I received an email recently from a person who was trying to subscribe to one of my email lists. She said he was having trouble signing up using an online form. I went in and checked out the webpage the form resides on and noticed it had some outdated code. I had recently changed the name of the mailing list and it was causing the form not to function properly and I hadn’t gone through and made the appropriate changes to this version of the sign-up form.
That error had been sitting online for at least three weeks and I know for certain many other people would have used the form and simply gave up when it didn’t work. I was lucky enough that someone decided to tell me, for which I am very grateful, otherwise it may have sat there for many more weeks.
I lost three weeks worth of sign-ups as a result of this goof-up and it didn’t do my reputation any good either. Sure I fixed the problem as soon as I was alerted to it but it highlights the need for more thorough error checking procedures, especially if you rely on technical systems.
People generally won’t tell you when something isn’t working. It takes to much energy and proactive effort. When we are talking about prospects – people who haven’t invested much time and no money with you or your business – then there is no relationship established. There is no reason for prospects to tell you something isn’t working and sure, it’s nice when someone unusual goes out of their way to tell you something isn’t working, but it’s better if you spot the problem and fix it before it has the chance to be used by the public.
I should have picked up the issue when I noticed that no one was coming through that sign-up form but it didn’t click, I was too busy with other things. Once again here’s an example where a simple system would have saved me. All of my critical systems – and my email newsletters are certainly one of the most important facets of my business – should be routinely tested. Have a system in place so that once a day/week/month your system is tested and is working properly. There is nothing worse than having someone wanting to buy from you and your system is making it impossible.
Great advice, Yaro.
On top of testing your systems, it is also a good idea to review your metrics on a regular basis. Had you had a system in place where you could see a historical record of signups to all your mailing lists, then that drop off would have been glaringly obvious and you may have noticed without having to actually go through and add yourself to the mailing list.
Quite right Blaine, and yet I did notice a sudden downturn in the number of sign-ups to this form yet I wrongly assumed it was the marketplace not wanting to sign-up, which I had no real justification for. Really it was a complete lack of awareness in this case – certainly an issue at times for all business folk.
Certainly does pay to test.
We’ve recently had people asking when they will be getting their newsletters. Turns out that the page that loads after they press ‘subscribe now’ fails, and doesn’t tell them to check they emails to confirm.
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