Is increasing your newsletter subscribers one of the primary goals of your website?
We could say yes, if we consider:
- ROI, or the return on investment of the emails;
- the fact that emails are a great way to connect to your site's visitors, who otherwise will leave without coming back: in this regard I suggest you to read my article: The 3 Best Strategies for Capturing Visitors to Your Site (Before They Leave Without Converting).
But let's go step by step and start with the first aspect: email ROI.
What is the return on investment of email?
Here are 3 stats to help you understand email ROI:
- According to Convince and Convert, people who buy products via email spend on average 138% of those who do not receive them;
- according to Email Expert, for every $1 spent in the email marketing, the average return is $44.25;
- research by The Power of Direct Marketing, published in SmallBizTrends, states that ROI, or the return on investment of email marketing compared to other tools is $39.40:
If that wasn't enough, according to a statistic from QuickSprout.com:
- emails drive 40% of site revenue
- newsletter subscribers are the authors of 35.7% of blog comments
- 34% of social shares come from newsletter subscribers
In short, ultimately, your newsletter subscribers, through comments, shares and customers can become the most loyal readers of your site.
Now that we understand the return on investment of this tool, let's go over the 2nd big reason why it's critical to acquire email leads from your visitors.
Why is it essential to get your visitors to sign up for your newsletter?
The statistics from this point of view diverge, but they agree that most visitors to your site will leave without returning or converting.
You see the problem?
Bringing visitors to your site takes time and moneymoney perhaps spent on Google Adsin Facebook Advertising, Linkedin Ads or other tools, or simply time spent in creating content and positioning it to acquire organic traffic, in a word time for the SEO.
What if once the visitor enters, they leave and never return?
Time and money wastedto be reinvested to bring another targeted visitor to the site.
A vicious circle no? Then let's try to Retain the visitor by getting them to sign up for the newsletter.
Emails are a great way to connect with the visitor. before we leave the site, let's look at the pros and cons:
Pro
- the mail comes: OK, some may end up in spam, Gmail updates and promotions, or get rejected by the server, but they come;
- emails can be personalizedUnlike remarketing, which is invasive and not very "human", with your newsletters you can establish a human, direct relationship with your subscriber;
- emails are customizablethanks to theBy including your subscriber's name in the subject line and body of the email, you can boost open rates.
Against
You know what the problem is?
What people don't randomly sign up for your newsletter, but only if they have a reason to. And that reason is called lead magnet, which we'll discuss below.
You will then need to create something to give in return for your site visitor's emails.
A good goal? An Enrollment Rate of 5%
Okay, so we've figured out a few reasons why it's important to capture email contact from your site visitors.
But what goal can you aim for in collecting email addresses for your website or blog?
The more the merrier, you'll say, but some statistics give us an idea of how our strategies for increasing newsletter subscribers are going: according to Neil Patel, a good result can be the 5% of subscribers, meaning for every 100 people who access your site, 5 should subscribe to your mailing list:
4 tools to increase subscribers to your newsletter
Are we getting serious?
Want to start building a mailing list with your site visitors? Well, you need 4 tools:
#1: Traffic
If people don't get to your site, they can't even sign up for your mailing list right? So you need traffic sources.
That's where visitors from your site can come from:
- Google: organic traffic Is an important component to the growth of your newsletter. If your site has a blog, or is a blog, writing long articles, optimized for long tail keywordsyou can bring many visitors to your sitewhich can be subscribe to your mailing list with the tools we'll see later.
According to a statistic published by Gregory Ciotty, the growth of organic traffic runs parallel to the growth of newsletter subscribers:
- Social: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. are just a few of the social networks from which you can acquire visitors who can subscribe to your newsletter;
- Ads: Google Ads, Facebook Ads,, Twitter Advertising, LinkedIn Ads are some of the advertising tools from which you can generate visitors to increase the subscribers to your newsletter, perhaps with the help of a landing page;
#2: Email Capture Tools or a Landing Page
Once you have chosen how to acquire visitors to your site in order to increase subscribers to your mailing list, you have 2 options:
- or send them to your website, where you can collect email addresses with some capture tools, such as Pop Up and others;
- or send them on a landing page specifically designed to collect e-mail addresses;
#3: A Lead Magnet
Whatever decision you choose as your traffic source and method of acquiring emails, you need a lead magnetor something to give in exchange for the e-mail.
But...wait...doesn't it just say "subscribe to the newsletter"?
Let's just say it's not the best performing method, at least according to MarketingSherpa research:
What can you use as a lead magnet? Put another way, what do you offer in exchange for the email?
There are many solutions: let's see some of them.
4 Lead magnet ideas to increase subscribers to your newsletter
Idea 1: An informative content: ebook, video course
It's one of the most used methods: I myself use 4 unpublished videos as a lead magnet to sign up for the Web Marketing Academy newsletter.
You can have an ebook downloaded too, a case study...a few years ago, by downloading an ebook, the Guide SEO 2011, I was able to acquire 1000 qualified email addresses:
Idea 2: A discount coupon
In case you have a ecommerce, a coupon on your first purchase can be a good strategy to acquire email addresses.
That's how Zalando.com does it:
Idea 3: A trial
In case you have a software, you could provide a trial version of it for a certain period of time by entering your email.
Idea 4: An entrance ticket or a free gift
I've used this strategy several times, always with amazing results: if you have a business and you're attending a trade show, you could increase your newsletter subscribers by offering a free ticket, or almost free.
If you have a store, you could offer a small giveaway, or a discount on the opening of your new place.
This strategy has allowed me to acquire 427 email addresses in 30 days.
#4: A professional newsletter sending program
Whether they signed up via a Pop Up or via a contact form on a landing page, you need professional software for collecting and sending newsletters.
There are many solutions, from the famous Mail Chimp (free up to 2000 subscribers) to other solutions, such as Get Response and Aweber.
Get Response
GetResponse is a solution capable of managing small and large lists (over 1 million subscribers). Active for more than 10 years, it provides applications for the creation and management of e-mail, newsletters and email marketing automation. Through the practices and relationships established with leading Internet and email anti-spam service providers, GetResponse has maintained the highest possible standards of email delivery, ensuring that the messages sent offer the highest possible performance.
Aweber
Aweber is one of the most popular tools for sending newsletters. It provides the tools you need to send emails: from lists to campaign creation to email marketing automation.
You can try it for free for 30 days, then prices start at $19.
8 systems to capture email on Worpress
Remember the toolbox? We saw how the 2nd tool to acquire more subscribers to your newsletter is to use an email capture tool.
Regardless of the tool you choose (I'll recommend a few later, but know that there are plenty of them, KissMetric has ranked 67 tools for building an email list and just as many IncomeMesh), there are 8 different systems you can use to capture your visitor's email: let's see them together.
1: Pop Up
Pop up is one of the most used methods. It's invasive, you'll say. But its effectiveness lies in being so, that is to capture the attention of the site visitor, especially when it has some effect, such as when it "vibrates" or moves in some way.
You can insert a pop up for the collection of emails in your site with various systems: here are two that I used
Bloom by Elegant Themes
Bloom is a premium plugin of well-known themes site WordPress Elegant Themes. Allows you to create pop ups for mail collection by choosing from different graphics.
Optin Monster
I currently use Optin Monster to generate the email collection pop-ups.
Unlike Bloom, there's the ability to use effects to grab the user's attention and to make AB Test:
2: The Horizontal Bar (Hello Bar)
One of the most used methods is a horizontal bar that appears above or below the post: often this bar "follows" you even when you scroll the page.
You can insert this bar with 4 tools:
- the aforementioned Optin Monster: it allows you to create a bar that remains visible even when the user scrolls down the page, as well as the fact that you can test different versions of it with some AB Test
- Hello Bar: is the most popular and free email address collection toolbar. You can register for free and easily add it to your site.
Here are 3 other tools to create an email collection bar are:
- la Viperbar;
- the WordPress plugin Attention Grabber;
- la Contact Bar;
3: The Welcome MAT of SumoMe
In addition to the pop up and horizontal bar, a third effective system for email contact capture is SumoMe's Mat.
I call it by its name because it's not a pop up, it's not a bar, but it's a unique feature, moreover free (within certain features) that you can create starting from the SumoMe website or with the Feature Box of PlugMatter.
How does it work? When a user enters the site, before they even see the title of the article, they see a screen asking for their email address, like so:
4: The Fullscreen with Exit Intent
Another great feature for capturing email contacts of your site visitors is to use a Fullscreen with exit intent.
What's that? It's a full-screen display asking you to leave your email. But the interesting feature is theExit Intent: thanks to Optin Monster, you can make this screen appear only when the visitor is moving the mouse towards the close button of the browser tab, that is, when they are about to exit the page.
Here's a Fullscreen with exit intent that I use in Web Marketing Academy:
5: Opt In on the Home Page
What is the most visited page on the site?
The home page is often not? So why not take advantage of this to include an email collection tool?
Here is an example taken from the Backlinko home page:
6: The Locked Content
Another way to collect email contacts?
Provide "locked" content, which is only unlocked by entering the email. You can always do this with the aforementioned Bloom plugin:
7: The Opt In in Sidebar
You can also put an email address collection form in the sidebar of your site thanks to Optin Monster, in the Widget / Text section of WordPress.
Thanks to a free plugin like Q2W3 Fixed Widget you can fix the widget so that those who read your article can always see the possibility to subscribe to the newsletter:
8: The Content Upgrade
Let's come to the last feature: do you know what is an effective way to attract the attention of its visitor by pushing him to leave his email?
Give something closely related to the content of the article.
Let's assume that a visitor enters this article: thanks to the content upgrade technique, you can provide them with content related and supplementary to what they are reading in exchange for their email address.
Here is an example of the application of this technique: as you can see in the yellow space at the bottom of the image, a document is given that shows how to implement the 16 techniques mentioned in the title of the article.
How can you practically implement this feature on your site?
For example, with Optin Monster or with Lead Pages.
4 strategies and case histories to increase subscribers
Okay, let's recap the route so far:
- we started by seeing the importance of collecting emails from visitors to your site, based on the ROI of email marketing and the fact that if you don't establish a connection with your site visitor you may never see them again;
- we continued going to see what's in the toolbox, that is what you need to create a mailing list: essentially: traffic, an email capture system, a lead magnet (and I've suggested 4) and finally a professional software for managing newsletters like Get Response.
- Finally, we have seen 7 methods for capturing emails, with related tools.
At this point you have everything you need to start building (or increasing) emails in your newsletter.
Everything? No, the strategies are missing. Let's take a look together at some success stories from which you can take inspiration.
#1 Strategy: Multiply the possibilities
BufferApp duplicated newsletter subscribers in 30 days How?
Simply by giving more options for users to sign up. That is: not only pop up, but also locked content; not only fullscreen mode, but also opt in in the sidebar...and so on:
If you look at the tools above, you have as many as 8 options to choose from.
The best? According to what I tested: the Fullscreen with Exit Intent, the Bar and the Pop Up.
Strategy #2: Give the visitor what he wants
Remember how we talked about Content Upgrade earlier? If you don't remember this is a technique of having the user download a supplement to the content they are reading.
Is it working? It seems to be, according to the results:
- according to Brian Dean of Backlinko, the content upgrade was able to raise newsletter subscribers from 0.54% to 4.82%;
- Mariah Coz of Femtrepener has managed to go from 0 to 600 members with the same technique;
Why does it work? Because it gives your visitor what they are looking for.
Let's take an example: if I go into an article that talks about how to make a muffin, what am I interested in? Figuring out how to make muffins.
If you offer me a subscription to your newsletter in exchange for a guide to Paradise cake, okay, we're still talking about desserts, but right now I want to figure out how to make muffins.
So you could make a perfect match between supply and demand by offering your visitor a guide on how to make muffins in 3 steps, or a guide to the right tools...in short, something strictly consistent.
As we've seen with Lead Generation, Consistency between the pay-per-click advertisement and the landing page brings more conversions.
In a word, consistency converts.
#3 Strategy: Head, Head, Head
Do you know what method works best to increase subscribers to your newsletter?
I don't know. But you don't know either. The secret is testing: what works best is what works best.
How? With some AB Test.
Let me give you an example: which of the 3 versions below do you think converted the most, i.e. had the most signups?
VERSION A
VERSION B
VERSION C
And the winner is...
VERSION C!
How so? Maybe because of the "transparent" copywriting, direct to the point and shorter than the others.
And in second place? Versions A and B differ only in the color of the Call To Action: well, the winner in this case is VERSION A, perhaps because of the striking green color.
How did I know which of the 3 worked best? By testing!
Strategy #4: Different origins, different message
Just as we have diversified our message based on content, why not do so based on where the visitor is coming from?
Optin Monster allows you to do this: for example, you may want to show a certain message to visitors coming from Google or visitors coming from a specific blog: thanks to the function Referrer Detection you can do it.
Increase subscribers by exporting registered users
Let's close this roundup of techniques with an automatic and simple way to increase newsletter subscribers: export the emails of registered users to your WordPress site.
Exporting registered users and commenters to a site "Powered by WordPress"? It's a special need that has a major advantage and can be accomplished in a few simple steps.
Before we start why export registered users of WordPress, it is useful to remember that a user can register on our WordPress site essentially to be able to perform actions beyond the mere reading of the article, such as commenting on a post (if you require registration to do so) or to be able to insert an article on your site, as is the case for example in the sites of article marketing and press releases, tools for link building or in the case of a forum built with BBPress.
Let's assume that in your site you have a large number of users registered in one of the allowed roles (which are Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Publisher, Administrator). Whoever registers on a WordPress site must enter among other data a username and an email, necessary for access to the site.
Username (or even better the "name" field) and email can be exported and used. How? Let's try to answer these 2 questions.
Why export registered users to WordPress
Why export names/usernames and emails of registered WordPress users? Because it's an easy way to build a qualified and targeted email list, so it's a fast, ready and free way to do list building for theemail marketing, with the following 2 advantages:
- Email addresses are already available for free;
- The email addresses have deliberately registered on your site (i.e. they haven't been bought into phantom lists...), so they know it and will more willingly receive any email;
Don't forget the privacy aspect: make sure that the addresses you send any promotional material to have consented to receive it!
If using registered users on our WordPress site can be an effective and quick way to build an email list for a newsletter or direct email marketing, let's see how you can do it.
How to export registered users to WordPress
There are essentially two options: have it done by a professional, web developer with knowledge of databases and WordPress or use a WordPress plugin (free or paid).
The second option is to use a plugin that does the job automatically. Searching the WordPress plugin directory you can find several plugins that allow exporting contacts like username, email and name to a CSV file.
However, many are dated and not working. We've tested a few and here are the best solutions.
SP User Export
Let's start with the most up-to-date solution, even if it is a paid one. With a small investment (10 dollars, more or less 7 euros) SP User Export allows you to export user data via email or FTP as a CSV file with the possibility of scheduled exports over time. It is possible to choose the desired fields and integrate it with a multisite site.
Minimal but effective plugin that allows you to export to CSV even large amounts of registered users by selecting the role and a range of dates. Free solution.
Users To CSV
Free plugin by Yoast.com, a well-known WordPress expert and author of the very famous plugin for the SEO.
Conclusions
Increasing the number of subscribers to your newsletter is a gradual process, made of tests, trials, errors and successes. You need traffic, you need the right tools, you need creativity. And what about you? How do you collect email addresses on your site? Let's talk about it in the comments!
