“Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter”

Brownie points to anyone who knows where that’s from.

We have tested this many many times. Most often you want it as a graphic so that you can control the font, etc.

Bryan

The trouble I find with longer calls to actions on buttons, is that they can often get ‘lost’ because of too much text. And they stretch the background image if you don’t use a custom image, therefore look plain ugly and blurry, like this:
http://www.designdetector.com/bugs/ie6-stretched-button-bug.html

Also, submit has become so common because of ‘web expectations’. Submit was always the default value for submit buttons, and I guess the web world has gained accustumed to seeing it that way, much like they always see a logo in the top left.

Interesting perspective though.

Rich Page

Pass me my whip and assume the position.

I too am a strong believer of having an alternative clause that indicates what the visitor is getting, instead of the standard submit button.

Your comment about the subscription rate going up when the privacy clause is not linked is a revelation. Thanks! Probably the visitor gets sidetracked when he/she clicks the privacy link. Did you have the link open a JavaScript window stating the policy (I recommend this) or you linked to your normal privacy page (strict no-no)?

We have done extensive testing of link and unlinking the we value your privacy and have found the subscriber conversion rates go up when it is not linked.

This is a great post! It’s a reminder that seemingly small things, such as the words on the button, may have a big impact.

You ask why “submit” is so common. Here’s one possible answer: all of the off-the-shelf form templates or third-party ASP’s include this phrase. My experience is that sometimes it can be changed but in other cases the third-party ASP services have not considered that anyone might want to use a different phrase.

Once again, you have made an important point.

I do think the language in your alternative is more pleasent (and am inclined to change our “submit” button), but is it scalable to the rest of a site’s action items? Does “Click to Subscribe” become “Please Subscribe Me to Your Newsletter”?

One suggestion: if the visitor’s privacy is important (as it states near your “click to subscribe” button), have that statement link to the formal privacy policy (instead of having a link in the smallest font size far far away in the footer).