Over the last 2 months, my startup (Marketing Examples) welcomed 31,000 first time visitors. 4,100 of these visitors subscribed to the email list. That’s an email opt-in of 12.9%. The industry average is 2%.
What follows is a series of things I’ve observed whilst trying to build a website which maximises email subscribers:
1. BEING OBVIOUS WORKS
I imagine a few of you have read The Alchemist. Pretty good book right? How many of you signed up to Paulo Coelho’s email list?
No matter how amazing your work no one is going to go out of their way to sign up to your email list. You have to make it obvious. Incredibly obvious. There are four ways to sign up to the Marketing Examples email list:
From the fixed position navbar
At the end of any article
Through the exit intent popup
Directly from the subscribe page
From any given point you’re only one click away from subscribing [See video]
2. POPUP TIMING MATTERS
I went to a museum recently. On my way out a member of staff told me that every time a new exhibition opens they send out an email and asked whether I’d like to sign up. I said sure.
Now, imagine a parallel universe. Ten seconds after I walk through the museum’s doors the same lady jumps out in front of me and asks if I’d like to join the email list.
The latter is how most popups do work. The former is how they should work. For those unfamiliar, I’m talking about exit intent popups. The benefit is clear. In waiting until a user is ready to exit your website you’re not going to annoy them by springing open a popup whilst they’re in the middle of an article.
3. POPUPS RUN THE GAME
If human behaviour was rational the exit intent popup on Marketing Examples would be futile. Users have already seen the email box on the home page or at the end of an article. Surely they’ve already decided whether or not to sign up?
Well, not quite. The “futile” popup contributes 50% of total sign-ups (all of whom were about to leave the website). Without it Marketing Examples would currently have 2900 subscribers instead of 5800. [See Graph]
*See end of article for popup implementation.
4. SUBSCRIBE PAGES WORK
The benefit of a dedicated subscribe page is that it allows you to link directly to your email list.
This means any value I create on other platforms can be converted directly into email subscribers. For example you’ll notice James Clear links to his newsletter on Twitter (not his website)
5. ASKING PERSONALLY WORKS
The most surefire way of getting someone to do something is (drum roll, please) … ask them personally. Humans respond better to humans than they do to a little box with the word “Subscribe” on.
On YouTube people get this. Most videos include some sort of personal call to action — “Hit the subscribe button”. But on websites impersonal email boxes remain the modus operandi. Every Marketing Examples case study comes with a little personal nudge to subscribe.
6. APPEARANCE MATTERS
Everything up to now has been focused on perfecting structure. But it’s not going to count for much if your email box just says, “Subscribe to my newsletter”
I’ve got 3 simple rules to improve any email box:
Explain why people should sign up
Add social proof (e.g. Number of subscribers, unsubscribe rate, quote)
Replace “Subscribe” with a value-based call to action
This photo shows a before and after once these tips are implemented
IN SUMMARY
Choosing whether or not to subscribe to an email list is a split-second decision. This means that subtle psychological tweaks can make a big difference.
And before some smart Reddit commenter beats me to the punch, I’ll say it myself – A lot of the reason why that number is so high is because my traffic, by and large, is already qualified. People coming over from Twitter, Reddit, Indie Hackers etc … after already seeing value. If my organic traffic was better there’s no way conversion would be so good!
If you found this useful, I write about real world marketing examples on marketingexamples.com. Any questions, I’ll be in the comments.
