7 Things Your Email Subscription Form Must Do

I should probably start this list with a baseline "must do", which is establish an email subscription form on your Web site.

Email is still the preferred way that consumers want to hear from brands (research work done by ExactTarget) and the only way to get permission is to ask. So build that form.

You may make the form very modern or quite simple. You may have it write back to an existing database, a special database for the purpose, a log file, wherever you can get access and use it. It may check to see if that subscriber exists already, or you may de-duplicate later. You probably should test on mobile platforms and various browsers, but a simple form (see #2 and #3) helps that. But have that form available (see #7 below).

But when you do build it, make sure it will do the following:

1. Set clear expectations - Make it clear how often emails will be sent, and what they include. Is it a weekly newsletter, or a daily offer? Seasonal promotions or special events? 
2. Use the "email" input type - HTML5 has a native email type. Use that rather than plain text. Older browsers will treat it as plain text anyway. More modern ones will include email validation on the client side and iOS will change the keyboard input to include the @-mark.
3. Ask for as little as possible - The less you ask for, the more likely the response. All you really need is the email address. Use calls-to-action in your communication (or where possible, information from conversions) to add more details to your list.
4. Capture any other information you can- get the IP address, the date and time, the page where the subscriber launched the form, what user agent (browser) they used, etc.
5. Use what you ask for - If you must ask for more information, use it in communication. From the start. Address the subscriber by name if you captured that. If you asked the user's favorite sandwich, make sure to send a mouth watering picture of it.
6. Send right away - Give good feedback by sending an email right away. A simple confirmation and thank you will do, but much better to include more, and a welcome message that includes recent, relevant content that you stated you would be sending. That mouth-watering sandwich picture would be appropriate here, too.
7. Be easy to find - Add options to subscribe as a regular part of the header and footer on your site. Make it easy for anyone to sign-up, regardless of how they end up on the site. 

There. If your email subscription form does that, you are ahead on providing a quality email program.