Getting started with newsletter captures on your blog can be a bit intimidating, especially if you haven’t made this a primary part of your content strategy just yet. In my work as a Minnesota web design expert, I’ve found the way email newsletters convert people into customers and the amount of interaction they seem to get in comparison to social media – it’s worth trying to be as good as we can at capturing those e-mails and of course sending out valuable or entertaining content in the newsletters themselves.
Use with caution, always add value more than you demand from people:
Always make sure your newsletters are up to snuff before getting aggressive with the e-mail captures on your blog. You want people to be excited about getting your emails – not add to their anxiety level. But as you increase the value you’re sharing with your list – here are ways to get more people to opt-in to your e-mail list when they’re visiting your blog content.
The Top 3:
1. The Welcome Mat
According to SumoMe, the highest converting page they’ve ever made used the ‘Welcome mat’ method which just moves the content of the page done to create a big, bold banner on top with an opt-in smack dab in the middle, like this:
You can use SumoMe’s tools to create a ‘Welcome mat’ for your content here.
How to do it right:
Don’t offer something that no-one wants; create a ridiculously desirable piece of content and make it into the best version of itself before offering it for free in your ‘Welcome Mat’ opt-in. How do you do that? Whatever piece of content has been doing amazing on your site – consider doubling its size and offering it as the ‘carrot’ here.
2. The Pop-over
Research by Crazy Egg has shown that pop-up opt-in’s are 1375% more effective than opt-in’s that are in the sidebar of your blog.
How to do it right:
A highly effective way to use this type of opt-in is to make it a multi-step approach. Thrive Leads has a great WordPress plugin for creating a multi-step pop-up like the one above. The psychological principle is that if someone says yes once – they’ll be more likely to say yes again by entering their information and getting access to your premium content. If you just ask for the email right way, they may get scared off and not be quite as intrigued as they would when presented with a low-obligation, cut-and-dry question like the one above.
3. The Content Upgrade
Think about your best-performing piece of content currently– how could you make an even more comprehensive and in-depth version like a white-paper, a guide, or a checklist? You could then offer it to visitors for the simple price of their e-mail address, half-way down the post and/or at the end of the post. In experiments, the content upgrade has been indispensable – we’ve even created a video series that went into depth on a particular blog post’s topic and allowed people to sign up to have those sent to them.
How to do it right:
Brian Dean of Backlinko cites this method for a 785% increase in conversions in one day. He said the secret to making this method work for you is by making sure that the design of the resource they receive backs up the perception of quality for your brand. If the design is high-quality than the next email you send will get more attention.
Consider your brand, make friends not enemies with your content
Design is important, because brand is important. Don’t sacrifice design in the short term, just to get as many subscriptions as possible – and be careful to make sure the whole experience is very classy. Don’t just activate some opt-in plugin without making it feel branded and cohesive to the rest of your website’s design. Every step of the way should support the perception of professionalism and quality that your brand strives to associate itself with. Remember…
“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
And this is especially true for brands – whether positive emotion runs high, or frustration seeps in, the way your brand makes people feel is one of the biggest indicators how healthy it is – and how much of an asset or a drawback the brand will be for increasing sales. Always make visitors feel great by offering something epic as the incentive for opting in – and deliver on that promise.
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