As a digital marketer, you must constantly innovate in order to improve your conversion rate when collecting email addresses from website visitors.
To assist you with email signups and list growth, here are some of the most common, as well as creative, methods of capturing web visitor email addresses.
1) Popups
At the moment, popups are probably the most popular method of collecting email addresses on the web. Without a doubt, you’ve seen them appear in the middle of your screen while you wait for the page to load. Their widespread use across the internet is a result of two factors: their ease of setup and their effectiveness.
Adding a popup with an email form to your website is a highly effective way to increase the number of signups. Their simplicity of installation and low cost, which includes SmartrMail’s own free popup, contribute to their appeal. This also means they’re something you should definitely experiment with on your own site.
The only disadvantage of popups is that they can be vexing for some people. Particularly when someone is unable to exit the umpteenth popup that is preventing them from accessing the day’s content.
If you’re concerned about this happening to your visitors, there are a few ways to make popups less intrusive.
2) Exit Intent Popups
Exit intent popups appear only when a user is about to exit your page. These are relatively new technologies that rely on tracking users’ mouse movements to determine when they are about to leave your page.
These popups are clever in two ways. To begin, they do not obstruct visitors from accessing the content they came to your site for. Second, by flashing the popup onto the screen just before someone leaves, it forces people to immediately pause what they’re doing and pay attention to the popup.
When used in conjunction with other email collection methods, these popups effectively give you a second chance to collect an individual’s email address.
3) Delayed Popups
Another effective strategy for avoiding visitor annoyance is to have your popups appear only after a visitor meets a certain criteria. This criteria is frequently used to indicate that a visitor has spent a certain amount of time on your site, has visited two or more pages, or has scrolled to the bottom of one of your blog posts.
The disadvantage of delaying your popup is that it will reach a smaller audience. Having fewer people see your popup will almost certainly result in fewer signups. However, it does mean that visitors who stay on your site long enough to see the popup are more qualified leads and thus more valuable to have on your email list, which results in higher open rates when you send an email.
Determining whether or not delaying popups is a good fit for your site will almost certainly require conducting a test. If you discover that they do not significantly reduce conversions, the inconvenience you save your visitors may be worth it. Alternatively, you can always eliminate the delay.
4) Sticky Top Bar
By including a small thin bar at the top of your page that remains visible to visitors as they scroll down the page, you can command their attention without being intrusive.
Typically, these bars are used to inform visitors of an update or announcement, but there is no reason why you cannot include an email address box and a subscribe button in them. By placing it in such a prominent location on your site, you ensure that everyone has the option of joining your email list if they so desire.
Additionally, including an incentive offer that explains why visitors should sign up and making the bar a bright color to stand out will result in increased conversions. DIYthemes gained an additional 1,180 email subscribers in just 30 days after adding a top bar to their site. Hello Bar is an excellent service that enables you to easily integrate a top bar into your website.
5) Sidebar Forms
Sidebars are a common navigational element on a large number of websites. While their primary purpose is to provide visitors with links to other pages, they frequently contain sufficient space for additional content.
Their width and the fact that they extend the entire length of your page make them ideal for a rectangular graphic highlighting your opt-in incentive. By including a subscription box here, you can ensure that it receives ample exposure without distracting your visitors.
If your site already has a large sidebar, then experimenting with this option is a no-brainer. For sidebars that are already crowded, see if there is anything you can remove to make room for your email opt-in form. If your site currently lacks a sidebar, adding one will almost certainly require a moderately extensive site restructure. However, if you’re having difficulty generating email signups, it might be worth the effort.
6) Footer Subscription Form
On most websites, the footer is the most common location for a subscription box. This means that anyone interested in joining your email list will frequently navigate directly to the bottom of the page, expecting to see an opt-in form.
Apart from being where people expect to see them, one advantage of these boxes is that by being in the footer, they automatically appear on all of your site’s pages. As a result, you only need to configure it once rather than manually creating them on each of your pages.
While this is not the most innovative method of collecting email addresses from website visitors, it is such an integral part of web design that it is almost mandatory to include it.