Numbers don’t lie – email marketing works. The Direct Marketing Association reports that companies that use email marketing see a 4300% return on investment (ROI) from these campaigns. Ignore that number at your own peril!
In order to begin an email marketing campaign, your business needs an email list. Email list building is one of the primary objectives of your website.
Make sure you are taking full advantage of your website by providing as many opportunities for visitors to opt-in to your email list as practical. Practical is the key word here – you don’t want to bombard your visitors with requests for their email addresses (remember how important UX is to SEO).
We’ve put together a list of five great email lead generation tools for your business that are easy to use, easy to implement, and will increase your subscriber list instead of your bounce rate.
1. Sleeknote
Sleeknote is a well-designed tool with all the bells and whistles – customization, integration, consultation, and segmentation.
In short, it’s got everything your business needs to create custom email captures and monitor/test their performance.
These features don’t come cheap – this tool is for companies that do huge numbers or that have multiple websites (or both). Plans start at $69/month for 50,000 visitors and go all the way to unlimited visitors/month for “Get an Offer” (which means if you have to ask, you can’t afford it).
Is it worth it? The answer, as always, depends on your needs. Sleeknote has a ton of great features and is very customizable, which means that your website gets exactly what it needs without compromise, but for a small business just starting to build an email list, it might be a bit much.
Summary: A beautifully designed, well-executed email list building tool (but it may be more than your business needs).
2. Optimonk
Optimonk offers many of the same features as Sleeknote, but is designed for smaller businesses. Plans start at $29/month for 5,000 visitors (but you are limited to only one website) and go all the way to $399/month for 1 million visitors on unlimited websites.
With fully customizable HTML, Javascript, and CSS, you can create the pop-up that’s right for your business or campaign (assuming you’ve got a coder handy).
All of the features are available for all price points, the only difference is in the number of monthly visitors and websites covered. This keeps it simple, allowing companies to expand the size while having full functionality available from the start.
Summary: This is a great choice for both smaller companies that want all of the bells and whistles without having to pay for visitors they aren’t receiving yet, and larger companies working with large numbers of visitors across multiple domains.
3. OptinMonster
OptinMonster offers more scaled down plans for smaller businesses or businesses who are just getting started and want to decide if an email conversion tool is right for them (spoilers, it is!).
Their basic plan is only $9/month, but it only offers minimal features. You still get the analytics, A/B testing, and list segmentation, but you lose the option to put different types of pop-ups on your site and there’s no targeting.
OptinMonster does offer Pro plans that include the features of the other sites, so if you start with them, you can stay with them, and it’s nice to be given the option of the introductory level plan.
Summary: A great choice for businesses of any size, the real benefit here is the option of the basic plan. An excellent choice for everyone, from beginners to advanced.
4. Sumo
Sumo is the first company on our list to offer a free basic plan. For that, you get only one website and a limited number of visitors, but you get access to all the templates, A/B testing, and all of the pop-up types.
You also get stuck with the Sumo branding on all of the pop-ups (well, at least it’s free), and the free plan lacks the customizability of the Pro plans (which are reasonably priced, starting at $29/month for 5,000 visitors).
The Pro plans do offer some great features, including Image Sharer and Heat Maps, which gives a visual display of where people are clicking on your site (it’s pretty cool).
This is by far the best option for anyone who is unsure about whether or not they want this functionality on their site (in case you missed it before, you definitely want email list building tools on your site!).
Summary: This is the best entry level email lead generation tool available, due to the free basic plan and the scalability of the other plans. A solid choice for any business.
5. Hello Bar
Hello Bar is the most limited email list building tool we discuss, offering only header and footer email capture, but sometimes simple is exactly what you need.
With both a free version (Hello Bar’s logo is included like with Sumo, but Hello Bar also includes ads) and Pro versions (ad and logo free), it provides a version for everyone.
Targeting and segmented lists are available here, as is email synching with a large selection of email marketing services, but many of the other features are not available.
The main benefits to Hello Bar are the unobtrusiveness of the pop-up and the simplicity of the tool. If your company wants to offer an easy way for visitors to sign up for your email list that doesn’t interfere with the content, then this might be the choice for you.
Summary: A very simple, limited tool that gets the job done. A great choice for a minimalist website or a site that wants the content to come first. This tool is definitely UX friendly!
Now Start Collecting Those Emails
Each of the email lead generation tools discussed above has their own pros and cons. The key is to pick the tool that is right for your business and your visitors. Many of the above tools offer free trials, so experiment and see what works best for you. No matter which you ultimately choose, an email list is critical to the success of your business.
Now that you’ve got a list, knowing what to do with it is equally important. From subject lines to content to design, the same thought that went into your website should go into your emails. This is where you turn a lead into a conversion, so make sure you set yourself up for success.
Get started on building your list, and we’ll see you in the Inbox!