Seth Godin uses only one field.
GetResponse and Aweber use two.
Try to get a free ebook from Hubspot and you’ll see more than ten fields.
Huge difference between one or two fields and ten.
So what’s the magic number of fields you should use? Any number? :)
The first impulse is to say, “That’s my blog. I can ask as many pieces of information as I want.”
The problem is that the more pieces of information you ask from prospects, the fewer will join your mailing list, and the worse your conversion rate.
Your opt-in form is not an appropriate place to play the game “I’m the master of my universe.” Leave it for your comment policy or other places. You don’t want to live alone in your tiny world. You want subscribers to your list. The more subscribers, the better.
Therefore the key point in deciding the number of fields for your opt-in forms is finding a balance between your needs and what your prospects want.
Now please note the wording “your needs.” Not Seth Godin’s needs, GetResponse’s needs, or your mentor’s needs. Your needs.
1) Do I really need this piece of information? Will I ever use it?
2) Isn’t there available any alternative way of getting this piece of information, other than requesting it from the prospects right now?
Now let’s practice…
Do You Really Need the Field “Phone Number”?
Ask me for my phone number and I’ll run away.
Or maybe I’ll give you a number that isn’t mine. What will you get? The chance to call someone else who will send you to hell right after you start your jibber-jabber.
Why do I refuse to provide my phone number? So many reasons! Here’s just one of them…
I don’t want to be bothered at 4 in the morning by people who don’t have any idea about the time gap between us, but have an urgent need to share with me their latest money making suggestions ;)
On the other hand, ask any network marketer the question from this sub-headline and you’ll get a “Hell, yes, you have to ask for the phone number!”
How to find the balance? Let me help you…
Your goal isn’t a tiny list, is it? You want a larger one, who doesn’t want that, right?
Well, what if you succeed in getting several hundreds of subscribers? Far from a large list, but still a decent size, right? Now comes my next question, be prepared…
Do you really need hundreds (then thousands) of phone numbers?
Come on, be serious! You’d need to hire someone with a full time job to contact all of them. And in the end you may find out that some phone numbers don’t belong to your subscribers, others aren’t even real, or they belong to people not wanting your calls, etc. Wasted time and money.
Send some emails, build a relationship with your subscribers, see who are the most engaged, segment your list, and only then send a request for the phone number to a selected group of subscribers.
Do You Really Need the Field “Country”?
If you ask Robert Kiyosaki or whoever runs his site “Rich Dad,” it seems that the field Country is something important that should be known.
If you ask me, that’s hilarious!
Many decent email marketing services provide the following pieces of information about your subscribers: IP, or country, or both. Without bothering the prospects.
Such pieces of information are accurate except for the subscribers who use proxies. But if they want privacy and hide under a proxy, then they won’t tell you the actual country anyway.
Do You Really Need the Field “First Name”?
I dislike the business email messages that are addressed only to me but don’t mention my first name in any way (or “Mr. Jock,” as appropriate).
But when it comes to newsletters or any other mass mailing messages, I’m not naive, I know that nothing is personal there, even if my first name is used. Some spammers call me by my first name too. So, no, using my first name in your mass mailings doesn’t help you in any way.
The personalization in email marketing means way much more. Not saying that using the first name is irrelevant, but in many cases it’s far from being crucial.
On the other hand, the decision whether to use or not this field should be based on the type of audience you have, on the niche, and on the type of your mailings. I won’t get into more details, but I’ll give you an example …
If your mailings are targeted at newbies, they may be thrilled to see their first name there, and may find it very personal. In such a case, the use of the first names is almost a must.
Do You Really Need the Field “Name” (Full Name)?
Every time someone calls me by my full name, I can’t stop asking myself, “Are you a dumb robot, or what?”
Some people use this field. Don’t ever consider it! If you’re looking for a basic customization, then ask for the first name. And use it.
If your plan is to use the first part of the full name as the first name, that’s a plan that sometimes may get you in trouble. Not everyone’s first part of the full name is the first name. For example, the Japanese write their names the other way around. The first part of their full name is the last name :)
Other Fields. Conclusion
Some marketers, especially content marketing companies, use tons of various other fields.
When you land on their squeeze page you ask yourself whether you landed on the right page or not. The feeling is that it’s an application for a new bank account, not an opt-in form. You’re supposed to tell them almost everything about you.
Don’t follow this pattern. It cannot be right for list building. For other reasons/goals, it may be appropriate. But not for list building.
The final conclusion is already obvious…
Update – April 7, 2018. While answering to Lisa’s comment, suddenly I remembered that almost any rule has exceptions :) In some cases (for example the case of certain professional – related to a profession – newsletters), the use of Mr. Jock would be more appropriate than simply calling me Adrian.
Short Q&A session…
Q: But I ask for more than the email address and the first name, and people subscribe to my mailing list without complaining. Eh?
A: I’m sure, but the point of this article is this: if you stop asking for pieces of information you don’t really need (or information that you can get later), you’ll increase your conversion rate. In plain English, you’ll get more subscribers. Without losing anything.
Get unbiased feedback & tips to improve your blog!
To Your List Building Success!
Adrian Jock
P.S. How many fields do your opt-in forms have? What’s the reason behind you choosing that number of fields and not another one?
Adrian,
I use three fields (email address, first name, and surname). I want to get to know my readers with names, so I can apply conversational copywriting to my content.
All the Best,
Martin
Hi Martin. Thank you for your comment.
I like conversational copywriting. But it doesn’t necessarily involve names. On blog posts, for example, it would be impossible to use names, but you can use conversational copywriting though. Even if we’re chatting we won’t use our names too often, right? ;)
Anyway, using first names in your messages cannot be bad. It adds to your conversational copywriting. But… surnames? What do you use them for?
You could call your subscribers by their first names. Or, alternatively, you could call them by their surnames (unusual if you ask me). But why do you need both the first name and the surname?
You’re consistent, right? You don’t call someone Adrian in the first paragraph and Mr. Jock in the second one. Right? So… once again… why do you need both? How does it help you? :)
AJ
PS “Good to know it” – it’s not an acceptable reason :)
Adrian: It is “good to know” if it is a real person who has signed up for the list, or if it is a robot. ;) I want to be able to do search on the interwebs. I want to have a conversation with my readers. I understand that if it is too many fields to fill out, maybe the visitor to the site, will back out. If you don’t want to use your real name, you could write, N.N., or N/A. ;)
M.L. ;)
Martin, Martin. [Smiling] If you get a last name submitted and you find it on the internet, it doesn’t mean that your new subscriber isn’t a spam bot :) That’s your guess, but it may not be correct. The spam bots fill in these fields using keywords or names. Real names. It’s not difficult to design bots that use real names for the name field.
Some of the spammers who design such spam bots even get Gravatar accounts in order to attach a picture to their profile (in case the fields belong to a comment area). Other spammers don’t use spam bots, they spam manually.
Here’s a funny certain Singh who “commented” on this blog: https://www.adrianjock.com/spot-clever-blog-spam/#comment-198 The picture belongs to an American actor though. The spammer was lazy and the name didn’t match the picture :) But not all spammers are that stupid.
The truth is that when you get a last name, you don’t get anything. If you don’t use last names in your emails, you just get an useless piece of information (you do NOT actually know whether the new subscriber is a bot or not) in exchange of dropping your conversion rates. Bad deal ;)
If you want to find out whether a new subscriber is a spam bot or not, instead of guessing and asking for info you don’t actually need you should use proper tools that are not perfect but more accurate that your guessing style method that wastes time for no gain. Use this tool: https://cleantalk.org/blacklists?record=
As for prospects theoretically being able to write something else such as NN, NA, or a random last name, some people may do that, others may just run away. (That’s how REAL people act. Real people don’t read your mind and don’t follow your orders or suggestions. They take independent decisions, and irrespective whether such decisions are good or bad for them, you may lose subscribers for no reason) And that’s a decrease of your conversion rate in exchange of getting… nothing.
I’m not going to extend this topic. If what I already explained and suggested helps you, that’s great. Alternatively, if you think that it doesn’t help you, just move on, there’s absolutely no problem on my side. Not everyone has to agree with me :) Have a great weekend and thank you once again for stopping by and commenting!
Adrian,
Thanks for providing me with examples and arguments. You have helped me to “chew” on this topic. Maybe I will change to only having one field in the future… ;)
Have a nice weekend! I hope you will drink some tea! :)
All the Best,
Martin
Thank you Adrian, this is great information to know. I know I don’t like giving my phone # away to anyone unless I really know them.
Giving an email address is okay and first name. I had to look at mine, just one field: email.
Is asking for a last name a bad one to ask? Just thinking……
Thank you for your comment, Lisa.
I don’t think that asking for the last name is good. But almost every rule has exceptions.
For example, a doctor who publishes a newsletter for the patients may not want to call you Lisa but Mrs. Sicard. And maybe that’s what you’ll prefer too. So he needs your last name. He may also ask for your phone number. If you trust him when it comes to your health, you’ll give him also the phone number, won’t you?
In such a case as shown above, asking for more pieces of information most probably won’t decrease the conversion rates. That’s because you kind of have a relationship with the sender already.
So the exception is this one: If it’s not appropriate to use your subscriber’s first name, and you really need the last name, you may ask for it. Sometimes that’s the case of professional newsletters (professional = related to a profession, not the other meaning).
Lisa,
Personally, I don’t think it is bad to ask for the surname.
All the Best,
Martin
Totally agree about the phone number thing. I either choose not to opt-in, or I use a bogus number. Neither one serves the list builder well. But I think it also depends on where you are in the relationship. For cold traffic, the fewer hurdles the better. If they know you a bit – maybe they’ve visited your blog – then asking for more is probably fine. And if your name is Hubspot, well, I guess you can do whatever you please.
Hi Cindy,
Thank you for your comment :) I had a good laugh when I read your last phrase. Anyone can do whatever she or he pleases, not only Hubspot. But it doesn’t mean that it’s a good thing.
The difference is that Hubspot can pump lots of money in that biz and offset the mistakes, while I don’t want to offset my mistakes by using more money. My money, not investors’ money ;)
Why I actually had a good laugh? Because I remembered one of their free ebooks targeted at schools (yes, schools). Guess what you can find out on that landing page… More inappropriate fields, including their standard field “Does your company sell any of the following services: Web design, Online marketing, SEO/SEM, Advertising agency services.”
Hey Adrian,
Good to be back on your blog bro. Looks like I have not been here for a couple of months. Been away learning cryptocurrency and getting certified in it ;)
I like the way you’ve analysed the different form fields. Personally, I get turned off from forms that make me feel like I’m apply for a a new job. First name and email should be enough if you ask me.
However, it all boils down to strategy and business needs. I have seen some companies that have SMS system. They need phone numbers to periodically trigger alerts to members’ phones.
Mentioning the first names makes the mail personal and for newbies, it’s even more exciting. Some may not know it’s a mass mail you sent. But for big boys, it doesn’t really matter ;)
You linked to an article on list segmentation. It’s my next bus stop after this comment.
Hope you are having a great week
Hi Enstine. It’s good to have you back :)
Members? What members? The article is about opt-in forms, not about forms used for ecommerce / membership sites :) I hope you messed it a little bit, don’t tell me that there are companies that collect phone numbers during the opt-in process to their newsletters and then they start spamming my phone for the rest of my life! (Unsubscribing from their email newsletter won’t unsubscribe me from their phone alerts, right?)
Hi Adrian,
I head for the hills if there is a phone number field. I just jump off to go to another site. I get enough of rob -calls and who wants more?
I like to keep things as simple as possible for folks so I just ask for a name and email address. I like using first names because it just seems more “friendly” doing it that way. It is all about making things easy for the folks that want to opt in. Filling in too much information feels too suspicious to me, especially with all the hacking going on. And at the end of the day, who needs all that information anyway.
Thanks for bringing this topic up!
-Donna
Great post Adrian,
I agree with every point you made here especially this “Your opt-in form is not an appropriate place to play the game ‘I’m the master of my universe.’ Leave it for your comment policy or other places.” I couldn’t have agreed more.
You see, most usually think that because it’s their blog, they are free to do anything they want without anybody questioning them. While this is true, they often forget that most of the decisions they take will in the end, affect them negatively, especially when they overdo it.
I’ve also tried getting a short report from HubSpot many times and was presented with that long list of form fields to fill, and what did I do? Your guess is as good as mine – – I simply bounced back, who has the time to fill all that? Even though I know that the short report they’re giving is kinda valuable, I also know that I can always get it elsewhere.
For me, having just one field for the email address is enough or at most, I’ll ask for name and email for more personalisation.
Overall, I’ll never optin to a form that have more than 2 form fields, except maybe you’ll pay me good money to full the others :))
Thanks a lot for sharing man.
Hello Adrian
Great advice, I am in the process of adding email sign up now for my site, and I’m just going to go with two fields; name and email.
In response to Martin’s comment, I can say, personally if someone started cyberstalking me because I signed up for their newsletter, I would not only unsubscribe I would block them on all my social media. Depending on the aggressiveness of it I might even report it.
That is a huge pet peeve of mine, just bc I enjoy someone’s blog, doesn’t mean I want to be Facebook friends, LinkedIn buddies, or help you become “insta” famous.
Thank you for your interesting comment, Michael.
If I don’t already know a new subscriber, I don’t research who that person is, what she or he does, what their social media accounts are, etc. I don’t do it simply because I consider such a research a waste of my time.
I never considered your kind of point of view. Some people may disagree with it. My opinion on this issue is this… If that’s your feeling, I don’t think that someone has to agree or disagree with it. I just have to try as much as I can to respect your feeling and your wish. I can agree or disagree with an opinion, but I can’t do the same when it comes to feelings.
Your opinion shared here is one more reason to keep doing what I’m doing – not researching the life of my new subscribers. Thank you once again for your comment!