Regardless of whether you’re running a blog, a niche site or a fully fledged e commerce website, list building is just common sense. Nothing boosts repeat traffic quite like a monthly newsletter and let’s not forget the obvious sales opportunities.
Unfortunately, while the benefits of list building are obvious, learning how to actually build one is a little more complicated. Make no mistake, the average web user doesn’t want to give you their contact details, and convincing them otherwise isn’t always easy.
Here are eight straightforward tips for designing an opt in form that not only captures your visitors attention but hopefully, their email addresses.
Make the Right Impression
First off, your opt in form needs to look the part. It should be both eye catching and aesthetically pleasing. The font, colours and shapes should all come together to form a professional, cohesive unit. If your opt in form looks sloppy, it’s going to be ignored regardless of where you place it. If you lack the skills yourself, don’t be afraid to invest in the services of a graphic designer. It’s money very well spent.
Use Something Unique
Hiring a graphic designer makes sense, purchasing a pre designed opt in form however, not so much. Your opt in form needs to gel with your existing website, it needs to compliment rather than clash with its existing colour scheme. And nine times out of ten, the only way to achieve this is to design something new from scratch.
Get the Placement Right
Next, there’s the small matter of placement, get this wrong and it doesn’t really matter what else you get right. The best place to put your opt in form is above the fold. If this isn’t possible, the second best place is in your side bar as close to the top as possible. Ideally, you want your opt in form to be one of the first things that first time visitors see. And this is obviously impossible if they have to scroll down in order to see it.
Include Your Opt in Form on Every Page
If you’ve spent any time at all analysing your sites traffic, you’re likely to have noticed that most first time visitors don’t actually arrive on the homepage. It follows that if that’s the only place that your opt in form can be found, you’re going to seriously struggle to get subscribers. Regardless of whether you choose above the fold or in the sidebar, your web form should therefore be on every single page of your website.
Really Sell Your Free Gift
Most internet marketers know that if you want peoples email address, you need to give them a free informational product in return. Assuming that you’re already doing this, which you should be, it’s important to tailor your opt in form to really sell it. Take the time to come up with a snappy title, make it sound as exclusive and as useful as possible and most importantly, include an image.
Don’t Ask for More Than You Need
If you want to maximise conversions, you need to make is it as easy as possible to sign up. This means asking for names, email addresses and absolutely nothing else. Additional information might be useful for list segmentation, but unfortunately, the act of actually asking for it will send your conversion rate careening.
Link to Your Privacy Policy
Don’t underestimate just how much the average web user doesn’t want to give you their email address. The prevalence of email abuse has all but guaranteed this. A privacy policy page and a link to it in your opt in form is therefore just common sense. Surprisingly, this is something that many people don’t bother with. It’s just one sentence but it will boost your conversion rate.
Perform Split Testing
Finally, we have the small matter of split testing, it’s vital. Tips and best practices can only get you so far. Every opt in form is different. And if you really want to maximise the potential of yours, regular testing is very much required. Even changing two words can sometimes make all the difference. Unfortunately, however, the only way to identify those two words is trial, error and repeat.
Image by Dirk Hoenes from Pixabay