Email marketing basics: Optimizing your subscription form

Subscription forms are the foundation of opt-in email marketing.  In order to send out an email marketing campaign you need to have a list of subscribers who have granted their permission to receive your mailings – this process is referred to as “opt-in”.  Subcription forms are not just about adding an email address to a list. 

Industry best practice favours double opt-in.  You can set this up through your subscription form, so that when someone subscribes they are automatically sent an email requesting them to click on a verification link to confirm their opt-in.  It’s become standard practice for most email marketing campaigns. 

You use email marketing because you want to market your product to the masses.  It follows that in order to get optimum exposure you need a large, healthy mailing list – one that keeps growing.  In order to do so your subscription form needs to be visible.  A prominently placed subscription form is a must for every email marketer’s website, but why post it on only one page?  Place it on as many pages of your site as possible, or simply link to your subscription form from every page on your site.
Adding a subscription form to your blog and Facebook page or profile can also extend your newsletter reach to include your social network followers. 

The most useful (and overlooked) function of the subscription form, however, is that it’s an introduction to your subscribers.  Relevancy has become a strong focus point for email marketers.  Subscribers are more responsive when the information in your email is of interest and valuable to them.  But how do you know whether or not it’s relevant?  Your subscription form can help you capture information on your subscriber base – whether it’s geographical, demographical, how often they want to receive mailings, or whether they’d prefer receiving promotional emails or emails containing industry news.
Customize your subscription form by inserting information fields that could be relevant and useful to your business.

Subscription forms may be a basic email marketing tool, but in order to maximize your mailing list management some thought needs to be put into where your place it and how you use it.