A Beginner’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Opt-in Form Type

Do you remember that feeling when you were 8 years old, ogling at the flavours at an ice cream stand, unable to choose because they all looked equally good?

You could've stood there for hours, weighing the pros and cons between pistachio and mango.

Then, in the end, your mom made you choose chocolate, just to get it over with.

You were frozen by decision paralysis, which is caused by the huge mental strain trying to choose between a variety of equally good options.

This is what happens to some of us when choosing an opt-in form type.

A superb list building plugin like Thrive Leads is armed with an array of endlessly customizable opt-in form types.

... and to the untrained eye, they all look equally good.

Then you choose the lightbox because it's a safe and popular choice. Just to get it over with.

But what if you had a guidebook that told you exactly what flavour of ice cream to get? You'd be in and out in no time.

Disclaimer: A guidebook for choosing ice cream doesn't really exist. That would be silly.

But rest assured - a guidebook for choosing a suitable opt-in form type exists, and you're reading it. Soon you'll be making that choice in seconds!

Step 1: What Are Your Goals?

In this first step, you'll need to ask yourself a few questions to find out what you're actually trying to achieve with your opt-in form.

1. What am I trying to accomplish?

What is your goal with this opt-in form? It might sound like a simple question, but the answer isn't always immediately obvious.

Here are some common goals you could have with an opt-in form:

• Collecting leads
• Promoting your opt-in offer
• Promoting a product
• Collecting social media likes and followers

Every opt-in form should have one specific goal. What is yours?

2. How annoying do I need to be?

Opt-in form types are designed with different levels of distraction. Yes, some of them are annoying by design! There's a simple reason for this: more annoying equals more attention.

Is your offer something time-sensitive? Do you need your visitor's attention immediately? Did your visitor just arrive on your site? Your form needs to be ANNOYING.

Not all offers need urgent attention NOW. Evergreen offers can sit on the sidelines, letting a visitor delve into the content without distractions. That's why some forms are built for a subtle, smooth entrance.

3. Who do I want to target with my form?

Obviously you're targeting your VISITOR, right? But hold on.

Visitors come in different shapes and sizes. Some are new to your website and some have been subscribers for ages, which means they will react differently to offers and forms.

A newcomer doesn't know how awesome you are yet, so aggressive attention seeking (read: annoyance) is key. They usually land on your front page or a popular blog post, which is why those pages often throw the most annoying opt-in forms at you.

A subscriber or regular visitor is already interested in your content. They're the people who go through all of your articles and read all your emails. A more subtle nudge with a more targeted offer is good for this visitor.

So when you're building a form, ask yourself:

Step 2: Which Opt-in Form Type is For You?

Now you have three criteria to help determine which opt-in form type you need.

Next we'll take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the most common opt-in form types. Once you gain some experience in using different form types, there's no limit to their application.

Right now though, we need to establish a foundation - a baseline from where to begin.

Ribbon-type Form

Step 3: Test and Revise

In ice cream flavours, opt-in forms and conversion optimization, there are no written rules. Sure, this article gives you an excellent foundation to build on, but at the end of the day, no situation is exactly the same.

That's why the last and most important step is testing. We need to see how actual real live human beings react to your opt-in form choice. If you think testing sounds intimidating, don't worry. It's actually quite a simple thing to do, and Thrive Leads makes it even easier!

Using what you've learned in steps 1 and 2, you probably have a good idea of which opt-in form types might work for your situation. So here's what you do:

1. Create the opt-in form and choose where on your website you want it shown. Remember when you defined your visitor in Step 1? This is where you need that information.
2. Choose and create an opt-in form you would like to test against your first opt-in form. Use another form type for this one!
3. Start a test between two form types.

Note: this test becomes available in Thrive Leads as soon as you have at least two different kinds of forms created inside a lead group.

Then we wait. Go make a sandwich or have some ice cream, because a good A/B test only works with sufficient data.

After your forms have a few hundred impressions each, you start to have some idea of the results. Ideally there will be a huge difference in conversions, and you can easily choose a winner.

Whichever form type wins the A/B test is the opt-in form type you should choose for your application.

Testing might sound arduous at first, but it's really the only way to be sure how theory relates to practice.

Become the Quickest Draw at the Ice Cream Stand

Using the guidelines above, you no longer need to choose one specific opt-in form type just because it's an easy safe alternative.

Even if chocolate ice cream is always your favourite, you now have the power to be brave with your opt-in forms. Try out a new form type. Start a test today. 

And if you REALLY want to take your opt-in forms to the next level. Click the button below to sign up for our free course to learn how to use the power of multiple choice opt-in forms on your website.