Pop‑Up Sign‑Up Forms That Work: Examples and Templates

What is a signup form?

Sign up forms are used for collecting customer information even though those customers may not have purchased a product or service from you yet. For example, you can put a signup form on your website asking for customers’ information in exchange for a discount or to receive a free product of some kind. Sign up forms help potential customers start building a relationship with a brand.

Sign up forms typically integrate with your email marketing software, where you can start building lists and segmenting your audience into different groups based on their stage in the buyer’s journey.

How do you create a signup form?

Creating a signup form is easy, and your email marketing platform will walk you through the process of how to build one that easily helps capture customer information. You can also use a signup form template based on your digital marketing needs and how much information you want to collect on your customers. Mailchimp offers a variety of different signup form templates depending on your goals and the different types of information you want to collect. Once your signup form is complete, we’ll provide you with easy-to-understand instructions for how to implement it on your website.

Create forms with your customers in mind

By its very nature, a pop-up form is designed to make it easy for your customers and other site visitors to sign up for your mailing list. As you’re planning and designing your form, be mindful of the experience you’re creating for your audience.

Limit the number of fields in your form

Don’t overwhelm your audience with a tedious and difficult signup experience. Include only the form fields that are most important to your business and your marketing goals. Mailchimp makes it easy to give subscribers the opportunity to update their profile or preferences once they’re a part of your list, so don’t feel obligated to collect every possible piece of information from people as they’re signing up.

Keep your messaging clear and relevant

Before taking the time to fill out your form, your audience will probably want to know what exactly they’re signing up for. Add a quick message to your form to highlight the purpose of the mailing list, the incentives they might receive for signing up, or the frequency of your emails. Even a simple message, like “Subscribe to get product updates in your inbox” or “Sign up to receive weekly updates and special offers from our store,” would do the trick.

Choose the right opt-in method

As you’re creating your pop-up form (or any form in Mailchimp, for that matter), you’ll now have the option to toggle between single opt-in and double opt-in. Double opt-in forms require people to confirm their subscription before joining the list, while the single opt-in method eliminates friction from the signup process by allowing subscribers to enter their information and join the list in one simple step.

Optimize for mobile

Your audience interacts with your brand in a variety of different ways and from a variety of different devices, so it’s important that each element of your marketing—including your custom signup forms—look great no matter how they’ve accessed your site. Mailchimp forms are mobile-friendly by default, so your audience can painlessly subscribe to your list from any device.

Preview and test

Before your pop-up form goes live to your entire audience, be sure to preview and test to make sure everything is just right. While testing, consider your own experience with pop-up forms on other websites and make don’t be afraid to make adjustments that you think will help create the best possible user experience for your audience.

Stay on brand

Create a cohesive experience for customers by designing your pop-up form, to match the look and feel of your brand, much like you would a landing page. Mailchimp pop-up forms are fully customizable, so you can create a form that feels right at home on your website with no extra coding required.

Consider adding your brand’s logo to your form or including a beautiful background image—a product photo, perhaps—that catches the eye of your audience. Select a font and color palette that fits your brand, and be sure to create a compelling call-to-action button that encourages people to complete the signup process.

Experiment with timing

One of the benefits of a pop-up form is the ability to control when it appears on your website. Try different delays or triggers on your site to see which helps you earn the most conversions.

Test a time-based delay

For some businesses, especially those who find that visitors don’t often spend much time browsing the website, it might be beneficial to surface the pop-up form as soon as someone navigates to the page. Mailchimp pop-ups can be set to appear immediately when someone visits your site, 5 seconds after arrival, or 20 seconds after arrival.

Try a scroll-based trigger

If you would like to make content the top priority on your website—or you’d just like to give visitors a chance to spend more time on the page before surfacing a signup form—consider a scroll-based trigger. With Mailchimp pop-up forms, the form can appear once someone scrolls to the middle of the page, the bottom of the page, or when we detect that they’re about to exit your site.

Offer incentives

Incentives can be a great way to drive traffic to your website and encourage people to sign up for your list. And, since you have the option to add a brief message to your Mailchimp pop-up form, it’s easy to make sure all of your site’s visitors are aware of any ongoing promotions.

Maybe you’d like to entice people to subscribe by offering a promo code that gives them a discount at your store or free shipping on their first purchase. Or, maybe you’d rather give new subscribers the opportunity to receive exclusive content and special product updates. You can incentivize new subscribers in any way you’d like, just be sure it makes sense for your business—and your bottom line.

Learn from your reports

Pop-up forms, much like the other elements of your marketing campaign that you manage in Mailchimp, generate a lot of valuable data. After designing a form and implementing it on your website, don’t forget to monitor your reports to see exactly how many new subscribers it’s bringing to your list.

Once you’ve identified a baseline for your results, you can change the messaging, timing, and other variables to see how your form’s conversion rates are affected.

Have a plan for new subscribers

A pop-up form will attract new people to your list, but it’s important to plan ahead so you know what content you’ll be sending them. Mailchimp has a lot of helpful tools and features to help you make the most of your new subscribers. Here are just a few ideas:

Send a welcome automation

Show your appreciation to new subscribers by setting up a welcome automation email that sends when someone new joins your list. Offer a discount or exclusive content, promote your best selling items and newest products, or just thank your new subscribers for their interest in your business.

Create an onboarding series

Introduce new subscribers to your business or your products with a helpful onboarding automation series. Provide new subscribers with tips, resources, or educational materials that will help them get acclimated with your business, products, and services.

Use segmentation to tailor your message

Don’t feel obligated to send all of your subscribers the same content. Use the information you collect from your pop-up form (like signup location, for example) to create segments, so you can personalize your marketing and make your messaging more relevant.

Signup form examples

Mailchimp’s all-in-one marketing platform helps you easily design templates to collect customer information for marketing emails. Choose from a variety of email signup form templates based on your business goals. From newsletter sign up examples to templates with more form fields to collect sales information on qualified, we have templates for every purpose.

Here are a few examples of great signup forms to help get your creative juices flowing:

Mailchimp
Mailchimp’s very own signup form is a great example of the type of form you can have on your website. To sign up for our services, you fill out a form that only requires your email, username, and password. From there, you can get started. Our short form makes it easy for you to open an account and start using our products immediately.

Death Wish Coffee Co.
Death With Coffee’s email sign up form only has two fields for you to enter your birthday and email. They have a unique offer, letting customers know they can receive a discount on their coffee for their birthdays.

Gaiam
Gaiam has a popup signup form that’s a great example of a form that pops up, blocking the content behind it to tell you about a great offer. The website only requires your email, making it a simple way to get a discount on your next order.

Use Mailchimp to create effective signup forms

Signup forms are essential for any modern business that wants to use email marketing to increase sales. However, you must be mindful of your target audience to create effective forms. Remember, you have to give something to get something. If you can’t give your customers a discount on a product or service, consider giving them something for free, like access to the newsletter, upcoming deals, or a birthday gift.

Creating effective signup forms that send your customer’s data directly to your email software can streamline your email marketing efforts. Mailchimp makes it easy to build your own custom signup forms based on your business needs.