining 21% asked for just name and email. If you are asking for anything more than that then you are probably putting off a lot of users from signing up.

Don’t ask for too much personal information. Think about using progressive profiling to collect more in-depth data if needed.

Place The Form In Sidebar

Positioning is key in conversion optimization. Instead of just sticking your opt in form above the fold think about where it’s placement will be best understood by the visitor. We saw opt-in forms in the following positions. The most popular position was in the sidebar.

Don’t Use an Image In Your Form

Only 7% of blogs used some sort of graphic or image within their opt-in form. I don’t necessary think using an image is a bad thing, I think a well designed graphic can certainly capture the visitors attention.

I would never underestimate the power of typography and colour to convey a strong message however. If you get your headline right and the rest will take care of itself.

Don’t Use A Popup

Popups remain the annoyance for many users and websites seem to be taking notice, 81% did not use a popup. This is down to personal preference I guess. People like Darren Rowse have shown a great increase in conversion rates, whereas Matthew Woodward showed us that actually it wasn’t worth annoying his visitors with one.

Test a popup on your own website. Only your visitors will tell you whether they find it acceptable or not.

Do Not Include A Spam Warning

This one surprised me initially but after a few minutes it made sense to why we saw such strong data. Of all the blogs, only 3% had a spam warning.

My explanation – In this day and age we all can agree we hate spam. No one enjoys receiving spam and most of us expect a websites not to conduct such activity.

Telling visitors that you won’t spam is the equivalent of saying you won’t steal their credit card details. No one expects you to do this so it’s something that doesn’t even need to be said.

If anything it could have a negative effect on your conversion.  Content Verve back this up with a very interesting case study where adding a privacy statement reduced sign ups by 18.7%.

 

Use ‘Subscribe’ On Your Call To Action

I’m not sure if this is down to laziness or because ‘Subscribe’ really does convert the best. It’s worth noting that Hubspot showed that buttons with the text ‘Submit’ converted less than buttons that did not use ‘Submit’.

Below we see what button text were most used across all forms. The ‘Icon’ where things like Ticks, Arrows etc.

Opt-In Resources

Hybird Connect Opt In Plugin
Opt In Monster Plugin
Ninja Popups Plugin

There you have it, a complete run down on how to design your opt in forms. As with any advice always test it yourself. You may find something works for you that doesn’t for others. I’d love to hear from you if you have had any success following any of these do’s or dont’s. Please get in touch with me and we’ll sort out an interview or quick Q&A or alternatively leave a comment below.