How many email-list subscription forms do you encounter during a typical day of web surfing?
If you haven’t even given that matter much thought, it’s likely down to the inconspicuous nature of most subscribe forms.
If you’re trying to increase the subscription-count for your list, employ the following techniques to make the invitation more fetching to your visitors.
Offer an Incentive to Subscribe to Your List
Have you ever found yourself enticed to subscribe because of a special offer, despite your apprehension towards spam? Incentives can attract subscriptions from otherwise skeptical people. It could be a free ebook, exclusive video or special discount, as long as it makes them feel like they’re getting something otherwise unavailable. You could even offer an exclusive password to secret information, but only for a limited time.
Allow Subscribers to Tailor Their Subscriptions
When you pick up a magazine, do you read it front-to-back, or do you only read certain articles? Likewise, your email subscribers will be drawn to certain contents more than others. Therefore, it’s wise to offer your readers flexibility in the subscription process. If your newsletters contain multiple topics, for instance, allow subscribers the option of full or topic-filtered digests.
Encourage Your Subscribers to Share with Others
How often do you learn about great products or offers from friends and acquaintances? When subscribers read your newsletter, they might be thinking about people they know who would find the contents useful. Instead of hoping for your list to grow through word-of-mouth, encourage your subscribers to spread the news by including forwarding buttons in every newsletter.
Place a Video above Your Subscribe Form
What do you like better, a product or a personality? In other words, are you more likely to respond to an offer when it comes from a live human being, rather than some faceless corporation or website? Greet the visitors to your site with a video, in which you identify yourself and your contents, products or services, and then remind them to subscribe to your list for up-to-date news on offers and discounts.
Offer a Chance to Win Huge Savings for Subscribing
Doesn’t it feel great to make the cut, knowing that you scored great deals in the nick of time? Well the same applies to everyone, and you can harness those sentiments by making visitors feel that they’ll save money by subscribing to your list. People value rarity, and you can offer that rarity through your list, even if your contents are only rare in the sense that no one else can offer them.
Place the Subscribe Form Into a Sidebar on Each Page
How many stores have you passed by numerous times, only to visit once curiosity finally got the better of you? Simply put, it often takes several exposures for people to notice something. If you only include the subscription form on your About Me page, the impressions you leave will be marginal. When you include the subscribe form on every page, your list will seem less like an afterthought and more like a vital necessity to your visitors.
Give Your Subscribers an Added Sense of Security
Isn’t it nice to know when you have something to gain and nothing to lose? When someone visits your site, the last thing he or she wants is an endless trail of spam. With most people, however, spam is the first thing that comes to mind whenever a subscription box appears. In order for your visitors to feel secure, the subscribe form must promise to keep all email addresses strictly confidential.
Include Your Subscription Form on Every Platform
Ever notice how most people stick to certain sites and social networks? The people that follow you on Twitter might not even visit your Facebook profile, whereas many visitors of your WordPress blog could be unaware of your other web accounts. In order to make your list into a big-tent platform, you must include the subscribe form on each of your profiles.
Above the form bars to your email list, there should always be a call to action for your visitors. Invitations are most compelling when there’s everything to gain, but nothing to lose, by taking immediate action.
Image Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Written by James McDonnel
James covers a wide variety of topics including business tips for budding entreprenuers, temporary office solutions, online marketing and the perils of being self employed. Above all he is focused on finding ways to help entreprenuers get the very most out of their business models
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Old good free e-book is the easiest hook to get an e-mail address. Works great for me and hope for you, guys.
You’ve offered some really valuable tips here that have helped me! Email marketing is one of my biggest challenges right now as well as getting more subscribers but I have taken these into consideration especially adding a video to my Opt in form & giving away a better free irresistible offer.
This one is being bookmarked & shared.
Thank you so much for your insightful suggestions! I will be using this a lot! Bookmarked!