Comments on: Too Many Choices Can Be Dangerous http://www.emailresponsibly.com/2009/06/23/registration-pages-%e2%80%93-too-many-choices-can-be-dangerous/ Taking a closer look at the world of email marketing. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:41:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Sara http://www.emailresponsibly.com/2009/06/23/registration-pages-%e2%80%93-too-many-choices-can-be-dangerous/comment-page-1/#comment-213 Sara Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:01:37 +0000 http://www.emailresponsibly.com/?p=1193#comment-213 We also recommend as a best practice a two-step registration to capture more customer information on a second page. The important part is ensuring the email is captured within the first step. Allposters.com does a great job. I also like the use of JavaScript to add more fields based on the input by a specific subscriber. For example, if I enter my zip code, the form can immediately populate with a field asking me to select my preferred store in my region. If I enter that I have children, the form can automatically populate with more fields based on the number of children in my household. We also recommend as a best practice a two-step registration to capture more customer information on a second page. The important part is ensuring the email is captured within the first step. Allposters.com does a great job.

I also like the use of JavaScript to add more fields based on the input by a specific subscriber. For example, if I enter my zip code, the form can immediately populate with a field asking me to select my preferred store in my region. If I enter that I have children, the form can automatically populate with more fields based on the number of children in my household.

]]> By: Maayan Roman http://www.emailresponsibly.com/2009/06/23/registration-pages-%e2%80%93-too-many-choices-can-be-dangerous/comment-page-1/#comment-189 Maayan Roman Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:07:43 +0000 http://www.emailresponsibly.com/?p=1193#comment-189 It's certainly a tough call for marketers - we all want to collect as much information as possible to send more targeted and relevant messages, but lengthy forms decrease the number of people who actually finish filling out a form. I know that having the phone number as a required field always made me nervous and I usually put in a fake one. Removing the "*required field" text from a lot of entries would probably help maintain better data integrity. A good tactic I've seen some sites use is to have a very simple, email only capture as the first step. Once the user has been subscribed another screen appears confirming the subscription and asking for more information. This way marketers get the best of both worlds - an email to push messages to and relevant, truthful info from consumers with a higher tolerance. It’s certainly a tough call for marketers – we all want to collect as much information as possible to send more targeted and relevant messages, but lengthy forms decrease the number of people who actually finish filling out a form. I know that having the phone number as a required field always made me nervous and I usually put in a fake one. Removing the “*required field” text from a lot of entries would probably help maintain better data integrity.

A good tactic I’ve seen some sites use is to have a very simple, email only capture as the first step. Once the user has been subscribed another screen appears confirming the subscription and asking for more information. This way marketers get the best of both worlds – an email to push messages to and relevant, truthful info from consumers with a higher tolerance.

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