Email continues to be one of the most popular channels that digital publishers use to communicate with readers. Growing that channel means finding better ways to increase newsletter sign ups, so you can grow your audience.
Researchers have found that email generates $38 for every $1 spent. For publishers, that means increases in subscription rates, ecommerce sales, advertising revenue, and attendance at virtual events. Obviously, the larger the mailing list the more revenue a publisher can expect to generate from email newsletters.
How do you grow your mailing list and increase newsletter sign ups? The first step is to create better forms.
What Is a Sign Up Form?
Newsletter sign up forms are what publishers use to collect email addresses from their readers and website visitors. Sign up forms can appear as pop ups, overlays, landing pages, or they can be embedded on a webpage. Website visitors simply enter their email addresses, or other contact information, and the form automatically pushes that data to the publisher’s CRM or email marketing software of choice.
Sign up forms are important, because while capturing an email address from a longtime reader or subscriber is easy, getting first-time visitors to share their email addresses is often more challenging. The right sign up form can make this task easier.
If you are not getting the traction that you had hoped for from your existing newsletter sign up forms, it might be time to try something new. The following tips can help improve your response rates.
How to Improve Email Sign Up Forms
When you are evaluating email sign up form tools and software, keep an eye out for these features, which have been shown to lead to more email sign ups among digital publishers specifically.
- Pop Up Forms Sign up forms that pop up on the screen are designed to capture visitors’ attention at the precise moment when they are most likely to convert.
- Social Login Options Social logins allow people to sign up for your email newsletters with their Facebook or Google accounts.
- Embeddable HTML Forms Ideally, publishers should be able to use embeddable HTML forms to customize the look and feel of their sign up experience. HTML forms can be copy/pasted to any WordPress website.
- Landing Pages Publishers with large followings on social media can post links to special landing pages where followers can sign up to receive newsletters via email.
- Ability to Customize Simple changes, like adding contrasting colors to sign up forms, will draw attention to the call-to-action or conversion element. This has been shown to have a positive impact on newsletter sign ups.
Publishers that sell premium newsletter access should consider using an email sign up tool like Pico, which collects sign up information and payments on one form. Reducing the number of clicks during the initial sign up process keeps the friction low, and that leads to a decrease in bounce rates and an increase in conversions.
Another way to increase newsletter sign ups is by introducing incentives. Digital publishers are able to convert more website visitors when they offer exclusive freebies, such as premium podcasts, exclusive downloads, and subscriber-only newsletters, for people who sign up. If one incentive doesn’t seem to be drawing the attention you had hoped for, try another. There are a virtually unlimited number of potential offers that publishers can provide to readers in exchange for their email addresses. Don’t be afraid to get creative and try out something new.
Newsletter Sign Up Forms Best Practices
Regardless of how many people you currently have in your email database, and how many addresses you’re hoping to collect, you’ll want to focus on building newsletter sign up forms that get people excited about signing up.
These are a few best practices that should help you get started designing high-converting sign up forms and sign up landing pages.
- Keep all sign up forms simple, with a clear call-to-action.
- Make sure the sign up form answers the basic question, “What’s in it for me?”
- Consider enabling double opt-in to ensure high-quality sign ups.
- Place sign up forms in logical places throughout your website.
- Send an automated email thanking people for signing up for your newsletter.
To learn more about how to increase newsletter sign ups, contact Web Publisher PRO. As a Pico Certified Developer, we are able to make sure that our publishers’ sign up and payment tools are properly installed, configured, and optimized for maximum success.
