How to create the perfect newsletter signup form: best practices (2023)

Email marketing is one of the most reliable strategies for building long-lasting relationships with your target audience.

Usually it involves sending newsletters to your email subscribers who agree to thema registration formto receive your brand messages.

The only problem: the deluge of personal and company newsletters has made website visitors reluctant to subscribe to new newsletters so as not to overload their inboxes with marketing messages.

How do you then design attractive opt-in forms for your visitors?

An attractive newsletter signup form with a compelling pitch about the unique benefits your newsletter offers is a good place to start. The combination with social proof and a clear call-to-action helps even more.

Let's take a look at some best practices for newsletter signup forms through signup examples that also get high conversion rates.

Why the right sidebar isn't the best place for email signup forms

To combat the information overload on the Internet, Internet users have become accustomed to avoiding anything that resembles advertisements. Because website builders have made extensive use of the right sidebar of a web page (also known as the "right bar") to display ads, users now often avoid looking at this area.

Referred to Ifblindness on the right trackmeans anything too big or too colorful (as in the example below) will probably be ignored.

Alternatively, NNgroup Research recommends including text links to relevant content in the right sidebar. Here's an example of our blog's homepage:

So if you put a generic newsletter signup form in the right sidebar, you can't expect exceptional conversion rates. Nerd Fitness tries to sweeten the subscription offering by offering a free ebook on 15 Beginner Mistakes in the right sidebar. But it is noticeable and prone to right-hand drive blindness:

If you're in a highly competitive niche (say, marketing and software) where many companies use email marketing, the right sidebar is even more likely to be ignored. For example datafrom six years ago by Devesh Khanal, a content marketer, found that this sidebar's conversion rate at 100 views/month was a paltry 0.3% for a marketing blog he manages.

A website with fewer visitors can expect better conversion rates. Khanal found that his business blog achieved a conversion rate between 0.4% and 1.2%.

To seeHere's how to get more email opt-ins from your blog.

Also, avoid posting opt-ins where ads would normally be displayed (such as at the top of the page) or near ads. Users have learned to ignore anything that looks like ads. TheBannerblindheidBehavioral bias leads to avoiding the top banner area, as shown by this heatmap solution of 26 people:

If you use an email opt-in with a function box (shown in the top banner area), SmartBlogger shows you a great way to do this. Make sure it matches your brand's colors and overall site style, rather than trying to make it stand out.

Also make a suitable offer. SmartBlogger offers a cheat sheet that helps beginners earn their first paycheck - useful and relevant to their target audience.

In addition, it only appears on their blog page, which ensures that other long posts on their site have a clean and uncluttered design.

Optimal placement of newsletter signup forms: slide-in, floating trigger, and inline forms

Want good starting points for experimenting with signup form placement?

Let's look at some effective, less intrusive examples.

Speaking of examples, be sure to look around10 customizable signup form examples for easier conversions!

Scott H. Young uses a new blog visitor opt-in form with a persuasive pitch: “Learn faster, achieve more.” It fires when you scroll past 50% through an article.

Test the optimal scroll rate for your audience. A new visitor will need to spend some time viewing your content before your signup form appears.

You can also create newsletter signup forms that you can insert from the left sidebar. Here's Tim Ferriss using it on his blog, touting it as "member-exclusive content":

Inline submissions to your blog posts usually yield the best results, especially if you offer a relevant upgrade to the current article. Here's a SmartBlogger post about Sensory Words where they provide their audience with a handy PDF download in exchange for their email:

Other common placements for newsletter signup forms

In addition to the sidebar and feature panel, email opt-in forms can appear below each blog post. In general, they're simple without giving a free gift in return, as self-improvement blogger James Clear does below:

You can also block content on your website and make it accessible only to people who share their email. This would work better if your audience is eager to consume your content and you are an established brand. Here's another example of how Ferriss does this on his blog for new visitors:

Some websites also use their website footer to post a signup form or a link to their newsletter landing pages. For example, SmartBlogger provides a link to the landing page for a pre-recorded webinar (called free training) to get new signups.

You can also use a prominent button in your general website navigation (and make it sticky) to direct people to such landing page forms. Authority Hacker shows us how:

Many of the above submission form placements may not yield the best results, especially if you don't have a relevant offer. But they can still gain at least a handful of new subscribers. For my article on "How to make money on YouTube.“

Still, it got me a number of subscribers:

Next, let's discuss the most effective, yet terrible, newsletter signup form placement.

Handle that annoying but high-converting login form with Elan: Popup

APop-up formulais usually effective at converting potential customers, but can be intrusive and annoying. When a new visitor lands on your site, immediately showing the email sign-up form in the face will be a major deterrent.

Even if you delay the pop-up form, don't embarrass the reader for refusing to sign up. If you create passive-aggressive pop-up forms, you will benefitbad pressand negative word of mouth:

The right way to do it? Be creative (and authentic) while using it.

"No one likes popups."

This is the first sentence of the pop-up signup form that the Wait But Why website uses in some places on their blog. With honesty and a bit of humor to set expectations for the newsletter, the site does a great job with their sign up form. It looks like this:

You can also consider making popups interactive by taking quizzes to get emails from subscribers, like I Will Teach You To Be Rich does with its readers.

Join SailerCoSchemashares their pop-up strategy: "We have a few different options that link to different product lines, depending on what we think a reader is most interested in and the topic of the page they're visiting."

He continues how the company depends on data for its execution. “We have done some extensive testing to fine-tune our frequency and maximize their conversion rate,” he said, “and while there is some industry controversy over whether this is good practice, we are not guided by our facts." implement them on our side.”

He recommends "testing everything possible with your own popups (design, text, offers, frequency, placement, everything)" to see what works for your website and blog.

read moreHere's how to easily create popups.

Sorry, but potential subscribers don't care about your "new updates"

Given the intensely competitive email marketing landscape, you can assume that a potential subscriber is already on several email lists. "Getting new updates from you" is not on their agenda. Let's explore a few different scenarios and signup forms that demonstrate the unique value of their newsletters.

When publishing news and time-sensitive content, you should emphasize the unique value you provide.

The Hustle homepage delivers an engaging pitch to its audience: "Business and technology in 5 minutes or less." The login page is concise and clear. Their call-to-action button isn't just "sign me up" either. Instead, the action verb “join” is used and it is made clear that the newsletter is free.

There is also an opportunity for readers to receive updates on market opportunities (this is their community and information service).

Scrolling down shows the company some social proof: more than 1.5 million readers and testimonials to convince a prospect to sign up.

The company newsletter signup under each article is concise, compelling, and provides social proof. It makes it easier for website visitors to share their personal information.

Encourage sign up for your newsletter with lead magnets

If you've been publishing timeless content for a while, you may have a wealth of high-performing articles that your audience loves. Consider turning them into downloadable lead magnets and offering them to your audience for free to collect their information.

Alternatively, you can create a specific resource that is relevant to your audience. They should find it valuable enough to share their contact information with you. If you can demonstrate that filling out your newsletter sign-up form has immediate value, you will get more visitors to your site to subscribe.

For example, Louis Grenier offers an 8-hour video course on his Everybody Hates Marketers website.

Michal Leszczynski shares moreLead Magnet Ideas and Examplesto get inspired. Here's a table summarizing the content types and examples you can choose from:

A study of 790 marketers found that short videos and written content drive the best conversions. So they're a good starting point, but experiment with other formats to see what works best for your business and audience.

Create content upgrades to convince more potential subscribers to sign up

Relevance is the key to building a high converting websiteLead capture form. Content updates are made specific to a specific blog post, making them highly contextually relevant and useful to your site visitors.

For example, in her article on content marketing trends, Wistia offers readers the opportunity to watch an on-demand webinar on the same topic. Many readers would find this lead magnet appealing:

But you could say, "It takes a lot of effort to upgrade every blog post."

So you have two options:

1. While it may not convert as well as exclusively made upgrades, you can provide a PDF version of your blog post, as Uscreen.tv does below. It's as easy as upgrading content can be.

2. You can also think about creating more extensive resources valid for the main sub-topics of your website. For GetResponse, these could be the ones listed in the left sidebar of their resources page:

Whichever path you choose, make it a point to create special magnets for the articles where you already receive a significant amount of heavy traffic. Your efforts should bring you plenty of new subscribers.

Did you know that with GetResponse you can create lead magnet funnels that automatically send the files you create to the people who sign up for your list? Process optimized!

Offer discounts on your products to boost email signups

If you own an e-commerce business, your newsletter signup form can encourage visitors with a discount, free shipping on the first purchase (if you sell physical products), or other special promotions.

For example, Mizzen and Main reward "insiders" who subscribe to their email list with $15 off and $150 off the first order.

Since consumers love discounts from brands (an estimated 145.3 million users will take advantage of them in the US by 2021), offering special offers on your products can work. For example, Salt Strong, an online saltwater fishing club, offers free bait (just to cover shipping costs) to its readers who subscribe to its blog.

CMI also allows users to subscribe to their special email campaigns if they want discounts related to their events.

Don't have a product or your own product? Then consider offering exclusive offers on products relevant to your target audience. For example, in an article aboutHow to start an author blog, you can give web hosting coupons to subscribers.

Instead of creating a separate list, you can use segmentation and tagging to organize one email list.

Remark:Discounts can attract people who are not interested in your newsletter and content, but only in "free stuff." Make sure you don't devalue your products and offers with big discounts. If you can provide offers for third-party products, try to choose the products that are most relevant to your niche audience.

How many form fields are too many for login forms?

MarketingProfs, a leading B2B publication, does not allow its visitors to read articles in full without first subscribing to their newsletter.

If you enter your business email address, the signup process will ask you to complete five more form fields and select two checkboxes (as shown below):

Shouldn't more form fields lower conversion rates?

Well, automated emails triggered by subscriber behavior typically generate the highest engagement. To personalize your content and make sure your email marketing efforts are relevant to your target audience, you need to know them better.

Depending on your company and the purpose of your email campaigns, you may want to increase (or decrease) the number of fields. Only prospects who are genuinely interested in your brand are likely to share more data with you. They will also be more engaged and better quality readers of your content later on.

Since MarketingProfs offers top-notch consulting and training services, gaining a broad subscriber base is not essential for your business. Instead, they collect more information to get to know their potential customers better and get an idea of ​​whether one of their paid offers might work for them.

On the other hand, if you want to reach a large audience and build social proof, reducing the number of fields can make sense for your email marketing strategy.

For example, Tim Ferriss runs a personal media brand that relies on sponsorship, where reach and subscribers are an important metric for closing deals. That's why he maximizes email signup form placements on his site by simply asking for people's email addresses:

Should you use duplicate sign-up forms?

A similar argument also applies to using a single opt-in versus a double opt-in. Reply receivedstandardsshowed that many industries choose the former. However, this leads to a deterioration in the quality of the customer data and even reduces your deliverability.

A duplicate opt-in shows that you care about customer consent and are more likely to work better in the long run.

Respect the privacy of your prospects and customers

To build trust with your audience when collecting personal information, you need to communicate how you intend to use their information. Respecting the privacy of your users and complying with the regulations of the country where you do business are critical to the success of your email marketing.

For example, the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) offers an eBook with a notice indicating they can unsubscribe from their email list at any time, a link to their privacy policy, and an unsubscribe button to comply with the GDPR.

Whether you're requesting information worth a form field or multiple fields, taking care of your audience's data and protecting it is critical to the longevity of your business.

Set expectations for your newsletter

Your newsletter signup copy should reflect what a new subscriber can expect from your emails. What kind of content will it contain? How often and when can your audience expect you? Here are some ways to set the tone for your website visitors:

Offer an example from your newsletter archive

Do you offer unique and exclusive email content in your newsletter? Next, give the visitors of your new newsletter sign-up page a taste of some previous versions, as this can help you get more subscribers. Here Rochi Zalani shares some of her recent newsletters along with her application form:

Use social proof

Bloggers and content-driven companies often use their subscribers' testimonials to demonstrate the value of their newsletter. As a product company, you can also use some testimonials like this one on your newsletter landing page to build trust with your audience.

Seeing you next to other brands can often lead to signups, even from those who were initially skeptical. Here's Close, a sales CRM that uses testimonials from some of their weekly sales newsletter subscribers:

Include links to your most important content in your welcome email

The welcome email typically has the highest open rate before engagement declines. So make a strong first impression with your kickback emails. Once a prospect signs up for your newsletter, share links to some of your best content. She will be happy to receive your updates and get the relationship on track.

Email Subscription Form Best Practices: Summary

Take inspiration from the newsletter signup examples I've shared and use the tips in this article as a starting point. However, best practices will only get you so far. Consider your business and audience to find the right mix of elements for your email signup form.

If you experience low open rates despite optimized email campaigns, your messages may end up in the spam folder. And it's probably time to switch email service providers.

Finally, here are some other placements you can experiment with for your newsletter signup form:

About the Site –Especially relevant for bloggers and media companies,Your about pagecan be an effective way to get an audience that wants to know more about you to subscribe to your email list.

Your email signature- If your job is to reach new prospects (who are not yet on your email list) during your work week, try including a link to your signup page at the bottom of your posts.

Your social media profile links -LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and most social media platforms allow you to add your website to your profile. If you post your newsletter landing page here, your followers can become email subscribers.

Now that you've mastered the best practices for signup forms, you can create a free signup form popup in GetResponse. Try it!

What email opt-in form placements have you experimented with? Is there a specific signup form that converts better than others? Let us know in the comments below.