Best Places to Add Email Opt Ins on Your Website

These are the best places to add email opt-in forms on your website. This online business strategy will help you start an email list as well as get more subscribers quickly. You want to make sure you’re marketing your web design business the right way, and this email marketing tip will help you do just that!

Best Places to Add Email Opt-In forms on Your Website

After I added a pop-up opt-in form on my website, 75% of my email subscribers signed up using that form. That’s A LOT!

But if you really want to grow your email list, you’ll need more than just a single opt-in form.

Pop up email opt-in forms are annoying

When you land on a website and a pop-up appears, do you get annoyed? I certainly used to! I couldn’t understand why people felt the need to have something appear OVER the content I was trying to read. Did they want me to stop reading and go find the information somewhere else? Because I could…

I was only annoyed until I tried it on my own website. Since then, I’ve had a change of heart!

But not everyone is going to have a change of heart because not everyone is trying to grow their email list. Not everyone understands email marketing. And not everyone is a business owner.

For those people who get annoyed by pop-ups, they probably “X” out of that pop-up as fast as they possibly can. Then what? If you don’t have an email opt-in form throughout your website, they’ll have lost their chance to snag that freebie or get weekly emails in their inbox from you. And you will have potentially lost a future client or customer.

Where to place your email opt-in forms

The more times someone sees your offer, the more familiar they become, and the more familiar they become, the more likely they are to purchase.

This is why it’s SO IMPORTANT to have opt-in forms on every single page of your website (even multiple places on a single page). To increase familiarity and so no matter where someone lands or how fast they “X” out of that pop-up, they still have a chance to stay in touch with you.

Here are some places you could add an opt-in form on your website (besides a pop-up!):

Navigation

What is everyone guaranteed to see when they land on your website? Your navigation! This is the one thing you can be sure people will see regardless of what page they land on. So use this to your advantage.

Add a button in your navigation that links to your opt-in page or to an email pop-up box. Make sure it’s a button, not a link so that it stands out from the rest of your navigation links.

Primary Banner

When a website visitor lands on your homepage, they’re also guaranteed to see the primary banner (that section directly below the navigation). If you don’t have a signature service you are trying to push, if growing your email list is your main goal, or if getting people onto your email list is the first step in your process for warming up leads, the primary banner is a perfect second place to include an opt-in form.

You can either add a true form, where people enter their email address and name or you can add a button they click to open your opt-in page or pop up box.

Announcement Bar

An announcement bar can be added to the top or bottom of your website. On my site, it’s that salmon bar you see in the picture below (and at the bottom of the screen at the time I’m writing this). It sticks out from the rest of my site because of the color I’ve used so it’s super eye-catching.

This bar can be used to promote a signature service, mention that you have open availability, or… you guessed it… use as a third-place to collect email addresses.

Below the Primary Banner

When I worked in corporate e-commerce (online retail) we studied the percentage of people who scrolled down a page. You may be surprised to know the percentage drops off QUICK. 100% of people see the navigation and primary banner (obviously) but 100% of people do not see the bottom of the page. Less than 50% of people even made it halfway down the page.

This means that the top of the page, or as close to the top as possible, is the most valuable space.

If you have a signature service you’re promoting in your primary banner, directly below the primary banner is a perfect secondary spot to add an opt-in form. Everyone may not be guaranteed to see it but a higher percentage of people will than if you included it further down the page.

Each Blog Post

There’s a thing called a content upgrade. Basically, it’s when a blog post has a free guide included somewhere in the post. The only way you can get the free guide is to hand over your email address.

This is perfect for people who are intrigued by your post and want to learn more. They get to learn more by giving you their email address and you get a solid lead added to your list that you can communicate with as long as they’ll let you.

Blog Post Side Bar

The most common blog post layout is to have a sidebar on the right or left side of each post. When someone reads through your post they’ll see what is included in your sidebar for as far down in the post they read.

You have the opportunity to put an email opt-in form in the sidebar and collect email addresses from people who are loving what you’re speaking about in your posts.

Footer

Further up I mentioned that not everyone makes it to the bottom of a page. But what if they do? There’s a big population of people who skim over all the content on a page and then find themselves at the footer.

Better make it good for them!

This is one final place to add the email opt-in form. For those people who aren’t really paying attention to what they’re reading and missed the 3 other times you promoted your email list on the page, this may be your last chance to get them into your little spot on the internet.

email opt-in forms Recap

If you skimmed through this post like I know some of you may have done, here’s a quick recap.

75% of my subscribers came from the pop-up opt-in on my website. But this doesn’t mean it’s the only place you should promote your list. People need to see things at least seven times, according to the phenomenon known as the Rule of Seven, in order to become familiar with it. The more someone sees your email opt-in form, the more likely they will be to opt into your list.

Here are the places you can add your opt-in form:

• Navigation
• Primary Banner
• Announcement Bar
• Below the Primary Banner
• Each Blog Post
• Blog Side Bar
• Footer

If you’re struggling to grow your list, make some tweaks and see for yourself!

If you don’t have an email list yet, get started with Flodesk! (It’s what I use and I love it.)