An effective marketing strategy depends on understanding a customer’s psychology, so you need to anticipate visitor behavior and build your content around those parameters.
Where you put a subscribe form on a website can influence the number of signups you receive.
Since building your lists remains a priority, understanding what works and what doesn’t is important.
What is a subscribe form on your website?
A subscribe form is how people sign up for regular content from your company, blog, or brand. Your mechanism can be a button that redirects visitors to a static signup page, or an embedded form in every page on your site. Where you place the link or form should depend on the content on the page.
Where should you place your subscribe form on your website?
Deciding where to place your email signup form will depend on the page a customer visits. If they came across your website’s blog using a keyword search, you can add the signup form as part of your CTA. At the same time, if they just purchased a product from you, you can include it during the ordering process or confirmation email.
Placement of subscribe forms in blogs
Blogs tend to be long-form content. People will quickly search, scan, and disregard certain copy. When to show them the subscribe option should depend on several factors. Did they scroll to the bottom? Did they spend enough time on the website? As you can program forms to appear based on behavior, you should consider these factors.
Opting to add a permanent subscribe button at the bottom and a dynamic response button if the visitor spends enough time on the website is the best way to grow your list from blog posts.
Order and fulfillment process subscribe forms
This is the best time to prompt customers to subscribe to your list, if they haven’t already. If they purchased for the first time, it shows that they trust your company. You’ll need to ensure the subsequent content you send them relates to their interests. These types of forms should be more elaborate than a simple subscribe button, and you can include content preference settings in these forms.
Gathering more information about your subscribers can help with creating segmented lists. The more segmented your lists are, the more personalization you can add to your messages.
Research shows that adding personalization data can increase email open rates by as much as 26%.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Other subscribe form techniques
Pop-ups are another option available. You can use a mouse event to trigger a pop-up based on a visitor’s clicks or movements. Just remember to be careful with this technique, as a pop-up can be just as detrimental as effective when used incorrectly.
For newsletters, you should always include a signup link in the email. If someone forwards the email, the new recipient may also want to subscribe to your newsletter. Just because you send your emails to your subscribers doesn’t mean that they’re only people who’ll receive them.
How to measure the success of your subscribe forms on your website
Keeping up with where your latest subscribers come from will require a strategy. You’ll need to create a reference to track the performance of your signup forms from different locations, channels, and referrals. Once you know which ones are giving you the best results, you can focus on improving your signup strategies.
Does it really matter?
Customers will arrive at your site for different reasons. If they get the information they want or see the products they’re interested in, chances are they’ll want to receive more information about your company. Where you place your subscribe form should depend on the type of interaction your customers are busy with. The correct placement and timing of a signup prompt could grow your lists exponentially.
What now?
The location of your signup and subscribe forms depend on the type of content a visitor is seeing. You should always consider the customer’s experience when laying out your website, newsletter, or email campaigns.
To ensure you get the best from your subscribe forms, you should understand why it’s important to use double opt-in in your signups. Read this guide to find out more.