Are you looking for ways to get more newsletter subscribers? In this article, we will share the best tips on how to grow your subscribers list without paying heavy fees for advertising.
Before we get started, we recommend you to double check, if you have an excellent opt-in plugin for WordPress. The best opt-in plugins are easily linked to your e-mail service and can help you collect e-mail addresses in various ways. After many years of experience with internet marketing, I can honestly recommend Bloom email marketing plugin from Elegant Themes. It comes packed with tons of beautiful designs, automatic pop-ups and fly-ins, flexible subscription options and awesome stats interface to help you track your opt-in rate success.
10 tips for getting more newsletter subscribers
Have you activated the opt-in plug-in of your choice? Let’s see what you can do with it to maximize the effect!
1. Create an Exit-Intent popup
You may already have quite a few visitors. But did you know that 65% of those visitors do not come back? That is not because they do not want to come back, but because they have not added a bookmark for your site, have forgotten, or cannot find you anymore. To ensure that they come back, you can use Exit-Intent technology. This automatically displays an opt-in popup to the visitors who are about to leave your website. And once you have their e-mail address, you can make sure they come back more often!
2. Share exclusive discounts & offers
Such an Exit-Intent popup can only prevent a visitor from closing the page, but if you give them a good reason to leave their e-mail address, that is even better. Make sure your Exit-Intent popup contains an irresistible offer! Think of exclusive discounts or offers, in exchange for their e-mail address. This is a great way to turn visitors who are about to leave your site into newsletter subscribers.
3. Add a welcome message
The first impression of your website must be positive. A powerful, attractive welcome message can be a great way to get more newsletter subscribers. Also in that welcome message, you can offer your visitors a sweet deal in exchange for leaving their e-mail address.
4. Do not ask for too much information
Most opt-in plugins offer you the possibility to add as many fields to your opt-in forms as you want. But always ask yourself: What information do you really need from a visitor? Most people do not want to enter all their personal details, but instead – just to subscribe to your newsletter. Either for privacy reasons, or just because it can take unnecessarily long time, people don’t want to fill in too many fiends. Just remember, an e-mail address is now the only thing you need!
5. Add a CTA and opt-in to your blog posts
Those visitors who read your blog posts are most important to you. They apparently find your content so compelling that they do not leave your website halfway through reading — good enough reason to convert them from one-time visitors to subscribers. You can add a CTA at the end of your blog post and ask readers to leave their email address.
6. Put the opt-in link in your Instagram / Twitter bio
Another way to get more newsletter subscribers is to put a divisible link in the biography of your Instagram and/or Twitter bio. Add a link to your homepage, a campaign page or a favorite article with an opt-in form. Although I personally never seen much subscribers coming in directly from social media, many bloggers report that social media works well for them, as a newsletter subscribers converter.
7. Hide unnecessary elements
Perhaps you have a long sidebar with all kinds of widgets for your visitors? But all those widgets can distract your visitors from what you want them to do, namely to leave their e-mail address. The more distractions you add, the less likely you will get newsletter subscribers. The less choice – the better. Hide the elements that you do not need (perhaps advertising, that didn’t generate any revenue for the past year?) and focus on your opt-in exclusively.
8. Add a ‘Subscribe to newsletter’ checkbox to your contact form
It is nice if visitors who fill out a contact form can immediately subscribe to your newsletter. Most contact powered by plugins for WordPress (such as WPForms) offer the possibility to add a subscription checkbox to your contact form. In other words, a sentence like ‘Yes, I want to subscribe to the newsletter’ with a box that they can tick. This is a great way to harvest a few extra subscribers, who filled in their details when commenting.
9. Use ‘trigger words’ for buttons
Your CTAs (Call to Action) must be convincing. Especially the buttons! Research shows that people click faster on buttons with personalized words.
To give you an example: instead of “Download eBook” you can better use “Download my eBook.” And instead of “Start free trial subscription,” you better choose wording like “Start my free trial subscription.” This is a small difference, and you may say that it will make no difference. However, this is a small psychological trick that can go a long way.
10. Split tests your opt-ins
If you are unsure which method will generate the biggest volume of newsletter subscribers, pour your entire campaign into a split test (also called A / B test) to find out which opt-in form works best on your website. This is a good way to see if you get the most subscribers from your widget, the fly-in, pop-in, Exit-Intent popup or any other route. If you run the spit test for some time and after a few month can clearly see the results, therefore adjust the results accordingly. If, after some time, you see that your sidebar widget generates no subscribers at all – you can remove it and free up space for something more valuable.
I hope these few tips were helpful and will help you generate at least a few more subscribers. For me, in my personal experience, only offering freebies works best for converting random visitors into subscribers, and keeping them coming in the long term. Try creating a free product or find occasionally offered free products from the next and offer them t your readers, to keep them coming back for more. Good luck!