- beehiiv Blog
- Posts
- Your Ultimate Guide to Email Newsletter Signup Forms
Your Ultimate Guide to Email Newsletter Signup Forms
Leverage Your Signup Page and Increase Your ROI
JP Botero & Lenore Sterner
June 18th, 2024
Table of Contents
This article has been updated to maintain its accuracy and relevance.
Imagine for a moment that you’re sitting at home, minding your own business.
Suddenly, without any warning, a complete stranger walks through your front door. Not only are you ill-prepared for this blatant invasion of privacy, but you are afraid for your safety.
You don’t know this person. You didn’t consent for them to enter your home. You certainly can’t trust anything that they say.
Why is this stranger here, uninvited?
Think of your marketing emails the same way.
If you send marketing emails to a complete stranger who did not opt-in to receive them, you are ruining any chance of building a relationship with that person. After all, you just invaded their privacy and sent them an email that they don’t know is safe to open or engage with.
Worse yet, your emails may be classified as spam, and you have lost all chance of building a relationship with them in the first place. Depending where you market your emails, this may even be illegal.
By collecting subscribers through an email sign up form, you can nurture relationships with your customers and remain top of mind. Not only does this help your brand establish trust and loyalty with your audience, but it also leads to increased engagement and conversions.
Don’t scare away potential subscribers by sending them emails without consent. We got you covered to learn the perfect strategy for creating a sign up form for your subscribers.
Why Do You Need a Signup Form?
An email newsletter signup form on your website can be incredibly advantageous. It allows you to have direct contact with potential customers who are interested in your services or products and are willing to keep hearing from you.
Not only that, but newsletters also allow your brand to cultivate and grow relationships with your audience over time. A signup form is an excellent place to begin the relationship
Regularly running a newsletter is a reliable way of generating leads – meaning higher chances of conversion into sales -- and an additional channel for companies to build brand recognition.
Newsletters also lead to an excellent ROI, with research showing that in 2023, the average ROI for email marketing was $36 for every $1 invested (ConstantContact, 2023). That’s a number that’s hard to sneeze at and proves how valuable an email signup sheet can be.
Turning Strangers Into Friends
Permission marketing is an effective way to reach and engage your customers, and email signups are a great way to build relationships with them.
Seth Godin popularized permission marketing in his book, Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends and Friends Into Customers.
In this book, Godin argues that traditional marketing methods, such as interruption advertising, do not work anymore and that companies should focus on obtaining permission from their customers before engaging with them.
Godin suggests several strategies for businesses to obtain permission from consumers, including offering incentives like discounts or trials, providing value-added information about products or services, encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations, and allowing people to sign up for newsletters or other emails.
Some people ask, how do I tell someone to sign up for a newsletter? The answer is simple: Give them a reason to sign up.
You can offer exclusive promotions or discounts, feature tips and tricks related to your services or products, showcase user-generated content from customers, and provide valuable industry insights.
What Is Permissive Marketing?
Permission marketing is an effective strategy for businesses to engage and build relationships with their customers in the long run. Email signups are a great way to get started on permission marketing.
Email signups allow you to collect information about potential customers, while providing value in exchange for their consent. Therefore, including email signups as part of your permission marketing strategy is important.
By leveraging this powerful tool, you can engage and build relationships with customers while growing your business. When implemented correctly, email signups can help increase engagement, generate conversions, and foster strong customer relationships.
One example of this is Rohan Mahtani’s newsletter, Resume Worded. His entire newsletter strategy is built around building strong relationships with his audience because he knew that without nourishing those relationships, he would hit the ceiling of his business’s potential.
In every newsletter, Mahtani provides career tactics, resources, and insights to help people craft resumes and find the perfect job – all things that drove over a million people to use his sign up form.
10 Examples of Effective Email Newsletter Signups (Best Practices)
From the checkout page of your favorite e-commerce retailer to the website homepage, there's no denying the power of email newsletter signup forms.
Signup forms have become a cornerstone of businesses' marketing strategies and can be highly effective. But what do these ten most effective email newsletters signup forms have in common?
Easy customization, attention-grabbing visuals, an authoritative tone, and a simple yet persuasive copy – all of these are critical ingredients for making your readers click that subscribe button.
In no time, you can create a signup form that will transform passive visitors into loyal subscribers!
1. The Visual Appeal: Businesses can stand out with a visually appealing email newsletter signup form that uses eye-catching visuals like images, GIFs, or videos to draw readers’ attention. Use them sparingly, though.
New research suggests that the optimal amount of graphics (as measured by click-through rates) is three images (ConstantContact, 2024).
2. The Copy: An effective email newsletter signup form should include persuasive copy that clearly explains the value of subscribing and any incentives you may offer. Keep it short, simple, and to the point.
3. Call-to-Action Buttons: Make sure your call-to-action buttons are eye-catching and easily accessible on your page – this will help attract readers and encourage them to click through and subscribe!
4. Onboarding Automation: With beehiiv, you can utilize automated onboarding emails, which can help build relationships with subscribers and make them feel welcomed as soon as they sign up.
And you’ll be in good company – research shows that around 76% of businesses use marketing automation (Hubspot, 2021).
5. Social Sharing Buttons: Incorporate social sharing buttons within your email newsletter signup form, so readers can share it with their friends, family, or colleagues. This can be an effective way of growing your list quickly!
6. Personalization and Segmentation: You can use personalization and segmentation techniques on your email newsletter signup form to deliver personalized content tailored to the interests of each user.
beehiiv offers powerful segmenting tools that can help you create a bespoke experience for your audience to further nourish your relationships.
7. Mobile Optimization: Ensuring that your email newsletter signup form works properly on both desktop and mobile devices is essential for getting the most out of your list. Since so many of your readers will open your emails from their phone, mobile optimization is key!
Optimizing your newsletter for a mobile device is a best practice and one that makes all the difference for your audience’s convenience.
8. Visibility: Ensure that your email newsletter signup form is always visible on your website to ensure maximum visibility and encourage readers to subscribe.
9. Make It Fun: Interactions and game elements are a great way to make the signup process more engaging. They can provide a fun and memorable experience for your users, while also helping them become more familiar with your brand.
With a few simple steps, you can create interactive elements that will make signing up easier and more enjoyable.
10. Analytics Tracking: You can use data to convince, inform, or influence visitors to sign up. Analytics give you the data you need to know what’s working and what’s not to better drive your strategy.
With beehiiv, you can utilize 3D analytics that can help you monitor how effectively your email newsletter signup form is performing, giving insights into which strategies are working best and allowing you to make informed decisions about adjustments that need to be made.
After Your Subscribers Sign Up
After your new audience members have signed up, it is time to keep building the relationship with them. Make sure to follow up with a welcome email series. This will help you get in touch with them quickly. You can also persuade them to add you as a contact to ensure that you land in the primary inbox.
Remember: You gave your audience a reason to sign up in the first place.
Try including helpful tips and tricks related to your industry or product, information about new products or services, company updates, promotions, free ebooks, reports, videos, and the first chapter of your book, free courses, and special events.
You can also feature customer stories to build strong relationships with current customers while engaging new ones.
Finally, don’t forget to create memorable visuals, such as compelling graphics and videos – these can be great for breaking up blocks of text and bringing more attention to the essential messages you have to share.
Create Your Signup Now!
Creating an email newsletter signup form for your website can significantly increase engagement with potential and existing customers.
beehiiv makes creating signups that match your business's unique needs easy.
With customizable templates and a drag-and-drop interface, you can quickly design signups for any purpose – whether you want to increase conversions, build relationships with customers, or grow your email newsletter list.
Sign up for your free beehiiv trial today and watch as you grow closer to your customers!
Reply