MindValley Labs Internet Marketing Blog

Whether you're trying to get a visitor from a PPC ad to signup for your free newsletter or get a casual browser to register for your new web 2.0 service, you'll need to pay attention to your sign up form.

Simple things like wording, color and position can seriously impact sign up rates.

We typically test 4 - 5 versions of signup form ideas before settling on the best.  Here's we'll reveal our last 4 sign up form tests and share our findings.

Test 1: Two Very Different Forms

Here we tested two very different styles of forms. Each was created by a different designer.  (We often hire 2 separate designers and then test  and compare their designs against each other).

Test 1 Results:

Form B outperformed A by a tiny amount. (11.64% vs 10.24%) after testing this on 2000 visitors from Google PPC Ads.  The difference was too small to be more than 80% sure that Form B would continue to outperform A over the long term.

In this scenario we had to go with our gut feeling. Continuing to test the form would be a waste a time. We assumed both would do equally well, but Form B just looked more professional and fit in better with our site so we picked it as the winner.

This lead us to Test 2.

Test 2: Similar Forms, Different Form Headers

In this test we decided to stick to the form body design that won in Test 1.

Test 2 Result

This time we tested the form of 3000 visitors from Google PPC Ads. This time the results were more dramatic.

Form A has a 8.88% signup rate compared to Form B which had a 10.20% signup rate. The results showed a 85% statistical significance that Form B would continue to outperform A in the long run.

We picked Form B and tried one other variation.

Test 3: Adding Our Names to the Form

Test 3 Results:

You may be wondering why we added a picture of ourselves on the form. Nothing to do with vanity. We're applying a principle called the "Sesame Street Effect" - first coined by the marketer Alex Mandossian.

Mandossian based this idea on the some research findings from the television producers of Sesama Street, the hit children's TV show. The producers found that children paid more attention to the show when they put live human actors and virtual actors (muppets - furry controlled puppets like Kermit the Frog) on TV together.

Scenes with just live actors or just muppets did not perform as well as scene that included a mixture of live and virtual actors.

So Mandossian tested this idea on signup forms and found that the same principle applied. A live person sitting or holding the form caused more people to pay attention to it.

This is why we experimented with a design that had us sitting on the form.

But as we saw in Test 2 - this did not work as well as the design in Form B, with a colorful representation of our team on the form. One theory we had was that new users were noticing the form but had no idea who we were.

So we decided to add a minor variation to the form. We placed our names over our images.

The results were:

Form A had a 16.59% signup rate with 104 signups. 

Form B had a 11.91% signup rate with 71 signups.

Plugging this into our split testing software showed that we could be 99% confident that Form A would outperform B over the long term. (Statistical Significance 99%).

We had a winner!

You can apply this same process to your forms. It's important to test continuously and innovate on the design till you're happy with the signup rate.

More information on signup form design is available in our ecommerce course.

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About the Author

Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay where he conceived of the strategies that led to the investment in Craigslist, the launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford and previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He is also a certified Google AdWords Professional.

Check out other posts by Mike Reining

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