How To Get More Email Subscribers for Your Ecommerce Site: The Ultimate Guide

Growing your email list isn't as straightforward as it sounds. It takes a strategic plan and creative tactics. Here's your ultimate guide on how to increase email subscribers for your ecommerce site.

1. Offer a Strong Incentive
Key to acquiring more email subscribers is to provide a strong incentive that piques the interest of your potential customers. You can offer exclusive deals, discounts, or free shipping on their first order for signing up. Another option is to provide valuable content like ebooks, webinars, or access to exclusive articles. Whatever the incentive, make sure it’s compelling enough (meaning-relevant to your customer's interests) to encourage customers to part with their email address.

2. Optimize Your Sign-Up Form
Don't overlook the impact a well-designed sign-up form can have on your subscriber count. Position it prominently on your website – in window that pops up or slides in. Make sure the form is as brief and simple as possible. Request only essential information (like their email address) to make the sign-up process quick and easy. When we set up sign-up forms, we usually set them up as an A/B test for copy, images, and number of fields. We also divide the forms in desktop and mobile exclusive formats to study the conversion rate for each type of traffic.

3. Utilize Exit-Intent Popups
Exit-intent popups appear when a user is about to leave your website, presenting them with a final offer or request to subscribe. The system knows when someone is leaving the site because it tracks the location of the mouse on the screen. This is a perfect opportunity to snag those visitors who might otherwise leave your site and never return. Make sure your popup offers includes a compelling incentive to prompt users to subscribe. We segment the audience of this pop up to include only people who have bought nothing in the store, to better target the offer.

4. Use a Teaser
An unsubscribed visitor to your website may not be willing to give you their email (or their first purchase) without a little time to make sure that your products have a good chance to fulfill their needs. We can set up a teaser for your exit-intent form that highlights the core of your offer (10% discount or other) and that, when clicked, takes the customer to the form they avoided when they first arrived at the site. This can be helpful for enabling first time subscribers (and their sales potential).

5. Leverage Social Proof
People are more likely to sign up if they see that others have benefited from it. Include testimonials, ratings, reviews, or the number of existing subscribers to your newsletter to persuade visitors to join your email list. You can get reviews from social media accounts or from dedicated review-managers like the ones Klaviyo and others offer to incorporate them into the pop up presentation. We would test the importance of the reviews via A/B testing.

6. Run Contests and Giveaways
Running contests and giveaways is another effective way to grow your email list. The entry criteria could simply be to subscribe to your newsletter. Promote your contest on social media and on your website (via a pop up targeted to new unsubscribed customers) to attract a larger audience. The effectiveness of this campaign depends on the relevancy of your products to your targeted audience, and on the power of your offer.

7. Implement a Referral Program
Referral programs encourage existing subscribers to bring in new ones by offering them a reward for every person they refer. This can be a powerful method to organically grow your email list.

8. Optimize for Mobile
With the rise of mobile browsing, it's more important than ever to ensure that your email subscription process is mobile-friendly. Make sure your sign-up forms and pages are easily navigable and that the text is legible on smaller screens. We take care of this as part of the set up for the pop ups and slide-in forms on your site.

9. Use Content Marketing
Creating valuable, shareable content can also help you to grow your email list. At the end of blog posts or videos, include a call-to-action encouraging readers to subscribe to your newsletter for more great content. And include an offer to induce them to provide you with their email address - and perhaps get a first sale from them.

10. Segment Your Audience
Not everyone on your website is at the same stage in their buyer's journey. By segmenting your audience and offering personalized incentives, you can target visitors more effectively. Someone who has visited your site several times might just need a small nudge, like a discount code, while a first-time visitor might require more information about your products. We use segmentation to target website visitors with specific messages (delivered via pop ups or embedded forms) to get them to subscribe (or convert for a first sale) depending on your priorities.

11. Follow Up With An Automation
The first sign up is also your opportunity to give a good impression via an automated confirmation email (and email series) that talks about the relevancy of your products, their quality, provides additional social proof, and more. Getting a first-time sign up is only the first step. It is important to avoid a first time unsubscribe with an informative, relevant automated welcome flow.

12. Respect Privacy and Be Transparent
Last but not least, assure your visitors that their data is safe with you. Clearly communicate your privacy policies and reassure them that their information will not be shared with third parties. Trust is crucial in building a strong email list. It is encouraged via the quality and relevancy of your emails and the transparency of your policies.

Implementing these strategies requires time and effort, but the payoff is worth it. A large, engaged email list is a valuable asset that can significantly boost your ecommerce business’s growth via segmented sales campaigns and content emails. When we set up your email acquisition process for your website, we look over every detail and monitor the results on a regular basis, setting up tests for automations, sign up forms, and everything else. Make an appointment with us and we'll take care of all the details for you so you can benefit from your email list with the smallest amount of worry or hassle.