If you’re like most of us, you want to boost your email signup rate. Email marketing is a powerful way to connect with new prospects and loyal customers alike. A list that’s populated with engaged leads can help you drive traffic to your site, learn about your audience, increase sales, and much more.
However, it’s almost impossible to go from 0 to 10,000 subscribers overnight. As a result, many marketers get discouraged and think that their company isn’t suited for email marketing. I’m here to tell you that this is not the case.
Online businesses across all industries can benefit from building a robust lead list full of active subscribers. The thing is, this process takes time, effort, patience, and a little ingenuity.
Today, I’m going to explore several strategies you can use to skyrocket your email signup rate. I’ve successfully used these tips across our brands, and I’m confident they will work for you too.
Let’s dive in!
Publish Relevant, Actionable Content
Have you ever finished reading an article from a newly discovered brand and thought to yourself, “I’d like to get more content like this in the future. I should subscribe to their email list!” I believe it all comes down to value. A brand that offers valuable content and offers to their readers are more likely to have an active lead list.
Your goal is to give visitors this same feeling when they find your website. The easiest way to accomplish this task is through blogging. There’s a good reason why brands that blog get twice as much email traffic as non-blogging businesses.
The key to getting more email signups from your blog is to write for your target audience. If you write with your audiences’ goals, pain points, and interests in mind, you’ll have a better chance of convincing them to sign up for emails from your business.
I suggest reviewing your on-site analytics, customer feedback, and buyer personas to write blog posts that captivate readers and keep them invested in your brand. Use what you learn from this data to connect with your readers and address their questions and concerns. If your posts resonate with your audience, you can bet that you will see a surge in new email subscribers.
Include Well-Timed Popups
When used correctly, popups are an excellent way to turn visitors into subscribers. You may be wondering, “don’t popups have a bad reputation?” The simple answer to that question is sometimes. The two big differences between good popups and bad popups are relevancy and timing.
Timing is crucial because you want to reach your visitors when they are most likely to join your email list. For instance, a random popup that’s not based on an action taken by your user could do you more harm than good.
However, if someone is looking at a specific product, a well-timed lead magnet that promotes the benefits of your product or service will likely lead to a boost in engagement. The timing and relevance match what the visitors were doing on your site, so popups can be an extremely effective growth tool in this situation.
There are many ways you can personalize your popups for first-time visitors and repeat customers. I suggest using your buyer personas to create popup campaigns designed for visitors based on what they need from your brand.
So, if you have an online pet store and you want to reach as many customers as possible, you would likely make popup campaigns for individuals who own cats, dogs, birds, and so on. These targeted popups are a great way to show your audience that you understand what they need and want to deliver on your value proposition. If you need more convincing that this strategy works, consider this; 80% of shoppers say they want more personalized content and offers from their favorite companies.
Use Social Proof to Convince Cautious Visitors
Social proof is another powerful way to convince visitors to join your email list. In marketing, social proof is the idea that people are more likely to engage with a business if they see evidence that other people followed in their steps and saw positive results.
The most common form of social proof is user reviews, but you’ll be happy to know that there are other options. If your goal is to boost your email signup rate, I suggest using a number counter to show visitors how many people are currently subscribed to your list.
I found that people are far more likely to complete your signup form if they see that thousands of other people made the same decision. You can even include a testimonial or two on your registration page if you want to further incentivize users to give you their email address and name.
You should also consider the benefits of trust seals. Trust seals, also known as trust badges, are basically signals that your business is trusted and respected by other well-known companies, such as McAfee or PayPal. Many people build bonds with companies that they use for an extended time. So, when a users see a seal of approval from PayPal, a brand they’ve used for years, they are far more likely to complete the signup process.
Host a Social Media Giveaway
If you want to quickly get more email signups, look no further than social media giveaways. We’ve had tremendous success hosting contests where we give away full licenses for our products. People who are on the fence about your brand will likely enter your giveaway because there’s zero risk involved.
Social sites like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube are excellent places to promote your event. Believe it or not, the average user spends around 2.5 hours on these platforms every single day. In other words, if there’s someone out there who may be interested in your product or service, there’s a good chance they could stumble across your contest.
The rules you establish for your giveaway are how you’ll grow your email list. You’ll want to allow visitors to enter by liking and sharing your post, but that’s not enough. I like creating several entry methods that enable users to enter however they want. I also encourage our followers to participate through all entry methods because they will get additional chances to win.
You can ask your followers to sign up for your email list and get a value-packed lead magnet or promotion for their time. When you consider that this will boost their chances to win, and they get something that they can use
immediately, it’s not hard to see how these events can result in an explosion of new leads and paying customers.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to skyrocket your signup rate and grow your lead list.
I want to mention one more tip that I think will help business leaders and marketers get more value from these strategies. You should always experiment with the various aspects of your campaigns. A/B testing, or split testing, is a great way to get started.
Essentially, a/b testing is when one or more elements of an advertisement, signup form, or page are modified to achieve stronger results. For instance, you may decide to change your call-to-action to see if this decision impacts your signup rate.
If, for instance, you change your CTA from “Sign Up Now” to “Get My Free Ebook,” and you see significantly more traffic, engagement, and registrations on the changed version, it’s safe to assume that your change had an impact on your conversion rate.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different elements of your email marketing campaign. There are countless opportunities to fine-tune already successful campaigns and turn them into something truly remarkable.
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Syed Balkhi is an award-winning entrepreneur and online marketing expert. He is the co-founder of OptinMonster, WPBeginner, MonsterInsights, and WPForms.