diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/components/modal-portal-settings.hbs b/ghost/admin/app/components/modal-portal-settings.hbs
index 63914f2d3d..91f4de48dc 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/components/modal-portal-settings.hbs
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/components/modal-portal-settings.hbs
@@ -141,11 +141,12 @@
 
                                     {{#if (feature "makingItRain")}}
                                         <GhFormGroup class="gh-stack-item mt5 mb5" @errors={{this.settings.errors}} @hasValidated={{this.settings.hasValidated}}>
-                                            <label class="modal-fullsettings-title">Notice on signup</label>
+                                            <label class="modal-fullsettings-title">Display notice at signup</label>
                                             <KoenigBasicHtmlInput
                                                 @name="footer"
                                                 @html={{this.settings.portalSignupTermsHtml}}
                                                 @class="miw-100 form-text gh-members-emailsettings-footer-input"
+                                                @placeholder="By signing up, I agree to receive emails from {{this.config.blogTitle}}."
                                                 @onChange={{action "setTermsHtml"}}
                                             />
                                             <GhErrorMessage @errors={{this.settings.errors}} @property="portalSignupTermsHtml" />
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/components/modal-portal-settings.js b/ghost/admin/app/components/modal-portal-settings.js
index c441ab705c..7377db5f42 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/components/modal-portal-settings.js
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/components/modal-portal-settings.js
@@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ export default ModalComponent.extend({
             this.settings.hasValidated.removeObject('portalSignupTermsHtml');
 
             if (content.length > this.maxTermsLength) {
-                this.settings.errors.add('portalSignupTermsHtml', 'You\'ve exceeded the character limit');
+                this.settings.errors.add('portalSignupTermsHtml', 'Signup notice is too long');
                 this.settings.hasValidated.pushObject('portalSignupTermsHtml');
             }
         }
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/helpers/gh-count-down-characters.js b/ghost/admin/app/helpers/gh-count-down-characters.js
index 2f217c3270..6f02bfd12e 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/helpers/gh-count-down-characters.js
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/helpers/gh-count-down-characters.js
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@ export function countDownCharacters(params) {
 
     if (length > maxCharacters) {
         el.style.color = '#E25440';
+        el.style.fontWeight = 'bold';
     } else {
         el.style.color = '#30CF43';
+        el.style.fontWeight = 'bold';
     }
 
     el.innerHTML = length;
diff --git a/ghost/admin/app/styles/layouts/portal-settings.css b/ghost/admin/app/styles/layouts/portal-settings.css
index cccabbc32d..647598ad5e 100644
--- a/ghost/admin/app/styles/layouts/portal-settings.css
+++ b/ghost/admin/app/styles/layouts/portal-settings.css
@@ -107,6 +107,10 @@
     height: 60px;
 }
 
+.gh-portal-settings .gh-members-emailsettings-footer-input .__mobiledoc-editor.__has-no-content:after {
+    line-height: 1.5em
+}
+
 .gh-portal-setting-sectionheading {
     font-size: 1.1rem;
     font-weight: 600;