How to encourage more opt-ins for your blog

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Jun 29, 2018 / by
How to encourage more opt-ins for your blog

If you’ve been involved in blogging for a while, you’ve probably heard the proverb: “The money is in the list”. Building up a list of engaged readers in your target niche is the safest way to ensure longevity for your business.

Unlike PPC advertising, it doesn’t cost anything (other than your Mailchimp subscription) to send out an email. Here are some of the ways you can get more opt-ins on your blog.

Exit intent pop-ups

In e-commerce, it’s common for brands to include discount codes as exit intent pop-ups in order to encourage customers to purchase from the store. This same strategy can be used for blogs, although you’d want to promote a lead magnet rather than a discount (unless your blog also has a store).

A lead magnet is simply a free giveaway such as an audio seminar or a PDF checklist that delivers genuine value to your target readers. If you understand the core frustrations, desires and ambitions of your audience, it’s easy to reverse engineer a high value lead magnet.

Use designated landing pages for each lead magnet

Each lead magnet should have a unique landing page with one purpose: to encourage readers to opt-in. Always ensure your landing page has a powerful CTA and don’t include any offers for other products and services. When designing a landing page, always structure everything with the opt-in as the main goal. This is useful for promoting your lead magnets on social media, since you can link directly to an optimised landing page.

You may also want to consider pinning a tweet to your Twitter timeline promoting your lead magnet for maximum visibility. Some brands even use their lead magnet page instead of their homepage in their social media biographies in order to encourage more conversions.

Utilise your sidebar

On the Kissmetrics blog, there is an opt-in box on the left hand sidebar that scrolls as you read through the articles. This means that at any moment you have the opportunity to subscribe. If Kissmetrics have this as a feature on their site, you can bet it was tested thoroughly for its conversion rate efficiency.

Sidebar opt-in box

Header opt-ins

Backlinko is one of the most popular SEO and link building blogs on the web. When arriving at the homepage, you’re immediately greeted with an email subscription opt-in accompanied by a hero image of the founder, Brian Dean.

Header opt-in box

Tom Treanor writes:

If you want to go for a bolder approach, a header opt-in form may be the answer. These are designed to take up more real estate so they can’t be missed.

Email and forum signatures

If you conduct a lot of email communications or participate on online industry forums, it makes sense to offer your lead magnet in your signature. Oftentimes, there are exponentially more people viewing forums than there are people responding, so you could be promoting your mailing list to a much larger audience than you’d anticipate.

Conclusion

There is no magic pill to building a large email list – it takes time. However, the more options people have to opt into your list, the faster your growth will be. If you’re committed, the results can be extraordinary.

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