Emails can be effective ways to reach out to your customers. But, if you’re not able to initially entice them to sign up on the mailing list, that’s a substantial problem. Below, we’ll go over six practical ways to make people realize your emails contain information they need and want.

Don’t Make People Complete a Long Form

Sometimes, individuals click on email signup links, then realize they have to populate several fields with information to subscribe. Even though you may want to ask for numerous demographic details, only ask for the essential information at first. Most important of all is the email address itself because it’s the gateway to other insights you could gather later. By only requiring an email address to get onto a mailing list, you let people sign up in a few seconds.

As you can see from the Bath & Body Works email form, it merely asks for an email address. If people put their cursors over the information symbol to the right of the submission button, they see a few more details, such as the company’s mailing address and disclosure that subscribers are free to leave the mailing list at any time. Those extras add credibility to the email address request.

The inviting color scheme and pleasing font draw viewers in and make them interested. Also, the text underneath the header graphic emphasizes being able to get the scoop on the latest news with the company before non-subscribers can.

Make the Signup Form Prominent But Not Annoying

Experts say one of the best ways to get people to sign up for your email list is making sure that people don’t miss the subscribe method.

One approach is to make the form “sticky,” so it follows visitors as they scroll down the page. You may also want to make it appear after people have been on the site for at least a couple of minutes. By then, they’ll be able to gauge whether signing up is worth the effort.

In your quest for visibility, make sure not to exasperate users with an email signup box that’s too obnoxious. If you use a pop-up window that covers the entire screen or features the X icon to close the overlay in a color that’s hard to see, people may get so fed up that they close their browser windows and never return to your site.

Focus on Freebies

Sometimes the promise of high-quality future content arriving in an inbox is not enough to make people take the all-important step of providing their email addresses to sign up for your list. With that in mind, consider offering a free item that relates to your business.

Giordano’s, a pizza brand, does this well by offering a free appetizer in return for signing for the brand’s G-Club email list. The creative use of the wooden table background and the plate of food in the corner gets visitors’ mouths watering in anticipation.

Notably, this window appears whenever a person navigates to the main Giordano’s page. However, the clearly visible X button in the upper right allows visitors to quickly close the window if they don’t want to sign up immediately.

Cater to Smartphone Users

Hootsuite and We Are Social teamed up to publish the Digital in 2017 Global Overview, a report that highlights technology usage around the world. It revealed there are over 4.9 billion unique smartphone users worldwide. That statistic highlights why it makes sense to ensure any email signup strategies you employ work as intended on those handheld gadgets.

Incorporate mobile usage trials into your overall testing strategies and build functionality that allows users to zoom in on email forms or fill in the fields with the auto-fill features built into most smartphone operating systems. Of course, you also need to create email content that looks great and is easy to read on small screens. If you don’t take that additional step, people could unsubscribe after their first emails arrive.

Set Expectations for Frequency

People understandably want to know if your emails will come every few days, weekly or less often. You can fill them in about frequency by simply including additional information inside parenthesis or denoted with an asterisk.

The newsletter signup page for Mother Jones, an activism-centered magazine with a strong online presence, isn’t extremely visually appealing, but it makes up for it with information people genuinely would want to know before signing up.

To the right of each checkbox for a particular newsletter, people can read the publication’s name, the day it’s published and a list of the topics typically covered. These thoughtful additions make it simple for people decide whether to put their email addresses in the signup box. The privacy statement below the email field also provides context about data usage, which could offer peace of mind.

Emphasize How Consumers Could Give Feedback for the Future

Your target audience doesn’t want to feel like you’re only asking for their emails to try and get them to buy things. You can use language to strategically point out how people on your email list may play vital roles in what your business does.

Consider mentioning that people who sign up for emails can give feedback that shapes the development of new products. Your emailed content might include polls about new features, products, logo designs and more.

If applicable, point out how input from visitors makes up for one of your most important lines of communication for knowing what works and what doesn’t. Mentioning that makes people feel like they’re getting exclusive material that could enable them to play meaningful roles in your business or website moving forward.

Also, consumer feedback lets you take a proactive role in decisions. Instead of hoping your audience will be on board with something and rolling it out without asking first, you could use email content to encourage them to weigh in. Then you’ll see if you’re on the right track.

Final Thoughts

Thanks to these strategies and case studies, you can decide how best to make email signup forms attractive to your audience. They might not all apply to your needs, but they’re easy to adapt as appropriate.

Author

Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.