Todd Follansbee, Usability and Conversion Optimization expert, says the sign-up page for a subscription or white paper is the “money page” for many sites and determines success or failure. An exit from the sign-up page is rarely recovered.

Follansbee goes on to say that conversion analysts have studied signup pages for years, trying to get it right. “One formal study measured the drop off rates for each field in a signup form. Nearly 13% dropped off because the address was required, 12% because it required too much time, 17% because users didn’t trust the site.” He summarizes some of what is known:

• Keep the form simple, and then make it simpler.
• Clearly mark required fields with an asterisk, a yellow background in the field box, or possibly even a red field label.
• Put a simple dark border around the entire signup form and make the background color slightly different than the rest of the page to distinguish it.
• Avoid offensively “loud” colors. Who wants to take the time to fill out a form that hurts your eyes?
• Briefly note your sign-up policies, regarding how your sign-up’s information is used, and link to a privacy policy page.
• Repeat the benefit of signing up in one or two sentences right in the initial eye path and bold the key words.
• Make sure that the form remains on your domain and follows the look and feel of your site so it is clearly identifiable as your page.
• Offer a less demanding engagement option than a full sign up.
• Provide a clean and simple unsubscribe option.
• Except in rare cases, a form that takes more than two minutes will lose a huge number of sign-ups.
• Provide friendly, helpful error correction messages when users fail to fill out the form completely.
• Test the procedure on five people. Bring them to the site and ask them to review the information, find the signup page and fill it out.
• Enable easy “forward to a friend links.” The signup page is often the last chance to make this happen.

It is a mistake to believe we know it all, and a bigger mistake to believe our potential customers and subscribers already know (and trust) us before they complete a sign-up form. Ongoing testing is essential to create a sign-up page that pulls visitors in rather than sends them packing. If you keep your forms simple while conveying the trustworthiness of your business, your visitors will afford you the opportunity to develop a continuing relationship with them.

Source: Todd Follansbee. “Fine-Tuning Your Sign-Up Page,” Web Marketing Today 02/22/07.

Related Post: “Why Consumers Open E-Mails,” EBT Blog 02/22/07.

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