It’s no secret that experts and surveys put email marketing as a ‘must’ for digital marketers looking for effectiveness and return on investment (ROI). 41% of marketers polled rated email as their best performing channel, along with 47% who said that email delivered the most ROI, ahead of social at 19%

 But, how of you get website visitors to subscribe to emails and improve sign up rates over 2%? A survey by global digital analysts Econsultancy provides useful tips and tricks.

 Targeting. Don’t treat all site visitors the same, they aren’t. Detecting them as individuals and personalising the experience will convert more site visitors to sign ups.

 Placement. Think about where the signup will sit on a page. The norm is to run in the footer of each webpage, but this might not be as effective as placing the call to action above the fold. Dynamic methods are more common in the US and also ensure visibility, viewed as a popup or overlay, but can have a negative impact on the user experience.

 Visibility. There are two aspects to making your call to action more noticeable, the look (size, shape, text size, colour and boldness) and the prominence.

 Anything that requires an action, moves or gets into a persons face is likely to get their attention, but this could be for good or bad… Research by Privy found that a banner that starts ‘hidden’ and rolls out on activation had the best conversion rates (2.2%) over email bar (1.34%) and popup (1.31%).

 Timing. Audience targeting and the time the user has spent on a site are the two main types of timing important to email call to actions. The checkout is a retailers’ favourite time to capture sign ups, while a display of a cal to action cold be triggered by time, scrolling or a mouse movement. Further research by Privy found that visitors were 25 times more likely to subscribe when they triggered the signup form themselves by clicking a tab, than if it was automatically triggered by time, scrolling or exit.

 Proposition. You’re more likely to get signups if the individual is persuaded in doing so because there’s a special offer, or something in it for them. Conversion rate by campaign content type found that entering into a prize draw had a conversion of 15%, as opposed to standard sign up 1%.

 Copy. Sell your email like it’s a product! Convince the individual that by signing up they’re going to be rewarded.

 Ease. Keep signups simple! The longer the form, the less likely the signup. Only ask for information you actually need, such as first name and email address. Privy research found that every field added reduces the sign ups by 25%

 Legitimacy. There are three basic elements that must be followed; sending emails to people who did not sign up is bad for brand reputation and can incur legal repercussions, the customer should always feel in control of the relationship and a successful email list is quality of subscribers.

 Clarity. Setting clear expectations of the kind of frequency of emails new subscribers will receive will help reduce opt-outs in the near future.

 Testing. Test different models, by doing so you’ll have a clear understanding of what works and which work better, such as placements, copy, campaigns, etc. A/B testing of alternative webpages can determine effectiveness of various methods. Measure and track results using web analytics and behavioural tools such as heatmaps.

www.econsultancy.com