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I want to make a newsletter dialog for my website. Currently the form is including "Name" Field. I think it would be better to leave this off, and make the form with the email field and subscribe button. It seems the name field is not really important.
Should I remove "Name" field in my newsletter sign up form, or keep it?
To personalize email or not?
Well, there is a lot of controversy around this question. Here is some list of studies:
Studies (Heerwegh et al. 2006, Experian study, 2013 ) on the topic suggest that personalizing an email results in higher response rates ( around 5-10% ). There are numerous studies on the topic - search for Email personalization studies.
Here's a quick summary of the Experian study:
Personalized emails generated six times higher transaction rates and revenue per email compared to emails that were not personalized.
Personalized promotional emails had 29% higher unique open rates and 41% higher unique click rates.
Similarly, personalized triggered emails had 25% higher unique open rates and 51% higher unique click rates.
Personalized triggered email campaigns demonstrated more than two times the transaction rates of campaigns that were not personalized.
Emails with personalized subject lines from multichannel retailers had 37% higher unique open rates compared to emails without
personalized subject lines.
Inputting the name lowers the subscription rates
Additional input field should be presented in the subscription form to obtain the name of the subscriber. But we know that the more fields that need to be filled the less the conversion rate is going to be. Therefore, to obtain the name of the subscriber comes with a price - slightly lower conversion rate. This leads to fewer people subscribing because of the more complex form.
Users sometimes put false names just to complete the form
Imagine that you send an email with the following greeting:
Hello Dawdasda,
Privacy issues
Some users might not want to share personal information like name. Therefore this field should be optional.
The best thing to do is to make an A/B test. Put one form which asks for the name and one which doesn't. Put 50% of the traffic to the first variation and 50% to the second. Try to track everything you can, like click through rates, conversion rate, etc. The see which of those two variants gets you the most revenue. This way you will have objective data to base your decision.
I advise you to design an A/B test because your case is unique and different to the studies outlined above. So you cannot take their data and expect it to work for you. Rely on your data.
There are two experiences here to keep in mind: subscribing and receiving the email. If there is no need to address the subscriber with his name (eg: Thanks for your subscription Robert, Hello Robert, etc), you could get rid of the name field. I would base the decision on the tone of voice of the brand: is it personal or not.
Just require the minimum information you need from the user.
Any extra interaction the user needs to do will probably make some users go away.
The more private information you request the more users might go away.
Also, in some countries there are certain regulations for personal information you might retrieve from users such as names. Be sure to check if this applies in your case.
Side note: As @DmitryGrigoryev comments, an option could be making it optional. This might be interesting because it gives extra information such as users that are alright giving their names. This might imply those users feel more interest and confidence in the product.
i think taking email will be good if you just want user to stay updated with your newsletters. User don't actually subscribe if there are lots of fields in a form. So it would be best if you just take email at first instance.
We can keep name field as optional. Without entering his/her name due to privacy issue user can still subscribe to newsletter.
As a subscriber, I feel identifying me by e-mail is problematic, as my addresses are plentiful and sometimes transitory. Do you need to avoid (or explicitly allow) sending the same subscriber the same newsletter twice (to two different e-mails), or ever need to change a subscriber's e-mail?
I feel a UserName field is not burdensome, nor horribly invasive, while FirstName/LastName is often too much information. I would conjecture that most subscribers have a favorite username that is relatively unique and they feel comfortable sharing and being identified as.
If one address = one user, without regards to actual person behind the e-mail, leave it out.
-Skinkhunt43
Another question could be: Why are you asking for this information? What you plan on doing with it?
If it's for personalization purposes, Kristiyan Lukanov has recommended some great studies. I'd like to point to this article on the Litmus blog:
Email Personalization is About So Much More Than Your [First_Name], by Josh Bonini
Email recipients know, by now, that we can drop a FirstName token and pretend we know them. They expect so much more.
What do you really know about them? What are their purchasing habits? What kind of content do they like/read/share, etc.? And how can you use what you know about them to provide some value in return. How can this data help them?
It has been said here, and in many other places, that the least amount of info you ask up front, the better your subscription forms will convert.
Cool but what if you need more info? Consider Progressive Profiling and create strategic opportunities to collect more information as you develop a relationship with your subscribers.
It Depends!
It Depends on your brand, How your organization want to address your customers, is the newsletter going to be a personalized one say 'Hi John' or 'Hi There'. At times we no need to reinvent the wheel - follow industry standards, but if the issue is quiet specific, You need to A/B test it and see the results and action accordingly.
And most importantly, take the information which is required, if you are not going to address your customers by their names, then do not collect the information.
