Gyles Seward
Email lists are so important to marketing that achieving a large one may make you want to rush straight out and buy a list. Unfortunately the simple truth is that there really are no good ones for sail. Purchasing data is super risky, can damage your reputation and waste your budgets. It can be hard work but achieving an organically acquired list is always going to be the best way to collect data.
Everyone who visits your website is potentially a prospect for you, so here are some easy tips to optimise your signup rate with quality additions to your list.
Have a sign up box on (nearly) every page
People will land on myriad different pages from search engines so it is essential to have a sign up box on (nearly) each and every one of your pages. It needs to be attractive, easy to find and easy to use. A good way to achieve this is by including it in the footer at the bottom of your site design.
I say nearly every page as sometimes other conversions are more important, such as an e-commerce sale for example. Don’t worry, in this scenario you could simply allow customers to opt in to the mailing list as part of the sale process.
Keep it simple
Asking for lots of fields can make people wary of handing over information. Limit yourself to Email address and perhaps their first name, which also has the benefit of making the process as fast as possible.
Tailor the signup box copy appropriately
You can optimise your signup boxes effectiveness by matching the copy to the page it is on. For example, if you wish people to sign up to your blog, say: “subscribe to the blog”. Obviously, this will only work if you have a different signup box for different pages rather than one in your site footer.
Social proof
Social proof is simply where you use an example of how lots of people behave to infer the correct behaviour for a situation. For example, if you have a mailing list of 20,000 people, by advertising this you may make people may feel they are missing out on something by not joining in.
Think about a dedicated signup page
A dedicated signup page allows users to see for themselves what the benefits are to them of signing up.
Here you can set expectations (such as how often subscribers will be contacted), as well as showcase the benefits of being on your email list (such as offers, exclusivity, time sensitive benefits and more).
A dedicated signup page can also be a valuable marketing tool for social media, plus you can add a link to your outgoing mail signature to increase uptake.
Incentivise your signup
Finally, if you generally struggle with low signup rates it may be worth considering offering an incentive to users.
Discount codes and vouchers are good ideas, however avoid competitions, as – for example – offering the chance to win an MP3 player could result in a wave of data from people who are interested in MP3 players, but not in your products – unless of course you are selling MP3 players! Tie your offers in with your business to ensure the signups you get are relevant to what you have to offer.
Use these tips and you will be well on the way to building up a database of contacts suitable for your business.
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