I was reading an article on successful landing page design for email marketing sign-up forms and came across research which suggested that the more boxes there were to fill in, the poorer the completion rate. This comes from the University of the Blatantly Obvious. Anyone not completely new to our craft would know that.

The odd thing is, the article went on to give advice on gender-inclusive forms and copy, something which is becoming more or less a necessity nowadays. They suggested that a choice between Mr, Mrs, and Miss is not inclusive. I think we can all agree with that. Their preferred way was to give the opportunity to choose between six options, plus the seventh, ‘I prefer not to say’. A bit of a challenge there to their suggestions regarding fewer boxes.

There is an option which has become slowly more popular with companies, and possibly subscribers as well. It’s obviously up to you to decide if it suits your target audience, but it has a lot going for it.

Ask them what title, if any, they prefer.

It obviously leaves a little work for you with regards to completing the data on your email marketing list, but it is probably worth the time. Firstly, it’s likely you won’t upset potential subscribers. Secondly, you will know precisely what title they prefer and can ensure it is used every time you connect with them. Lastly, they, like me, might prefer no title, and if they leave it blank, you won’t even have to fill in a form yourself. That’s personalising perfection and it’s got my vote.

I don’t like to be prescriptive, but here goes; your copy must be gender-neutral. There are exceptions, but these are few, and can be arrived at only with testing. There is a problem of course. The English language is riddled with gender-specific pronouns and using they instead just doesn’t flow.

Gender-neutral copy requires a little effort. No one said it’d be easy. In the current climate it’s unlikely to upset many of your subscribers, so ask yourself if you need to know the gender of your customers.