– Asking for more information during a sign-up process leads to lower opt-in rates.
– The way questions are asked and the value offered determine the opt-in rate.
– Live data collection forms can collect data after every step of a multistep process, increasing opt-in rates.Simplify sign-up forms by asking one question per step to increase opt-in rates.”Asking for more information during a sign-up leads to lower opt-in rates.” I could put together a 100-question long survey for a free Ferrari, and I bet I would have a near 100% opt-in rate. Again, this is an example of marketers confusing correlation with causation. More than a few people mentioned this on my post yesterday, which always seems to happen when I ask a question like this. It’s what you ask, how you ask, and what’s offered that determines an opt-in rate. Let’s dive in.
WHAT YOU ASK
If you ask a lot of highly personal questions, people won’t answer. If you ask for personal contact information, people will be skeptical about answering. If you ask questions related to the customer journey and aimed at helping you model it for the customer, they will likely answer.
HOW YOU ASK
Ask one question per step; it will provide you the highest opt-in rate. This is true for most things; breaking down complex parts into smaller steps makes it appear like it’s easier. Asking for lots of information on the same step of a sign-up form will lower the opt-in rate. Today, it’s no longer an either-or game. You can collect email and/or phone numbers and collect other data beyond that with live data collection forms like the ones we make at Formtoro. One data point per step. When someone opts into exchanging their personal contact info for a benefit, they have the highest intent. It’s only natural since they are already committed to wanting to make the rest of their experience as good as possible. Most people don’t know this is possible. Well, it is. With live data collection, we collect data after every step of a multi-step process. If someone drops off, no harm no foul, you get all the data up until the drop-off. This is not how previous forms worked. In fact, you see this with some of the other players in our space; they require a button to record the answers after every step.
This is a recent technology change, which requires people to rethink how they have previously done things.
WHAT’S OFFERED
People will do crazy things and jump through crazy hoops for something of perceived value. We ran our free gift card sign-up that required checkout to complete and got a near 40% opt-in rate with full data. This was insane and the highest rate I’ve ever seen from cold traffic. So back to the top example of the Ferrari. At the end of the day there’s massive confusion amongst marketers relating to correlation and causation. Far too much terrible advice is parroted without being able to logically understand how it all fits together. Yes there is a limit to how long a form should be, but you need to properly test to figure out how long that is based on the offer and value you are providing. #marketing #ecommerce #strategyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jivanco