As someone promoting products or services online, your email list is one of your most valuable assets. So, if your sign-up form isn’t optimised for conversion, then you’re throwing money away.
There are many common mistakes that marketers make in their email list-building strategies and making just one of these mistakes could be enough to deter potential subscribers.
We’re here to help you find, and if required, fix these mistakes before it’s too late. Carry on reading to see the top mistakes marketers make with their sign-up forms.
Weak Headline
The main problem with most sign-up form headlines is that they’re focused on either incentive or you – the marketer. For example:
“Sign Up for Our Newsletter”
Not very compelling, is it? Yet, the majority of forms websites use has this as their headline. What do you think is better? Focusing on your potential consumer or focusing on yourself? Your potential consumer wants to know why they should sign up for your newsletter; what’s in it for them!
Even though you may be offering them the world, how are they to know this if your headline simply states the obvious? Something along the lines of “get insider access” or “sign up for incredible discounts” will work so much better than a simple “please sign up”. Solve your consumer problems or desires all at once and make them want to sign up.
Your new headline could read: “Short, quick, easy and effective home workouts for mums – One a week for FREE!”
Poor Timing
Bombarding your users with a massive email capture form before they have even had a chance to glance at your landing page will damage your data collection process. If a potential customer arrives on your page and then within seconds, is greeted with a takeover pop-up, you’ll come across as being pushy. Sure, it’s important for that user to see the sign-up form, but remember, it’s your content that will lead to them making the final decision and no one likes to be pushed into a corner.
With over 96% of visitors who come to your website not being ready to buy (Marketo), we can tell you that an immediate pop-up form is definitely not the way to get sign-ups.
A potential customer, first arriving on your website, probably doesn’t know for sure that you have what they want. Someone arriving from Google possibly isn’t even sure if your website is what they want and relevant to them. Put it this way, you wouldn’t invite a guest to your home, then the moment they walk through the door, ask them to divulge every little thing about their personal life before you’ve even offered them tea! It’s wrong to do the same to your potential customers when they reach the home page of your website.
A much better alternative is to try giving your user some time to actually read your content and see the value you offer before asking them to subscribe. This way, you’ll not only prove your desire to help them, but you’ll build a truly interested database.
Location
If your opt-in form lies quietly at the bottom of your webpage, neatly meshing with the rest of your design, you’re in big trouble. And worse still, if your opt-in form is impossible to find, you’re in even bigger trouble. Potential customers who land on your website, are looking for a reason to buy from you; hopefully, if you’re doing it right, your newsletter service will do just this.
If you’re burying your sign-up form at the bottom of the page or it isn’t visible on every page, even the biggest fans of your content will give up searching before they give up their email address. Show them that you want them to opt-in by making it easy to do – readers don’t want to be challenged before they’ve even engaged with your company.
Poor Design
Even in this day and age, poor design still occurs when it comes to sign-up forms. People mistake easy and simple with ugly and boring – this is not a mistake you should be making.
Turning your generic sign up form from two plain boxes on a grey background is easy. There are so many easy ways to create pretty looking sign-up forms that will grab the eye of your reader (and encourage them to insert their email address). Choose bright colours that harmonise well with each other, make your call to action (CTA) button stand out so that your reader knows they should click it and use some compelling imagery to draw the eye to your form. Once you have all of that sorted, all you have to work on is making them want your offers!
Generic Emails & Zero Follow Up
If you’re a brilliant marketer and have been ticking off the above list as you go, thinking: I already do or have done all of these, we have one more question to ask you. Is your email marketing automation generic, boring and lacking follow-up?
Why work so hard to ensure you get the data you want to then mess it up by not creating an email marketing automation series that truly nurtures those leads?
When you collect data and promise offers, deals, updates, discounts, tips and advice, and they receive none of them, you risk losing your database quickly. Those leads that were once warm and eager to hear what you had to say have now lost interest and have become cold. They may have even forgotten that they signed up in the first place – you do not want to be in this position.
When your members first sign-up to your newsletter, you must send them a custom designed welcome email that makes them feel part of a community. This email should be sent, almost instantaneously.
Remember, if you haven’t made a welcome email in preparation for your sign-ups, you shouldn’t be offering a sign-up service at all.
After any welcome email, it’s vital to keep nurturing your leads – a welcome email alone will not lead to conversions.
If you do not have even a plan for a lead nurturing campaign, again, you should not be offering a sign-up service.
What are you doing with this data you’ve collected if you’re not emailing them? – You’re wasting it.
If, whilst you’re reading this you’re beginning to question your email marketing campaign, you need to make a change. Here at Lifestyle Media Group we work with companies to plan, design and build successful lead nurturing campaigns that will lead to an increased conversion rate.
If you’re interested in actually using that database you worked so hard to collect, get in touch today and we can start building a marketing plan that will help you to create and maintain those vital relationships with your consumers.
Give us a call today: 01223 495599
Or drop us a line at: [email protected] – we’d love to have a chat and get to know you!
