Ask your question ... sign up today! It's FREE!
E-Marketing     
 
This question has been closed, and points have been awarded.
Do "confirm Email" Boxes In Sign-up Forms Work?
Posted By: GKrehbiel on 12/20/2006 9:29 AM (CST) 250 Points
Has anyone studied whether the quality of email addresses submitted through a web sign-up form gets better when you have an "email address" and a "confirm email address" field (and require them to be the same)?

I know it's common for people to include these on their sign-up forms, but I'm wondering if anyone has tested how much it actually improves the quality of the data.

Posted by: ANG* Accepted Answer
12/20/2006 9:37 AM (CST)
As an email marketing manager with a call center channel, I fought for confirm boxes and real time email address validation. I can tell you that when we did not use a confirm email address box, we lost as much as 30% of our total email addresses.

I hope that helps.
 
Posted by: Peter (henna gaijin) Member Response
12/20/2006 10:41 AM (CST)
I can't answer whether the confirm email box helps though I suspect it would help some). But if quality of emails is real important, go to the next step beyond just confirming emails and use a form of email validation. If you have some sort of offer (free white paper, etc.), only give the offer when the email is validated (or as part of the validation process - by emailing the item to them).
 
Posted by: msumner1* Accepted Answer
12/20/2006 11:52 AM (CST)
They only work when people con't copy/paste into the second one, which I would say most people don't do.

If you want to be sure you have their correct email, send them a confirmation email where they have to enter a code on your site or click a link in the email.

Let me know if you need any help implementing something like this, it only takes a few minutes to set up and will save you a lot of headaches and bounced emails.
 
Posted by: GKrehbiel Author Response
12/20/2006 12:04 PM (CST)
Thanks for the replies so far.

I'd like to clarify that I'm not interested in sending a confirmation email because that wouldn't work well with our system.

What I'd like to know is if anybody has data showing the actual effect of a "confirm email" field on a registration form.

It might increase the quality of the data submitted, but it might also depress response. Any evidence one way or the other is appreciated.
 
Posted by: Marketing-Riot Member Response
12/20/2006 2:06 PM (CST)
Improves accuracy - improves quality
It's easy to make a typo...hard to slip by a second time with confirm of email

Confirm email has notified me many times when both didn't match so I knew to fix my entry
 
Posted by: stevea Accepted Answer
12/20/2006 4:41 PM (CST)
Dear Greg

I’ve never come across any published data to say that it actually improves the ratio of people who fill in a form in over the percentage of people who decide to move on without completing the form.

There is however internal data from HP and Dell and informal feedback from CRMGuru, IT Business Edge and Technology Evaluation Centres which indicates that for sign-up pages which are a requirement for newsletters, white papers or other user demanded free information, that it does not diminish the sign-up rate to any appreciable extent.

You must understand that for at least the latter 3, the data is not really scientific, because it is before and after changes to the validation procedure on their websites were introduced, not as a result of a single or double blind market test with a control group, but it looks pretty convincing – you don’t lose people.

As a means of preventing unintentional incorrect email addresses being entered, the improvements cited has been as high as 41% and as low as 27% but at either end of the range, that is impressive. A further means of improving your sign up validity is to get rid of intentional false email addresses which an easier process than you might think. See
http://regexadvice.com/blogs/jschoolcraft/archive/2003/11/11/261.aspx for some guidelines on how to check that the email address supplied actually exists.

Your statement that “I'm not interested in sending a confirmation email because that wouldn't work well with our system” is arse about face and worries me. I realise that your question is about whether asking people to enter their email address twice will put people off, and the answer is no. But if the email address is doubly false, on purpose, it seems worth your while to validate it.

As CRM consultants, we try never to fit business practice round the software and this seems to be an e-business example of exactly that. OK, you might be changing your software to catch a tiny number of false intentional double incorrect email addresses, which appears to be an exercise which is not worth the candle. But not to do it because it doesn’t suit the existing process is plain wrong and a bit bonkers! What happens if the number of false entries suddenly jumps 1000 folds through malicious practice as has happened in the USA, by a rival employing hundreds of impoverished far eastern workers to falsely complete web registrations in order to screw up a rival’s site? Email validation costs peanuts and it is worth it. It can be done automatically as in the article above and by confirmatory email, which when handled automatically by a half decent CRM package like Maximizer, is maintenance and operationally cost free.

Best wishes

Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions
 
Posted by: GKrehbiel Author Response
12/21/2006 11:35 AM (CST)
Steve,

Thanks for the statistics. That's helpful.

Our online registration process is for the purchase of a product. Collecting the email address is a good thing, but not crucial. We get pretty decent data now, so the question is how far to go to get better data.

Adding any sort of confirmation (e.g., we send an email and they have to click on a link to continue the process) may get us better email names, but it's certain to lose us sales (on the well-known principle that any time you add a step you lose people).

Thanks,

Greg
 
Posted by: enigmavaldez* Accepted Answer
12/24/2006 11:28 AM (CST)
From my experience the confirm email adress box works. It cuts down on the opt-in rate, but it increases the QUALITY of the leads. Ultimately that's what you'll want.

The quality of the leads increases the response rate of your list, and then you are able to effectly cross sell and increase your back-ends.
 


Get more answers ... ReTweet this!

Would you like to post a response?
Welcome to Know-How Exchange!
This is a collaborative community. We welcome everyone's participation.
All you need to do is login. Enter your account info in the box above (top right).
Not a member? Not a problem. Register here (it's FREE and EASY).




Know-How Exchange powered by MarketingProfs


Sponsored Links

Buy a Link Now

Just Released ... Download Today!
Just Released ... Download Today!
Look inside
User Name:
Password:
Remember Me
Forgot your password?

Top 25 KHE Experts
(E-Marketing)
Jay Hamilton-Roth (21429)
Pepper Blue (16640)
Inbox_Interactive (12721)
stevea (9005)
darcy.moen (8899)
mgoodman (8672)
W.M.M.A. (7132)
Clive Fernandes (6647)
michael (6470)
telemoxie (5974)
Neil (5213)
Gary Bloomer (4433)
Mikee (4050)
mbarber (3931)
MRowland (3735)
ASVP/ChrisB (3693)
AndrewS (3491)
Harry Hallman (3405)
Peter (henna gaijin) (3348)
NuCoPro (3110)
thinkmor (3075)
amandavega (2947)
Frank Hurtte (2873)
ROIHUNTER (2746)
SRyan ;] (2541)
Recently Posted Marketing Jobs
Senior Marketing Associate
Demand Generation Sr. Manager
Web Consultant
Director of Marketing & Community
Content Acquisition Manager
Marketing Manager
Senior Marketing Executive - ICIS Americas
Vice President, Marketing
[more jobs]

Join over 357,000 members ... SIGN UP!

My email address is and I'd like my password to be .

Already a member? Sign In!

My email address is , and my password is .


HACKER SAFE certified sites prevent over 99.9% of hacker crime.