When it comes to getting visitors to sign up for your email list it’s not always what you ask, sometimes it’s how you ask it. When and where you place your CTAs can have a huge impact on lead generation.
We’ve put together a list of 4 easy ways to build your email subscriber’s list without raising your bounce rate or killing your user experience.
Pop-ups
First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room – pop-ups. Everybody hates pop-ups. The problem is that they work, so if you’re not using them, you’re losing leads. Pop-ups can be a valuable addition to your site if they’re used correctly.
The reason everyone hates pop-ups is that they interfere with the viewing of the site. Tell us if this sounds familiar: you’ve navigated to a site, it loads, and you begin to read the content, only to have a pop-up interrupt you after the first line or two.
This can be an incredibly frustrating experience that can lead to a higher bounce rate and create a poor user experience.
Google even has rules to deal with different types of pop-ups, and doing it wrong can lower your SEO ranking! The good news is that there are several types of pop-ups that don’t interfere with the content so obtrusively.
In-Line
In-line pop-ups (or scrolling pop-ups) only appear after the visitor has progressed past a certain point on your page. This can be useful for providing additional information related to the content – this isn’t an intrusion, it’s a resource.
The thinking here is that if a visitor has made it this far, they are genuinely interested in the topic under discussion and additional information would be appreciated and useful.
You’re adding value, which is the key to any good CTA.
Exit Intent
Another type of less obtrusive pop-up is the exit intent, an exit through the gift shop kind of CTA. This one only appears when the cursor moves near the page exit button.
This is a last call situation that gives the visitor one more chance to opt-in for content before they leave your site. This can be a highly effective means of converting a visitor to a lead – WPBeginner increased subscribers by 600% with exit intent pop-ups!
End of Content
This pop-up triggers when a visitor has reached the very bottom of the page. It can be a great way to extend upon the information presented on the page.
Any good content should leave the visitor wanting more, and a pop-up here is a great way to take advantage of that.
Since it’s at the end of the site, it is much less of an interruption, and (presumably) the visitor is interested in learning more. Why not give it to them?
Header, Footer, and Side Bar CTAs
Putting an email capture in one of these locations is a great option for collecting contact info.
They’re not intruding into the content of the page so you don’t have the same frustrations as a pop-up, but they’re easy to see, providing your visitors with a constant and consistent option for opting-in.
Header
Putting an email capture at the top of your page ensures that the visitor sees it right away.
At any time during their visit they may decide to become a subscriber, so if a particular piece of content grabs their attention they know right where to go to request additional information.
Pinning a header to the page allows the same functionality without scrolling all the way back to the top of the page (pinning the header to the page is good practice for most sites).
These email capture headers can also include scrolling text to provide more information about a particular offer, further enticing your visitors.
In addition, they are unobtrusive enough to not be distracting while still being readily available to visitors.
Buffer is using these to great effect, netting over 350 new subscribers a week using Hello Bar.
Footer
The footer email capture is similar to the end of content capture, but is a part of the footer, not a pop-up.
This provides consistency across pages (don’t forget, your header and footer should be the same on every page), but the CTAs can be customized to the specific content of each page.
No matter where the visitor is in the site, they know they can go to the footer to sign up for the email list.
Side Bar
The side bar is another place to provide an email capture. Just like the header and footer it’s an obvious, unobtrusive place for gathering emails, and it also provides a known location to go when a visitor decides to convert into a lead.
Remember, growing your email list is important, so put it at (or near) the top of the side bar.
The benefit to header, footer, and side bar CTAs is consistency. Unlike a temporary pop-up, a visitor knows where to go at all times if they want to subscribe to your emails.
Landing Page
If you’re using a CTA that doesn’t collect email addresses directly, you need to be sending visitors to a dedicated landing page. Make sure you use proper design principles when you create this page:
- Have a clear offer
- Design a pleasing layout
- Create a noticeable subscribe button
- Do not put a navigation bar on this page
Make sure to send visitors to a thank you page after they subscribe, and put the navigation back in place for this page.
A well-designed landing page can increase the number of subscribers you receive by 50%. Make sure you’re giving it the attention it deserves.
Want to see a great landing page? Just click on the button:
Surveys and Quizzes
These are a great way to generate interest while adding visitors to your email list. Most people love to give their opinion, so give them a chance to do so for the low, low price of an email address.
Surveys and quizzes can also be helpful in defining buyer personas, so if you use these, make sure to ask the right questions, and use the information you collect to make improvements to your site (and your business).
Now Build That List
When designing your site, you need to provide a way (or several ways) for visitors to provide their email address without increasing your bounce rate.
By using a combination of these types of email collection devices, your site has a much better chance of converting visitors to leads while still providing a great user experience.
Don’t forget, once you get the lead, you still have to convert them. Why put all the time and effort into gathering leads if you don’t have anything to sell them? Subject lines and quality content are just as important for emails as they are for websites!
Now you’ve got all the tools you need to create a great email subscriber list. We’ll see you in the Inbox!