Newsletter Signup: How To Optimize It
For successful e-mail marketing, there is a basic requirement: A database of interested contacts who have shown an interest in your newsletter and a desire to read it by completing the newsletter signup form. But how do you get to e-mail addresses? Collecting new recipients is a big challenge.
First of all, website visitors and other potential subscribers must be made aware of the newsletter. Then you have to motivate them to enter their e-mail address. In the final step to subscribing to the newsletter, the recipients also have to confirm their registration via the double opt-in signup process.
The barriers to increasing the rate of new subscribers are therefore relatively high.
But with a good strategy and the right newsletter signup form, it's not that difficult to get newsletter subscribers. In this post, you'll learn how to optimize your newsletter signup process to attract as many new recipients as you can.
How can I embed my newsletter signup form?
The most widespread are certainly signup forms in the header and footer area of websites. All in all, such static forms are relatively inconspicuous, but much better than a simple link.
The signup form should be included in any part of the website that is highly visible and widely used. Wherever the activity is highest on your site. You can find out by using click heatmaps.
You can get more attention with a pop-up on your website. Pop-up signup forms are often recommended as the most effective solution for more newsletter signups. Here, however, caution is advised, because too soon, the visitors are annoyed by obtrusive pop-ups. In no case should content be completely hidden, which can even lead to loss of visibility in Google.
Instead, the relevance of pop-ups should be considered. For example, pop-ups should open after some time, or when the visitor wants to leave the page. The visitor was already able to absorb some information and is more open to subscribe to the newsletter in order to receive further content or offers.
A good opportunity to turn interested visitors into subscribers is a blog. Blogs generally provide good conditions for collecting e-mail addresses. Visitors who are
interested in your blog are already interested in your content. It is likely that they want to stay up to date. Thus, they are more open to the newsletter and sign up for it.
Place your signup form in the sidebar of your blog and under the individual blog posts. When submitting comments, you can also ask directly if the commenter wants to sign up for the newsletter.
If you are an operator of an online store, you should definitely make first-time visitors aware of your newsletter. With an indication of exclusive discounts for newsletter subscribers, you will not only gain new addresses, but also improve the purchase completion rate. To do so, integrate the newsletter signup forms as a pop-up on the start page and offer the newsletter signup in the checkout process.
Also social media are suitable for the Newsletter. Since both channels basically serve different purposes, it makes sense to win social media fans as subscribers. For example,
use your social media profiles to point to the next newsletter delivery.
How should I design my signup form?
Show potential subscribers what they should expect.
The more you tell about the the newsletter (within bounds of SEO and readability), the better the recipients can assess the situation. This increases the willingness to leave you their e-mail address.
So before signing up, people should be told exactly what happens after entering the e-mail address. The following questions should definitely be clarified:
• Which newsletter do the recipients receive?
• What content should they expect to receive?
• How frequent is the newsletter sent?
• What happens to the data provided by the recipients?
• How can they can unsubscribe from the newsletter?
Label the signup form clearly
You want your visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. Clarify to readers that they will have a definite advantage by subscribing to your newsletter. This can be, for example, to read your blog posts first or save 10% on the first order in your online shop.
You convince the least with a cliche "subscribe to newsletter". This wording arouses negative associations and makes people think about advertising. Give the login button a unique label that shows the subscriber the benefits.
Be frugal in terms of data
In principle, you can request as much data in the signup form as you wish. Having many different types of data has its advantages. The more information you have, the more accurate your targeting will be. However, specifying a lot of data quickly becomes a burden on the recipients.
This means that you should only collect as much data as absolutely necessary. It is therefore best to ask only the e-mail address as mandatory. All other information should be provided on a voluntary basis.
Ask the recipient according to their wishes
There is an easy way to get the data necessary for newsletter segmentation. Simply ask the recipients themselves and leave the choice to them. For example, offer the recipients the right choice as to which newsletters they would like to receive when entering data.
Also the argument, to be able to tailor the newsletter with more information to the recipients, works. The prospect of better newsletters allows many recipients to voluntarily provide more data.
Give something away
Additional incentives when signing up for a newsletter increase the rate of new signups enormously. If possible, therefore, offer free offers and content exclusively for newsletter subscribers.
For example, for e-commerce stores, this can be a discount voucher for the first order or an individual birthday surprise. Service providers can offer e-books and whitepapers with relevant content for download in return for newsletter signup.
The matter of legal certainty: Double Opt-In
There is a basic requirement for e-mail marketing: In most European countries and many other countries, the sending of advertising newsletters is generally only permitted with the express consent of the recipient. This prevents recipients from being pestered with unwanted advertising and serves to differentiate between spam.
The rules are strict, even sending a single unwanted email is considered an unreasonable intrusion into individual privacy. Warnings and heavy fines can be the result.
So to get new recipients, you need their consent. The purchase of e-mail addresses is not recommended for this reason. With purchased lists it is almost impossible to prove the consent with certainty.
To obtain their consent, the Double Opt-In procedure is widely used and recognized. The new recipient first enters his e-mail address in a signup form. Then a confirmation email will be sent. This contains a confirmation link, which the recipient must click on. Only when this is done will his e-mail address be included in the mailing list.
With this procedure, you can always prove beyond doubt that your recipients have given their consent.
What is important for a double opt-in email?
When designing the confirmation e-mail, you should note that at the time of sending, no consent has yet been given for the sending of advertising e-mails. Therefore this e-mail should not contain any advertising elements, neither in the subject nor in the actual content or in the footer.
You are on the safe side if the e-mail only contains the reference to the confirmation of the signup. This also offers the advantage that the recipients are not distracted from the confirmation link.