Converting web hits into email subscribers
Converting web hits into email subscribers
How do i get more email subscribers?
Email marketing should be all about converting your website visitors not buying an email database and spamming them.
If you're spending money on SEO and PPC services it's criminal not to keep in contact with as many of these visitors as possible. Only a fraction of people will buy from a website on their first visit so you need to get them to come back again and again.
So how do you convert site visitors? Well the best way is to encourage and incentivise.
So how do I do that then? I hear you ask.
The first step is a visual icon that will draw peoples attention, in either the header or your left/right panel.
The golden rule is to have an opportunity to sign up to your newsletter on every page as it is most likely this will be the last thing they do before leaving your site. It's no good just having a newsletter subscribe option on your home page.
Let's use a generic website header as an example for this article.
There's nothing here to attract any subscribers at all, so we could start by adding a menu button and adding a link in the top right.
So my first tip is to use something different to 'sign up', 'sign up to our newsletter' or 'subscribe here'.
The words 'sign up' sounds a little formal and contractual. We don't want them to sign their lives away or be contracted to anything, we also want to let them unsubscribe whenever they want. The words 'stay informed' is a little different, it's not seen that often, may get some clicks from people who are a little curious. Try coming up with something yourself, maybe related to your web content like Riders Club if you have a horse riding website etc.
Lets take this one step further and offer an incentive.
Am I saying that you should offer a 5% discount, no I am not. But if you think you could make more sales (and profit) through email marketing to visitors on your website by offering 5% off then yes you should at least try.
This 'incentive' could be a higher reward but only to one or two subscribers eg
"every month one of our subscribers wins a 50 voucher"
The next step is your sign up landing page, the icon will only take them to a sign up form. It's no good winning the battle if you cant win the war.
Far too many websites scare away potential subscribers by asking for too much information. All you need is there name (to personalise the email) and their email address.
Yes it would be nice if you had their company name and their phone number, but this is not essential information for email marketing.
Make sure you make it as easy as possible to subscribe and over come two of the biggest objections why you might lose potential subscribers.
Let them know you will never share their details (and a promise is a promise so don't) and you will not bombard them with emails every other day. Give them the opportunity to see what kind of information you will be sending them by hosting an example of your email marketing online.
There are no rules set in stone, your success will depend on your target audience, so experiment and see what brings you the best results.
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