How to Get More Email Subscribers
Figuring out how to get more email subscribers is a goal that anyone with or trying to build an email list will have. It’s also probably the hardest task, more so than actually getting positive results from the list itself.
Having newsletter subscribers can be one of the most profitable sources that a website can draw from.
You can generate repeat customers, the subscribers can be directed to your content which they can share (more sales) and your news and events can be effectively communicated and spread.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that having an email in your database is the same as having a lead. That would be like saying that someone browsing your store is your customer.
People can subscribe to your newsletter for a variety of reasons, whether it be to receive a discount code for your online store or just to find out all the latest about your website and industry.
This means that your subscribers could vary in quality, so segmenting your lists would be a good strategy depending on the specific goals you set for acquiring subscribers. There are many ways to get more email subscribers, so let’s take a look at how you can get started.
How to Get More Email Subscribers
You want to get more newsletter subscribers but aren’t sure where to start? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. There any many ways to increase your newsletter subscriptions but what works for some doesn’t work for all.
You need to try and test various methods to see what works for you and then ramp up your efforts to maximize your results. If you really want to increase your newsletter subscriptions, you can form a content marketing strategy built around the buyer’s journey. Here are some tips for getting more subscribers:
Offer an Incentive
This gives people a reason to want to subscribe to your email newsletter because they are getting something in return. Because of this, the user can be more inclined to subscribe as the feeling is more reciprocated rather than them just handing over their email.
We all like getting things for free. As long as the incentive has good and relatable value for people, you should be able to get more email sign ups.
Some of the easiest ways to offer email sign up incentives are:
Offer discounts, such as having $ off on your next purchase
Give away a free product, for example, a promotional t-shirt
Give free knowledge such as an eBook of a relevant topic for your target audience
Raffles, sweepstakes, contests, promotions, etc.
Offer the person a discount voucher to spend after signing up. It could be a $5 discount voucher to spend on their first order or you could make it percentage-based on their total shopping cart amount.
After you have been in business for a while you can analyze which months are the slowest for you.
This could be the best time for email marketing to run your biggest giveaway of the year and get a lot of subscribers for doing so which you can later market to.
Social Media
Social media is a perfect tool to be able to increase contacts for your email list. This is because on social networks it is possible to communicate immediately with a large number of users, potentially already interested in what you sell.
A great way to take full advantage of social media could be to add to each post published the link of your website or landing page to subscribe to your newsletter, once again possibly in exchange for a reward or with some incentive involved.
Turn Popular Posts Into Lead Magnets
If you have some posts which get a lot of views every week you should capitalize on this and add a lead magnet to it. A lead magnet is an offer extended to the user in exchange for their email address.
Let’s say you have a popular post about how people can weed their garden effectively on your lawn care eCommerce website. You could offer something like a free .PDF checklist about this subject in exchange for the user’s email.
You can even create a new subscriber list specifically for this topic so everyone on that list would be interested in the weeding products that you sell on your store. This technique could be particularly useful for you if you’re struggling to write an email newsletter and don’t have many ideas for content.
Button Color
We touched on color psychology in our guide on How to Create a Brand.
Colors influence people and their thoughts and decisions.
If your button for your email subscription form is red, how do you think people would subconsciously react to this?
Now if that exact same button was green, how do you think they would react?
This is a basic example.
But as you and pretty much everyone can recognize:
Red = Stop and Green = Go
Colors play on the minds of people whether they realize it or not, so think about your color scheme and how people may react to it.
Button Wording
The words, or call to action, that you use on your buttons can also influence the user as well.
How you think this looks:
Compared to this:
Big difference.
The user is going to think and feel very differently when they see both of these calls to actions, and one of them would definitely yield better results than the other.
Don’t Ask Too Much
One of the biggest turn offs when it comes to filling out forms is having to submit too much information.
Do you really need all of this from your users in order for them to subscribe to your newsletter?
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Date of Birth
Age
City
Country
Postcode
Email Address
Probably not.
That’s just overkill, and a first name and email address should suffice in the majority of situations.
Email Subscription Form Placement
Content Locking
Content Locking is when a web page or part of the page is locked until the user completes an action to unlock it, in which it will then become visible.
This action is usually signing up for the newsletter, but can also be in the form of a share on social media. Both of these options can be easily integrated with Shopify or WooCommerce.
These techniques should only be reserved for your best pages which offer amazing value. This way, the user would actually want to unlock the content to see what’s there.
Most commonly, there would be a lengthy piece of content and the best part of it, which may reveal something of value, would be the locked portion.
Position Your Subscription Form Based on User Behavior
Put yourself in the place of your consumer and think when you are more receptive to leaving your email address. It is unlikely that you would become a subscriber during your first visit to a website as you don’t know much about it.
An exception to this would be for eCommerce websites that display a pop up offering a discount for the checkout.
If the site is divided into sections or themes, it is best that your list is too. A segmentation technique can help you increase your list of subscribers and show the value of your newsletter in context. If the user reads an article about a specific topic, you can ask them if they want to receive communications on this topic.
For a blog, place the registration form at the bottom of the page. Prioritize other major calls to action as recommended items that will be placed at the top of the page.
This can not only help you increase email subscribers but also segment them by interests which you can later use for direct targeting.
Pop Up Windows
Pop up windows are those small windows that open while browsing a site or when you are about to leave a page. Very often they have persuasive content and the purpose to convince the user to leave their email address and subscribe to the newsletter.
As you can see, this could be a great way to acquire new contact in a natural and fast way. Obviously, to make your pop up more effective, try to use an effective call to action, using also a persuasive and perhaps whimsical image.
At The End of Articles
Your email subscription box could be placed at the bottom of every article on your blog.
Every time someone finishes reading one, they will be immediately greeted with the opportunity to sign up to your list.
This can be a great way to get more email subscribers because the user could be very engaged after reading your content and signing up could sound like a good idea as a result.
Utilize The Footer
The footer is that space present at the end of a page on a website. If well exploited, the footer can be an excellent space to write all the most useful information about your company.
In this specific case, you can also use it to insert the link to subscribe to your newsletter. In doing so, your link will be present on every page but will not be imposing or intrusive to the user.
The Checkout
You can integrate a checkbox on the checkout page that users can tick if they want to subscribe to your newsletter. You can display a short line of text saying something like “I want to receive future discount promotions” or something of similar nature.
The box can even be ticked automatically, and you will find that users will notice this and untick it if they want to. Again, very easy to implement if you’re using Shopify or WooCommerce.
These are some of the best and proven methods to get more email subscribers for your website. If you want to increase your efforts and try to improve your results then check out these email marketing tips and implement them into your overall strategy.