No one wants their emails to wind up in the spam folder. 

But did you know some of the most common reasons emails go to spam are also the most preventable? 

AWeber’s CEO and Founder Tom Kulzer joined The Hustle & Flowchart podcast to share his top tips for entrepreneurs — including how to dodge the spam folder and improve your email deliverability. 

Here are his top 3 tips:

1. Encourage interaction and engagement. 

Have human conversations over email. Start a conversation with your subscribers by encouraging them to reply with their thoughts about a question or with feedback.

“Have a genuine reason for your audience to reply to your email. And make sure that if they do reply, you don’t send a canned response. Engage with people — they’re people,” said Kulzer.  

Plus, Kulzer cautions that lack of engagement over time can indicate to internet service providers — like Yahoo!, Gmail, or Outlook — that your audience isn’t interested in your content.  

“While you might have your audience’s permission to email them, they may not have opened a message from you in a while. The longer your contacts go without engaging with your emails, the more likely it is to have an impact on whether internet service providers deliver your messages to the spam folder.” 

Running a re-engagement campaign will let you get a sense of who is truly interested in keeping in touch — and who’s not. Look at your stats, and clear your list if they’re truly not active subscribers. 

Related: Winning back subscribers with re-engagement emails

2. Never use link shorteners. 

There’s no reason to use link shortener services in emails.  

Tom explains, “Many people use link shorteners to make the link look cleaner in an email. But if you have a visible URL in your emails — shortened or not — email service providers are going to rewrite the link behind the scenes so that the sender can track click through rates. 

This rewritten link and the redirect can be a sign that the message is fraudulent and is more likely to be sent to spam.”

An easy fix? Link words in your email, rather than including the full link address or using link shorteners. Use language such as ‘click here to contact customer support,’ or ‘read more here.’ Not only will it help you avoid the spam folder, it will look better, too.

3. Set expectations before people subscribe. 

On your email sign up form, tell people exactly what they’ll receive as subscribers before they join your list.

“One of the most common reasons emails land in the spam folder happens before you even press send,” said Kulzer. “On your sign up form, explain how often your subscribers are going to hear from you, what they’re going to get, and what they’ll receive after delivering the lead magnet you promised in your form.”

By setting expectations with your audience up front, they’ll be less likely to mark you as spam because they know exactly what to expect. 

Want to learn more about avoiding the spam folder — and how your email service provider impacts deliverability? Kulzer dives deep into the topic of email deliverability — and provides some technical insight — on the Hustle & Flowchart Podcast below. 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5RUrA4kt5tbYdXGMggMxw7

Or, find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. 

Have questions? Our team is available 24/7.

Reach out to us at [email protected] for email deliverability assistance. 

The post 3 Common Reasons Your Emails Land in the Spam Folder appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

Michele Frolla is a travel and language blogger at The Intrepid Guide. She earns a living from affiliate commissions, advertising revenue, and working with tourism boards to promote destinations.

Unfortunately, when the world stopped traveling, affiliate income and ad revenue for bloggers in the travel industry stopped too. But for Frolla, COVID-19 has been a blessing in disguise. “It has forced my hand to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” says Frolla.

Frolla always wanted to launch a language program to teach her audience new languages. To help her decide if this was the right direction to take her business, Frolla turned to her email marketing platform and email subscribers.

It turns out her audience is as interested in language as the destination where the language is spoken.

So she launched a new language program using email marketing for every step of the process.

Here’s how she did it.

Build your email list to protect yourself from the unknown

Frolla learned the hard way, as did many in the travel industry, that things can change overnight.

The World Travel and Tourism Council is projecting a global loss of 100 million jobs and $2.7 trillion in revenue due to COVID-19. And Statista forecasts that global revenue for the travel and tourism industry will be down 34.7% in 2020.

Explore new revenue opportunities

The COVID-19 experience led Frolla to take a good look at her business and consider how she could continue earning money that’s not dependent on travel, advertising revenue, or social media platforms. 

As a travel and language blogger, Frolla’s previous revenue sources had included income from affiliate commissions, advertising revenue, and working with tourism boards to promote destinations. Unfortunately, when the world stopped traveling, Frolla’s affiliate income and ad revenue from the travel industry stopped too.

That’s why she decided to investigate the option of creating a language education program. With a program like this, she could continue to provide value and a service to her audience — even when they can’t travel. 

“I can sell my language products. My audience can purchase the product and use it when they’re commuting, at home, or traveling. It’s something that I’m quite passionate about and makes sense with the way things have been for the tourism industry the past few months, “says Frolla.

To promote her new language program, Frolla knew she would need a larger email list. 

Frolla used 2 tools to grow her email list and welcome new subscribers.

1. A landing page

When Frolla first created her travel blog, she knew that email marketing was important. She chose AWeber because she wanted to go with a platform that was going to grow with her. “I’m getting my head around the incredible power of the tool,” says Frolla.

Frolla has found that landing pages created with AWeber’s Landing Page Builder are an awesome way to grow a list by being able to share specific information. She drives traffic to her landing page from her social media, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

“The landing page was easy to set up. I decided to direct traffic to a certain landing page to get my language and travel tips, as opposed to having pop-ups all the time or having a sign up form that might not get seen,” says Frolla.

2. Automated email campaigns

After someone enters their contact information on your sign up form or landing page, you should immediately send an automated email to welcome them to your email list. This is exactly what Frolla does with AWeber’s email automation platform Campaigns. 

Frolla welcomes subscribers to her list, includes links to some of her most popular content, and sets expectations on how often she will communicate with subscribers.

Related: [Infographic] How to Write an Engaging Welcome Email

Your email list is an excellent way to gather product feedback.

Frolla uses email marketing to identify users and provide feedback before she launched her product. 

Recruit your most loyal followers to test your product.

Frolla recruited some of her most loyal subscribers to be part of a testing team for her new product. Via email, she sent them a form to apply to be a part of her testing team. It allowed her to get real user experiences to improve her course.

Don’t forget to ask for testimonials.

She also was able to get testimonials from her testing team Frolla uses the testimonials in all of her promotional materials as social proof of its impact.

Promote your product to your list

Frolla announced to her entire email list and on social media that she had a new course coming to create some buzz around the launch.

Giveaways can get your audience’s attention.

Frolla gave away two free courses as part of the launch. In the email, she made it super easy to enter the giveaway by including a link to enter.

Explain why you’re passionate about your product

A lot of your audience may purchase the product because of the creator as much as the content. While it is essential to detail the features and benefits of your product, don’t forget to tell your audience why this product is important to you. 

How to get other people to promote your product 

The power of email is magnified when you can get others to promote your product using their own email list. You should never buy an email list. But you can extend your reach when influencers or affiliates promote your product to their own lists. 

Related: Why You Should Never Buy an Email List

Extend your reach by creating an affiliate relationship with influencers.

An affiliate arrangement can be a win-win situation for everyone if done right. 

It helps you quickly grow your audience by introducing you and your product to a whole new group of people. You can set up your affiliate program so that you and your affiliate both earn a percentage of revenue every time someone purchases your product. The affiliate, or influencer, will receive a commission for each product they sell. 

How Frolla created her affiliate group 

Frolla reached out to people in the language community — bloggers that she knows and trusts and bloggers who know and trust Frolla.   

The communication Frolla sent was straightforward. She would send an email or message on social media and say: “Hey, I’ve got this course coming out. Would you help me promote it?”

If Frolla received confirmation that they were open to promote her product, she would send them a link to a Google form so they could provide details to set them up as an affiliate.

Expand your affiliate group beyond your network.

Frolla also expanded her outreach to people she did not personally know. With the Facebook community administrator’s permission, she posted in private Facebook groups and asked the group members if they would like to become an affiliate.

She also reached out to content creators of courses Frolla had previously signed up for or taken. Since she was familiar with their class, she could be sure they created quality content and had an audience with similar interests to Frolla’s own audience.

Make it easy for your affiliates to promote your product. 

Frolla uses a course creation platform (Teachable) that makes it easy for customers to purchase her product and for affiliates to get their commission. There are several platforms available, so make sure the platform that you are considering integrates with the tools you are already using — like AWeber.  

Frolla includes bonuses that are exclusive to her product and only available for a limited time, so there is an urgency to take action.

Frolla also sends her affiliates a product launch kit that includes:

• Social media banners for FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• A sequence of six emails for her affiliates to customize to their audience.
• Product information.
• A list of benefits of being an affiliate.
• The retail price.
• The commission percentages that affiliates earn.
• Launch dates.

Pro tip: Make the process as easy as possible for your affiliates. Do all the heavy lifting for your affiliates so they can focus on promoting your product. 

Send email swipe copy to your affiliates.

To make it ridiculously easy for affiliates to promote your product or services, send them email swipe copy. They can quickly customize the email content and send it to their list. 

Frolla sends her affiliates a document containing a 6-part email sequence. She includes email copy and images of the product. She recommends that each affiliate adapts the emails to their own voice.  

Here’s what the email sequence covers:

Email 1: Introduction to course 

Email 2:  Benefits of learning italian

Email 3: Frequently asked questions about Intrepid Italian

Email 4: What people say about Intrepid Italian (testimonials)

Email 5: Creates urgency. (24 hours left to buy)

Email 6: Final warning. (2 hours left to buy)

Try AWeber and start growing your business online.

You’ll get everything Frolla  uses to grow her own business online — including sign up forms, newsletters, and landing pages.

Start your 30-day free trial today.

The post How This Travel Blogger Used Email Marketing to Grow — Even When the Tourism Industry Lost $2.7 Trillion in Revenue appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

Are you looking for a faster way to sell products online and launch an email marketing strategy that’s customized to your ecommerce business? 

Look no further! At AWeber, we’ve done 90% of the work for you, so you can quickly start using email marketing to sell more products. 

AWeber provides a complete solution — landing pages, email templates, pre-built cart abandonment campaigns  — specifically designed for businesses that sell products online.

Ecommerce landing pages

Ecommerce websites have grown increasingly complex. And that complexity has come with a cost: What was once a simple, straightforward way to show what your store offers has become a tangled web of upsells, blogs, and information about the company.

An ecommerce landing page, in contrast, drives visitors to take one specific action. It removes all other distractions and intentionally limits where visitors can navigate. An effective landing page eliminates anything that could be distracting — like navigation menus and other unrelated or distracting content. 

It is built with one specific purpose: to get people to take a single action — like downloading a lead magnet, subscribing to your email list, buying your product, or thanking them for a recent purchase.

How AWeber helps you sell with landing pages

The AWeber Landing Page Builder is the powerfully-simple way to create awesome-looking landing pages that will grow your audience while making your business look great. 

AWeber allows you to create as many landing pages as you need, and there is no additional charge for hosting. You can create:

• Lead generation pages to convince people to join your email list.
• Sales pages to sell products to your audience.
• Thank you or confirmation pages to display to people after they subscribe or purchase.

The AWeber Landing Page Builder seamlessly integrates with your AWeber account. Anyone who completes your landing page joins your AWeber email list automatically — no extra setup required.

You don’t need coding or technical skills. Use the drag & drop builder to add images, update text, and customize your design. 

The AWeber Landing Page Builder even includes suggested copy in each landing page template and access to the AWeber image library of free stock images. 

AWeber landing page templates

AWeber’s landing page template gallery includes email templates specifically designed to help you sell products online. 

Online course sales landing page

The online course landing page helps visitors understand what your course is all about. You can add what visitors will learn, the cost, and testimonials from happy customers.

Product sales landing page

Product landing pages have one goal: To convince visitors to take a particular action — like purchasing or downloading more information.

Gated or exclusive content sales landing page

Landing pages give content creators the option to sell memberships to gated or exclusive content.

12 ecommerce email templates to send one-time or automated emails

Want to promote your sales landing pages or follow up with subscribers after they join your email list? Send one-time or automated emails to them using one of AWeber’s email templates. 

AWeber includes over 700 pre-built professionally templates to choose from to connect to your audience — including email templates specifically designed to help grow ecommerce sales.

Use one — or all — of the 12 email templates below to sell your ecommerce products, offer a sale to subscribers, deliver coupons, and more!

Turn a visitor into a loyal customer with cart abandonment campaigns

What is a cart abandonment email campaign?

A cart abandonment campaign is an email or set of emails that reminds users to finish purchasing the items they left in their shopping cart.

Three out of 4 shoppers abandon their cart before checking out. With a cart abandonment campaign, you can connect with a visitor that abandoned their cart and motivate them to complete the sale. 

People who have added your product to their shopping cart but don’t finish the purchase have incredibly high potential to become customers. 

Cart abandonment emails represent small business owners’ best opportunity to continue the conversation with valuable audience shoppers. Cart abandonment emails can generate conversion rates 3x higher than average automated flows. 

How to import a pre-built cart abandonment campaign into your AWeber account

AWeber has pre-built automated email campaigns — including cart abandonment campaigns — so you can automate your email marketing in a matter of minutes. To import the campaign into your AWeber account, simply go to the AWeber Marketplace and:

1. Import the pre-built campaign by copying the sharing code.
2. Then, go into campaigns. Click the green “Create a Campaign” button and select “Import a Campaign.”
3. Paste the sharing code you copied into the pop-up window. The cart abandonment campaign will then be added to your account.

Within the Campaign Options menu, you’ll be able to specify if a contact can enter a campaign once or multiple times. The multiple entries option is particularly important if you have a product that someone may purchase more than once. 

AWeber is an ecommerce company’s best friend!

AWeber makes selling ecommerce products powerfully-simple and easy. By instantly providing you the ability to integrate your email marketing with your ecommerce store, you can communicate with your audience in the time and space they choose to sell both products and services. 

AWeber works with all of the leading ecommerce platforms to help level the playing field for small and middle-sized businesses — including WooCommerce, Shopify, Paypal, Etsy, SAMCart, JVZoo, Warrior Plus, Clickbank, 3dcart, Stripe, and many others.

Use email marketing to grow your ecommerce business!

Whether you’re starting a new business, need to grow your audience, or you run an established ecommerce business, AWeber provides a powerfully simple email marketing solution for any small business.

AWeber’s email marketing platform includes unlimited landing pages with every plan, unlimited emails, email automation, sign up forms, and email analytics.

Sign up today for your 30-day free trial. 

The post Grow Your Ecommerce Business with New Landing Pages, Pre-Built Automation Series, and Email Templates appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

The world has changed. The way we interact, communicate, and exist with one another shifted rapidly over the past few months. 

But one thing has never — and will never — change for AWeber: our commitment to our team and the customers we serve. 

As we adapt to our new reality, we continue to look for ways to support our customers and team members as best we can. 

That’s why we made the decision to become a remote first team.

Below is the email I sent to our entire team this afternoon to announce our plans for the remote first future of AWeber:

The world is collectively dealing with the new realities that COVID-19 brings to daily life. Counties around us are turning to the yellow phase allowing businesses to reopen with new daily realities requiring masks and continued social distancing. Faced with this we must first think of the safety of our team, our families, and our customers.

Effective immediately, all team member travel is cancelled until at least September. There will be no in person team events until 2021. 

We must now grapple with how these changes impact our normal office activities. Lunches together don’t work, all hands doesn’t work, most conference rooms wouldn’t be big enough for a group, workstations must be spread out more, everyone must wear a mask all day long, even walking past each other in hallways too close together is an issue. Much of the interaction that makes being in the office beneficial puts our collective health at risk.

I’ve long said that remote work where part of the team is in an office and part of a team is remote doesn’t work. I still believe that. Teams in offices collaborate differently than those that are fully remote. Remote members get left out of communications that are necessary for them to be successful. If I was starting a software company in 2020, it would be a remote first company for a variety of reasons. With fewer geographical limitations we can find talented candidates wherever they reside, which also provides greater opportunity for success in diversity efforts. That geographic spread also affords greater diversity against weather, political, and other business interrupting phenomenon. Different cultures and ideas mix together to curate better ideas and more inclusive implementations that are representative of the diverse makeup of our customer base.

AWeber’s future starts today, as a remote first company in what is our biggest organizational change in 21 years. There won’t be a date for going back to the office, as we have no intention of going back and will from this point forward be working and hiring remotely.

None of us can pretend that the remote work we’ve been doing for the past 2 months is the same remote work we’ll be doing in 1-2 years as the world returns to a new normal. I think that most would say we’ve been pretty successful over the last 2 months as we made the switch relatively seamlessly. I believe that most people find collaboration and communication easier in person, but I believe it can be better when done fully remote. The easier collaboration of in person communication breeds bad habits with lack of documentation, word of mouth standards, mushy agendaless meetings, and undocumented decisions or next steps. A recent post by Matt Mullenweg of Automattic/Wordpress describing a remote team’s 5 levels of autonomy struck me. Right now our team exhibits many positive traits of these 5 levels, but with effort and more deliberate communication I believe we can rise to even higher levels.

This challenge excites me, and I hope it excites you as well. I ask that you approach this with an open mind and realize that this will require change within all of us. We must break old habits, form new ones, be transparent with each other about what’s working, what’s not, what we need, and what we don’t need. Say what you see, suggest improvements, and we’ll figure out together what works best.

How you show up to impact the world is not changing. What you’ve been doing for the past 2 months is what we need to do to keep moving forward. The only thing that’s changing is that there’s no longer a timeline for going back, as we’re already “back”. It’s important to remember that while we may not be in our building anymore, our building is not our culture. Our culture is defined by our core values and how we make decisions and behave as individuals, as a team, and as a force for change with our customers.

Use this change and the turmoil going on in the world around us as an opportunity to look at the world with a new perspective and new ideas of how we can make an impact. 

Our collective efforts in the past 30 days alone have put billions of opt-in permission based emails in inboxes around the world. Those messages during this pandemic connect teachers to their students, governments to their citizens, families to necessities, businesses to their customers and so much more. People around the world can be educated, be informed, be safe, be entertained, be fit, and be happy as a result of each of your daily efforts.

Cheers,

Tom Kulzer

CEO & Founder

@tkulzer

Our mission has never wavered. We remain dedicated to connecting people in remarkable ways by delivering powerfully-simple email marketing software for small businesses — so they can continue living their dreams, executing on their passions, and growing their businesses.

We’re excited to propel AWeber into the future, and can’t wait to continue creating remarkable experiences for our customers and team members.

The post AWeber Is Now a Remote First Team appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

Dogwood Adventure Play is a magical place for Dogs. Founder Katie Guastapaglia offers dog training, walking services, and private secure fields that include adventure play equipment and a sensory garden with dog-friendly plants. 

Due to social distancing rules, Dogwood Adventure Play had to pivot their business when they could no longer offer their dog training services in person.

While other businesses transitioned to paid online programs, Dogwood Adventure Play didn’t feel this was a good option. They had a small, disengaged email list, which would make it difficult to sell an online program.

Guastapaglia knew she needed to come up with a creative solution to stand out in the inbox and build her list. So she decided to create a 30 Days of Dogwood Challenge to help her audience train their dogs and keep them active during COVID-19.

Her new email challenge was a huge success, growing her email list by 110% and earning average open rates of 70%. Armed with a highly engaged, larger email list, her business now sells an online experience package — Scentventure a new online dog training program.

Learn the simple steps she took to create her email challenge and see the strategies she used to get an average open rate on her emails of over 70%.

9 strategies to grow your email list and increase email engagement.

Strategy 1: Test out a concept by focusing on your audience’s pain point.

Dogwood Adventure Play has two customers: dogs and their owners. During the lockdown, Guastapaglia realized that dogs needed to keep moving despite being in a limited space, and their owners needed a structure to provide activities for their canine. 

So she focused on the pain points her customers were experiencing and created a free 30 Days of Dogwood Challenge to help her customers and grow her list.

She used an AWeber sign up form on her blog to promote the free challenge and collect email subscribers.

Strategy 2: Consider creating a theme to make it entertaining.

To make her content more entertaining  for humans, Guastapaglia creates a new theme every month for her email challenge. For April, she used an Easter egg hunt theme.

Strategy 3: Include additional valuable content with your emails.

 For the 30 Days of Dogwood Challenge, each email contains links to content hosted on Guastapaglia’s website for users to complete their challenge.

If you create your own email challenge, your content doesn’t need to be elaborate. In her challenge, Guastapaglia includes simple PDFs her audience can download,  shares video on YouTube, and connects with her audience on Facebook Live and webinars. All of these tools are inexpensive and easy to use.

Strategy 4: Create a reward system for engagement.

In the 30 Days of Dogwood Challenge, participants are encouraged to share their challenge successes for a reward.  

To make it easy for users to post their successes, Gustopaglia created a private Facebook group.

Strategy 5: Add bonuses that allow you to connect directly with your audience.

Consider adding a bonus that lets your audience connect with you. For the 30 Days of Dogwood Challenge, Guastapaglia invites her audience to join her on a webinar so participants can ask her questions directly and discuss the training and challenges in greater detail. She even includes a pop quiz on the theme of the month to keep the event entertaining.

Strategy 6: Give subscribers multiple opportunities to engage with your content by sharing it more than once.

At the bottom of her challenge emails, Guastapaglia includes links to her previous YouTube video challenges to remind subscribers of past content and to give them another opportunity to participate if they missed a challenge.

AWeber allows you to structure your emails however you feel will most benefit your audience.

Guastapaglia has found that a roundup at the bottom of the email works well for her and her audience.

Strategy 7: Cater your email content to your audience’s unique needs.

Everyone learns differently, so Guastapaglia includes multimedia options in her emails: written content, videos, and tasks to do off-line. 

 “I think it’s the best way for people to learn. To give them options based on their learning style. There’s hopefully something for everybody,” says Guastapaglia.

Strategy 8: Personalize your email content.

Another strategy Guastapaglia uses to get high open rates is adding subscribers’ first names to the emails they receive. She alternates between personalizing the subject line and the body of the email. She only uses personalization in emails that are particularly important so as not to dilute the impact. 

 “I love using the customizable field to drop somebody’s name in the email. I have found my open rates are better when you can do that. it really makes a difference,” says Guastapaglia.

Strategy 9: Vary frequency based on the circumstance.

During the height of COVID-19 and when Guastapaglia was testing out her free 30-day Challenge product, she emailed her contacts daily. She felt people needed her support a lot more, and she was trying to help everyone through the crisis.

Connect with your own audience and start growing your email list today!

In your AWeber account you’ll get everything you need to grow your own business online — including sign up forms, newsletters, and landing pages. 

Start your 30-day free trial today.

The post 9 Simple Strategies This Dog Training Business Uses to Get 70 Percent Open Rates appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

AWeber + Elementor creates a seamless sign up form integration.

Connecting AWeber and Elementor requires absolutely zero coding experience — whether you have a free or pro Elementor account. With AWeber’s Elementor plugin, you can quickly grow your email audience and boost sales and easily embed sign up forms.

What is Elementor?

Elementor is a drag and drop page builder plugin that can be used on WordPress websites. It allows you to build custom page layouts and designs that may not be available in your current WordPress theme. 

Elementor replaces the basic WordPress editor with a visual front-end editor that allows you to create visually stunning web pages live without having to switch between the editor and preview mode. 

Web pages can easily be created by arranging blocks of content with the drag and drop tool. For additional customization, users can drag widget elements to create custom content, buttons, forms, and much more. Elementor users do not need to know code, HTML, or CSS.

Why AWeber and Elementor help to grow your business?

This integration allows you to easily add forms to your Elementor landing page and seamlessly integrate them with your AWeber account. 

You can drag and drop the AWeber sign up form into your favorite Elementor Free landing page. Elementor Pro users can connect existing Elementor forms to their AWeber account. 

All data collected on the signup form on your Elementor pages are added to your AWeber account automatically. 

If you use Elementor for your WordPress website, this update helps you grow your email list by quickly adding forms to web pages built in Elementor. 

Integrating AWeber with Elementor creates a seamless experience to collect visitor information, better understand your audience, and then tailor automated email marketing campaigns to each customer.

To take advantage of these awesome updates, you must have both the AWeber and Elementor plugins installed on your WordPress site. If you already have the AWeber for WordPress plugin, make sure to update to the latest version. The Elementor plugin, can be downloaded from the Wordpress plugin repository.

What’s the difference between Elementor Free and Elementor Pro?

Elementor’s free product works with all of the WordPress themes and includes 30 basic widgets.  Elementor Pro version is a paid option that includes access to the ‘Pro’ widgets, templates, customer support, and the WooCommerce ecommerce site builder. Below is a breakdown of the main feature differences between Elementor Free and Elementor Pro.

FEATURE	FREE	PRO SUPPORT
The #1 Drag & Drop Page Builder	✔	✔
30 Basic Widgets	✔	✔
50+ Advanced Widgets	✘	✔
Industry Leading Theme Builder	✘	✔
Design-oriented Popup Builder​	✘	✔
Visual Form Builder + Popular Marketing Integrations	✘	✔
WooCommerce Builder + Over 15 Shop Widgets	✘	✔
Dynamic Content & Custom Fields Capabilities	✘	✔
Motion Effects Inc. Parallax & Mouse Effects	✘	✔

Two awesome ways to connect AWeber with Elementor

AWeber + Elementor creates a seamless sign up forms integration on your WordPress site. You can use AWeber with both Elementor Free and Elementor Pro. 

If you don’t have the AWeber for WordPress plugin, install it now.

How to connect Elementor Free

If you are using the Elementor Free version, you can quickly and accurately pull over any AWeber form you want to use with no coding or manual copying of HTML. This option is also available to Elementor Pro customers.

The steps below outline how to add any of your AWeber sign up forms into your favorite Elementor landing page.

Step 1: Make sure the Elementor plugin and the AWeber plugin are installed on your WordPress website and  you’re using the latest version.

When you have the Elementor free plugin and the AWeber WordPress plugin installed, there will be an AWeber icon at the bottom of your Elementor basic elements options. 

Step 2: Inside Elementor, simply drag and drop the AWeber Widget onto the widget area in the middle of your screen.

The left side control bar will now reveal the AWeber configuration so you can access your AWeber account.

Step 3: Select your AWeber Form.

In the “List” drop-down, select the AWeber list you want to use from the options in your account. In the “Sign Up Forms” and “Split Tests” drop-down, select the AWeber form you want to use. The form you choose will load into the widget area on the main screen.

Elementor Pro

With Elementor Pro you can connect forms created in Elementor with your AWeber account, add tags, and configure custom fields.

Follow the steps below to integrate your Elementor form and AWeber.

Step 1: Launch your forms widget.

Click on the Forms widget in the left hand Pro section of your elements. Drag and drop the Forms widget onto the widget area in the middle of your screen. 

A form will load onto the widget area on the main screen. The left side control bar will reveal the form fields configuration options so you can customize your form.

Step 2: Configure your form fields.

The left side control bar will now reveal the form fields configuration options so you can customize your form. You can delete or add fields, or change the types of fields. Go to the submit button section to configure the button. You can select the text that will appear, size, color, and alignment.

Step 3: Connect AWeber to your form.

Go to  “Actions After Submit.” Click on the “Add Action” drop-down to reveal the options and select AWeber. After you click AWeber, AWeber configuration options will appear.

Step 4: Set up your AWeber Actions.

Now it’s time to set up what list you want to add subscribers to and the tags you’d like to apply to those subscribers. Select the AWeber list that you want to use. Enter the tags you want to use. Go to Field Mapping so you can map the data you want for each custom field. Click publish. 

When a website visitor clicks the Send button, the information on the various fields and custom fields configurations is sent to AWeber.

Are you considering switching to AWeber? With our built in Elementor support, you can simply point your existing forms to AWeber and you are ready to go.

Read our Knowledge Base article for more information on how to leverage the power of AWeber and Elementor.

Connect AWeber with Elementor today

Connecting Elementor with AWeber requires absolutely zero coding experience. It instantly provides you the ability to integrate your email marketing with your Elementor WordPress site. 

Your AWeber account includes everything you need to get started — sign up forms, landing pages, email templates, and pre-built campaigns.

Don’t have an AWeber account? No problem, sign up for a free trial today!

The post Big News! AWeber Now Supports the Elementor WordPress Plugin. appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

Naomi De Ruiter is a modern milkmaid who raises Jersey cows and teaches cheese making classes. She had to pivot her business model when new social distancing restrictions stopped her from having in-person classes.

AWeber’s Landing Page Builder allowed her to quickly test the idea of offering an online class and increased her daily subscribers by 75%! De Ruiter was able to launch a new online program that includes multiple products: virtual courses, physical products, and a continuity program of ingredients.

Learn how she pivoted Naomi’s Birdsong Farm to keep it alive and created a new revenue stream, even before the existence of virtual and physical products.

Time to test an essential business pivot to keep her business alive

De Ruiter was dependent on income from her cheesemaking classes, so she knew that she needed to step out of her comfort zone and transition to online courses. 

But De Ruiter knew she needed to grow her email list if she was going to pivot from teaching in-person classes at events to online events.

A question to ask yourself: Do you have a passion project or new product idea that you want to test out?

Promote your products and services with landing pages.

To promote her online classes, De Ruiter decided she would look into using a landing page.

“I thought, ‘This is perfect because I can use it to grow my email list, connect with people interested in doing online cheesemaking classes, and reach my target audience,’” says De Ruiter. To learn how to build one, De Ruiter signed up for one of AWeber’s free classes: “How to Create Persuasive Landing Pages That Grow Your Email List — FAST.” 

The class provided information and guidance on some items she had not considered — such as simple design techniques to create a landing page that stands out, copywriting tips to write copy that converts, and some of the most common mistakes people make with landing pages. 

The training was the push that De Ruiter needed, and she set up her landing page within minutes. The results were incredible. She increased her daily email subscribers by 75%

“I didn’t have any amazing results until I set up the landing pages and promoted it a little bit on social media. It was validation that this is a good direction to take my business. It was just mind-boggling,” says De Ruiter. 

De Ruiter even used the AWeber Landing Page Builder to create a thank you page people see right after they complete the form on her landing page. A thank you page only takes a matter of minutes to create, and it makes a lasting impression with your new subscribers.

A question to ask yourself: Is there an AWeber feature or task you need help doing? AWeber has on-demand classes you can view at your convenience.

Use email to seal the deal.

Email is considered one of the most effective digital marketing channels for building awareness and increasing conversion. But the foundation of any effective email is a strong email list grown with an email signup form embedded into your landing pages, website, or on your social media platforms. 

De Ruiter uses social media to introduce people to her brand and collect their contact information, but email is how she connects and builds a relationship with her audience. On average, De Ruiter has an over 40% open rate and 8% click-through rate on the email content she shares with her audience.

In her email, “Monthly Moo’s Letter”, she shares stories from her farm, special offers, and upcoming class information.

De Ruiter used email to invite her email list to participate in her free virtual cheesemaking class. After the free class, she asked her audience for feedback on how to improve the class. As a thank you for providing feedback, users were entered into a drawing for a $10 gift card.

De Ruiter incorporates best practices by making sure her list is healthy and engaged. If someone on her list is not actively engaging with the newsletter, she reaches out to make sure they still want to receive it.  If she does not get a response from the re-engagement campaign, she unsubscribes them and removes them for her list. As you can see from the example below, a re-engagement campaign only requires a few sentences and a link to track responses.

De Ruiter has unusual hours working on the farm, so she loves that email gives her audience the option to contact her through email at the time and place that works for them. And that she can respond to them when she has downtime from working on the farm.

Question to ask yourself: When was the last time you reached out to your inactive subscribers?

Test out an idea by offering a free class

Before charging a fee for her online class, De Ruiter offered it for free to test out the idea and work out any kinks. She was able to get feedback from attendees on how to improve the class. 

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of done. It is easy to get overwhelmed in the details instead of asking and assessing if the test you are doing could be a business pivot.  

To launch a free class, you don’t need an elaborate setup. De Ruiter hosted her class in her kitchen using WebinarJam.

Pre-sell online classes while you work out the logistics

If you need income right away, consider pre-selling online classes.  DeRuiter is currently pre-selling virtual classes she will be hosting in the following month.

She is specific on the check out page — explaining what is included and when the class will be released.  Based on feedback from the free course she presented, De Ruiter opted for an on-demand recorded class versus a live presentation. The pre-recorded option allows students to pause the video and follow along at their own pace. 

De Ruiter used email to introduce the paid virtual classes to her audience and had immediate results that confirmed she was on the right track. 

“I didn’t know what to expect because I’ve never offered something like this online. I sent the newsletter out on a Friday and by the weekend already had sales.  I was ecstatic,” says De Ruiter.

Expand your offering to increase revenue streams.

Connecting with your audience is critical to understanding how you might expand your offerings. DeRuiter took her business to the next level by offering the supplies that her students needed to make the cheese. DeRuiter offers a base kit, deluxe kit, and an ingredient refill option.

The idea for the kits came from audience feedback. A common question from the live classes was, “Where do we get the ingredients to make the cheese at home?” So while the kits certainly increase revenue, they also fulfill a need for students to help source the ingredients that they need to make cheese at home.

De Ruiter has found that 50% of her students upgrade from the base kit to the deluxe package. An additional 10% purchase the refill kit before they even take the online class.

Get time back in your day with virtual products and services.

De Ruiter is married to a third generation dairy farmer and works every other weekend tending her herd. Before offering virtual classes, she would be teaching classes on alternate weekends, which did not leave her any personal time of her own.

“So by using AWeber and transitioning over to online on-demand classes, I’m able to enjoy free time with my family and still earn an income,” says De Ruiter.

Create your own landing page and start sending emails today!

In your AWeber account you’ll get everything you need to grow your own business online — including sign up forms, newsletters, and landing pages.

Start you 30-day free trial today.

The post This Modern Milkmaid Used One Tool to Increase Her Daily Email Subscribers by 75 Percent! appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

The best copywriters write with two things in mind: their audience and the action they want their audience to take. 

That means great writers adjust their copy for each marketing channel. While many of the writing techniques and strategies are similar, writing a landing page that converts visitors into subscribers is not the same as writing an email, social copy, or a blog post.

To help you write high-performing content for your landing pages, we asked professional copywriters to share their best writing tips. 

Check out what they had to say. 

Landing page copy should help people solve their frustrations and achieve their aims.

Henneke Duistermaat, Founder of Enchanting Marketing

What I see going wrong most often on landing pages is that we’re so focused on what we want to sell, that we forget to explain WHY people may want to buy it. 

So, always start with sneaking into the mind of potential buyers: 

1. What problem do they want to escape? How does that problem make them feel?
2. What aim do they want to achieve? How will that improve their lives? 

A product bridges the gap between where people are right now and where they want to be. For instance, someone might buy a course to improve their LinkedIn skills because they feel they’re wasting too much time achieving nothing (that’s their frustration) and they want to get more interaction and quality business leads (that’s their aim). The landing page should describe what people will learn so they can solve their frustrations and achieve their aims.

When you align your offer with what web visitors want to achieve (and when you do so using their words), it becomes much easier to increase conversions. 

Always remember: People don’t buy a product, they buy a better life.

Related: Find out how to use your audience’s words in your writing.

Clarity will always beat complexity.

Amy Woods, Founder of Content 10x

Jargon and buzzwords sound smart, but do they sound like something an actual human would say – or buy? Would you hire a gardener or a grassland cultivation and management disruptor?

The best businesses sell their products and themselves in simple words.

Going into detail and using industry-specific language is not a sin – it’s just that you need to find the right place to do so. Your landing page needs to be laser-focused on what you do, who you do it for, and very importantly what problem you solve.

This means focusing on the end-state, not the processes and features. A gardener doesn’t sell 2 hours of horticulture, they sell a beautiful garden for you to enjoy and show off to your neighbors.

To make this clear you need to have ONE simple call to action – and make it fun! “Make My Garden Beautiful”, not “Enquire”.

Ask someone who’s never heard of your business before to look at your landing page and see if they can tell you those three essential points after 5 or 10 seconds of reading: what you do, who you do it for, and what problem you solve.

If they can’t, it’s time to go back to the strategic illustration and writing display solution… Sorry, the drawing board.

BONUS: Download our free guide “How to Write Landing Pages that Convert.”

Great copywriting joins the conversation already happening in customers’ minds.

Joel Klettke, Founder of Business Casual Copywriting

Great writers are great researchers. If an entrepreneur wants to write “amazing” copy, they need to understand the audience they’re communicating with inside and out:

• Who are they, really?
• What pain points are they trying to solve?
• What outcomes do they care about?
• Why would they see your solution as an ideal alternative to anything else out there?

Moreover, you need to understand these things in their own words. 

That means talking to customers through surveys, interviews, chat, review mining… doing the homework to learn how they talk about their problem, their need, and their ideal outcome.

Once you’ve done that, it’s less of an exercise in “wordsmithing” (gag) and more like building with Lego: putting the right pieces together to sell. 

Related: What is Review Mining?

The big mistake so many entrepreneurs make is assuming they know their market already. The things that are important to you as the entrepreneur may not matter to your audience as much as you think they do.

The way you talk about things may not reflect how they think. And that’s what great copywriting really is: joining the conversation already happening in the customers’ mind and subtly influencing the way they consider your offer.

And, landing pages need to be ruthlessly focused. Every line needs to earn its right to be there.

If you’re driving ads to a landing page or targeting a very specific set of keywords, then you’ve got a decent idea of the awareness level a lead is coming in at.

Everything on the page needs to be building a case towards a conversion (getting a lead to take action); there’s little to no room for waste. 

Answer these 10 questions to write awesome landing page copy.

Gill Andrews, Conversion Copywriter & Web Consultant

Answering these 10 questions will help you figure out what your landing page copy needs to say to convert prospects into customers to help you write awesome copy:

1. What is it that you’re selling?
2. Who will benefit from your offer most?
3. How much do your prospects know about their problems and your solution?
4. What problems does your offer solve?
5. What results do your prospects expect?
6. What reservations / fears do they have?
7. What criteria do they use when deciding whether to buy from you?
8. What words do your existing customers use exactly to answer questions 4-7? Use those words in your copy.
9. Why should they buy from you and not your competitors?  
10. Who are your competitors?

Related: 4 Experts Reveal How to Craft High-Converting Landing Pages

Write like a human to earn visitors’ trust.

Christine Otsuka, Senior Content Marketing Manager at Uberflip

Landing pages are designed for one purpose—conversion. So landing page copy needs to be both attention grabbing and persuasive. Here are a few tips to help you hone your conversion copywriting skills:

• Spend time writing a killer headline. This is the visitor’s first impression and if the copy doesn’t entice them to keep reading, the rest of the page doesn’t matter. 
• Keep it simple. Get to the point as quickly as possible and strip out any jargon or ambiguity. Aim to be clear, considerate, and concise.
• Write like a human. Use short sentences and write the way you speak. You want your visitors’ attention and trust, so be relatable.
• Lead with your value proposition. What’s in it for the visitor? The benefit needs to be  clearly articulated, aligned to their pain or need, and believable or specific to be persuasive.
• Empathize. Relate to your visitors’ problem or pain and show them your company understands and can help.
• Don’t forget your proof points. Use supporting copy to further describe the offer/product/service, support your value prop, and back up your claims with stats or testimonials. 
• Ask for what you want. Include a clear call-to-action that’s short and sweet (button copy should be three words or less) and makes it clear to the visitor what will happen next.
• Test for best results. A/B test the copy with a variation to maximize conversions. You can follow best practices all you want, but ultimately testing is your best bet to learn what works for your specific audience.

Related: How to Pinpoint Your ‘Hook.’ Find Your Unique Value Proposition in 6 Simple Steps

Write your own landing page today

AWeber’s Landing Page Builder makes creating a landing page for your business easy. Log in to your AWeber account, or start a 30-day free trial, to start building your landing page today.

The post How to Write Convincing Sales Landing Pages Even if You’re Not a Copywriter appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

EastVille Comedy Club is the only bonafide comedy club in Brooklyn, New York. They had their most profitable month to date until COVID-19 closed all non-essential businesses.

Standup comedy is unlike other entertainment. Comedians need to interact with their audience for standup to work. It can’t be a one-way conversation or presented without audience participation. So simply moving to online comedy shows wasn’t an option. 

Despite this, owner Marko Elgart found a way to pivot his business to create a new entertainment format with Comics Quarantined. 

Learn the 6 ways he pivoted his business to give his customers an entirely new and unique experience while providing a revenue stream that saved his business.

6 ways to pivot your business to create a new revenue stream using email

You don’t need to dramatically change your products and services to pivot your strategy during COVID-19.  Instead, when you pivot, re-imagine your existing assets and talents to discover additional opportunities to grow your business. A pivot can be one main shift in your business or a few different changes that reframe the product you offer and how you market it to your customers. 

 Below are the 6 ways EastVille Comedy Club pivoted their business to create an additional revenue stream.

1. Consider how else your business can solve your customers problems.

After New York state closed all of the comedy clubs, Elgart saw a video of a comedian performing standup in an empty comedy club. The performance lacked one of the most important elements of standup — audience interaction. But it did give Elgart and an idea on how he could pivot his business. 

Elgart created Comics Quarantined — a daily, live, interactive event. Two or three comics virtually interact with each other through Zoom. Comedians can see each other and the audience if they choose to turn their camera on on their computer or phone. The audience can interact with the comedians through chat. Comics Quarantined is always live and never pre-recorded to keep the experience authentic.

“It’s a very personal kind of connection that you normally wouldn’t ever be able to get. So it’s pretty cool. It’s a behind the scenes look into the comedy business. Giving people the socialization that social distancing has taken away,” says Elgart.

Question to ask yourself: Can you deliver your product or service electronically through an app, virtual tool, or streaming service?

2. Explore how you can expand using email to communicate with your customers.

Elgart’s email list became even more valuable now that his customer’s physical location is no longer an obstacle for connecting with his audience. Standup Comedy shows performed at his physical club in Brooklyn were primarily only of interest for his audience that was planning on visiting or living in Brooklyn.  He can now utilize his entire list for the first time since he launched his business. The audience’s geographic location is no longer an issue. 

Elgart uses email at every customer touchpoint and business interaction. Email marketing is the way EastVille Comedy Club built its business. “50% of my business comes from email marketing, so it is very big for me, and it is very important. There is so much content readily available, NetFlix, YouTube, and movies. It’s essential to have a way to remind people that there is something different that they may want to check out,” said owner Marko Elgart.

Pitching talent

Elgart even uses email to pitch his idea to the talent that he books on his daily live show.

Daily customer emails

Elgart sends emails to his customer’s daily to let them know about who will be on that show that evening. Elgart has tested different times and has found that the email he sends at 6 PM gets a higher response.

Question to ask yourself: Are you using email at every customer touchpoint?

3. Communicate openly with your customers and discuss how to support each other.

During a crisis, it is essential to be real, authentic, and transparent about your efforts to serve your customers. It also allows you to let them know how they can support you as well. 

Comics Quarantined helps to fund donations for local Brooklyn, NY COVID-19 charities and EastVille Survival Fund. Elgart set up the Eastville Survival Fund to help employees pay their bills until the EastVille Comedy Club can reopen. There is a donation form on the website ticket purchase page for Comics Quarantined where visitors can donate even just a dollar.

“I wanted to make it very affordable for people who are not working. Most people are donating more than a dollar, which is very nice,” says Elgart.

Now is the time to maintain a strong relationship with your customers. Show them you care in your newsletters, broadcast emails, and social media. Your loyal customers are champions for your company and essential brand ambassadors that can help grow your business with word of mouth.   

“We’re fortunate that we can present Comics Quarantined. Most businesses are just closed. It’s definitely providing way more revenue than we thought it would. We’re very happy with it,” says Elgart.

Question to ask yourself: How can I best engage and communicate with my customers now?

4. Stay true to your brand personality in all communication.

It’s essential that any message that you send is authentic and visually expresses your brand’s personality.  A big part of what sets Eastville Comedy Club apart is their brand identity. They achieve brand consistency across all their marketing assets with AWeber’s Smart Designer. 

AWeber’s Smart Designer was able to analyze and capture all of Eastville Comedy Club’s core brand components (logo, images, and color palette) to create a branded email template that matched the look and feel of their website. 

“I wanted something different. I was trying to create a theme consistent across my website, logo, and email template. I was able to keep everything branded,” said Elgart. 

AWeber’s Smart Designer is a free, intelligent design assistant that lets you automatically create an amazing-looking, branded email template in seconds by entering either the URL of your website or social media account.

Question to ask yourself:  Is my brand personality being expressed consistently when I communicate with my audience? 

5. Explore partnerships to expand your reach.

To promote their online comedy shows, Eastville Comedy Club utilizes a winning combination of email, social media, word of mouth, and a strategic partnership with TicketWeb, a division of Ticketmaster. 

Partnerships can help give you access to new customers and new markets.  By selling tickets through TicketWeb, new audiences can discover Eastville Comedy Club’s event when visiting TicketWeb.

The talent on Comics Quarantined also promote their appearance to their audiences, which helps to drive new customers. 

Question to ask yourself:  Who could I collaborate with to  create co-marketing opportunities to grow my audience?

6. Test out a new idea.

When Elgart decided to test the idea of Comics Quarantined, he posted it on his website and social media to see if anyone might purchase tickets.

What is stopping you from testing out a new idea or concept?  Don’t let perfection limit you from testing out your new ideas. Now is the time to experiment. Quickly launch new ideas with minimal investment. 

If you don’t have a website like EastVille Comedy Club, why not use a landing page to test a new idea. The AWeber Landing Page Builder allows you to create an unlimited number of landing pages and even host them for free. The AWeber Landing Page Builder is a free feature in your AWeber account.

Did you know that some of the most successful businesses were famous pivots?  Play-doh was originally a wall cleaner that pivoted to a popular children’s toy. YouTube started out as a video dating site. Twitter was formerly a podcasting network named Odeo. 

Eastville Comedy Club’s next pivot when the country re-opens is offering live streams of New York City standup to different areas of the country, like Philadephia, Tampa or Houston. Elgart has not figured out yet the logistics but you know when he does will it will have a different comedic twist.

Question to ask yourself:  What could I learn about my customers by testing out a new idea?

Try AWeber and start growing your business online.

You’ll get everything that Eastville Comedy Club uses to grow their business online — including sign up forms, email templates, newsletters, and landing pages.

Start your 30-day free trial today

The post How Email Drove 50% of New Sales for this Entrepreneur’s New Virtual Product appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

Your sign up form is the first step to gaining new email subscribers, and it can make or break a visitor’s decision to receive your emails.

So it’s important that the copy and design of your form is effective and can produce real results.

But often, it’s challenging to know what to write on your form and how to design it for conversion.

Whether you’re creating your first or your fiftieth sign up form, there are a few best practices you should keep in mind if you want to attract more subscribers. We’ve collected some of our favorite sign up forms in this post and explained what makes them work.

What is a sign up form?

A sign up form is a tool that collects a subscriber’s information via input fields so you can communicate with them through email.

You can use a sign up form to collect subscribers for your email newsletter, registrants for your webinar or event, students in your online course, downloads of your ebook, checklist or guide, customers for your products or services, or lead generation.

Which type of sign up form should I use?

There are a variety of sign up form types to choose from, and each has its own unique purpose. Here are a few of the most popular sign up form types and how they work.

Inline Forms

Inline sign up forms are forms you embed within the body of a web page. You can place inline forms anywhere on your webpage ⏤ at the top or bottom of your webpage, in the sidebar, or anywhere within the content of your page. You can place them on all pages of your site or on specific pages.

Pro tip: Use the AWeber for WordPress plugin to quickly and easily place your sign up forms on various pages of your website, and track the performance of your sign up forms.

Pop-up Forms

Pop-up forms are not embedded within the content of your web page. Instead, they appear or “pop up” at specific points during someone’s visit to your website.

These forms can pop-up or slide in from the side, top or bottom of your page. They can also blur out the surrounding page, or appear over the surrounding page without blurring it out.

Pop-up forms are a great way to increase subscriber sign ups because they grab your visitor’s attention, but they can also impact user experience. Fortunately, you can adjust the display settings of your pop-up forms so they are less disruptive to your website visitor’s experience.

Pro tip: Use the AWeber Sign Up Form Builder to create pop-up forms and customize the display settings. Or integrate a third-party service like OptinMonster, MailMunch, or HelloBar with AWeber.

Time-delayed pop-up

A time-delayed pop-up form doesn’t appear right away. Instead, this type of sign up form allows your visitors to view the content of your webpage before appearing.

When deciding on the ideal delay time, look at your web analytics to determine the average time on your site or page, and set the delay just before that. You don’t want them leaving your site before you present the pop-up form.

You can also control how often someone sees your pop-up form. For example, it can appear every time someone visits your site, only once, or every certain number of days.

Scroll-delayed pop-up

A scrolled-delayed pop-up appears after someone scrolls to a specific point on your web page. This type of sign up form allows your visitors to consume some of the content on your page before presenting the pop-up form to them. Because these appear after someone has scrolled down your web page, you can be confident that your visitor is more engaged in the content you’ve provided.

Exit-intent pop-up

An exit-intent pop-up form appears when someone is about to leave your site. This type of sign up form is effective at saving lost opportunities. If someone didn’t find what they were looking for on your website, you can present them with an enticing offer to encourage them to subscribe.

Two-step pop-up

A two-step pop-up form appears after someone has clicked a link or button on your web page. This type of sign up form typically sees high conversion rates because someone has intentionally clicked the button or link to receive the incentive you are offering.

Landing Page Forms

Unlike a website with lots of pages, buttons, and places someone can navigate to, a landing page is a single page with a single purpose: to capture subscriber sign ups.

Landing pages don’t typically have navigation bars, menus, or other links you can click on the page. The goal of your landing page is to keep site visitors on the page and encourage them to sign up. Your website visitor has two choices: subscribe or leave.

Landing pages are an effective tool to keep your visitors focused on one thing. You can use images, videos, text, and more to emphasize the value you will provide when they sign up. 

Pro tip: Use the AWeber Landing Page Builder to create your own landing page.

Where to put your sign up form

Using different types of forms can help to improve each visitor’s experience with your site. While some may immediately interact with a pop-up form, others might respond better to a form that’s embedded on your site.

When deciding where to put your sign up form, a good rule of thumb is to find the most noticeable yet natural placements that don’t interrupt the experience someone has with your website.

By keeping your form contextual — relevant to the user’s experience and the content they’re consuming on your website, without feeling intrusive — you’ll be able to take advantage of the opportunities when people are most likely to convert.

Where to place inline forms

Generally speaking, you should have an inline form on every page of your website in your footer or sidebar. No matter where someone is on your website, they’ll have the opportunity to subscribe to your email list. Typically, the incentive you offer on this form should  appeal to all of your visitors — even if they have different interests. For example, you could offer a 10% discount coupon in exchange for subscribing or your latest tips, tricks, and best practices about your area of expertise.

You should also consider having your main incentive highlighted prominently on your homepage, such as at the top of the page.

You can also add inline forms within the body of a web page. These placements work best when the offer is related to the content of the page — for example, promoting a 4-step guide to shooting DIY videos on a blog post about videos.

Related: 22 Brilliant Lead Magnets That’ll Inspire You to Grow Your Email List Right Now

Where to place pop-up forms

Because most of your traffic will first arrive on your homepage, consider adding a pop-up form to your homepage to capture as many of your website visitors as possible. This should promote your main incentive.

You can also place pop-up forms for your main incentive on other high-traffic pages. You can identify these pages of your website by using a website analytics tool like Google Analytics.

Additionally, similar to inline forms, you can also add pop-up forms that are related to the content of the pages your visitors are on.

How to write sign up form copy that gets results.

Your sign up form copy plays an essential role in highlighting the value you are offering your subscribers. To help you write copy that converts visitors into subscribers, follow these tips:

1. Use a clear, concise headline. 

There should be no question what subscribers will get by signing up. Make sure you use a headline to clearly and concisely convey what you’re offering and how it will help new subscribers.

In this example from Coconuts & Kettlebells, the headline clearly and concisely communicates  what the offer is: a free home workout program. The description highlights additional value points, including that it’s very comprehensive (72 pages!)  and that it will help you get fit and have fun from home.

• Type of form: Pop-up
• Type of business: Fitness blog and podcast
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

2. Clearly communicate the value

Below your headline, expand upon the value you will provide your subscribers. Explain how your offer will solve a problem or answer a question they have. Make sure you clearly show the transformation that will occur if they subscribe. You can do with a sentence or two, or a bulleted list.

This landing page from Stepmom Magazine does a fantastic job articulating the value to the subscriber by including bullets of the types of content they’ll send subscribers.

• Type of form: Landing page
• Type of business: Lifestyle blog
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

3. Set clear expectations.

Your sign up form should set clear expectations up front with your subscribers about what they should expect to receive from you now and in the future, and how often they should expect to receive it.

This not only reduces the risk of spam complaints or unsubscribes, but it also helps build trust with your subscribers.

Setting clear expectations as early as possible in the sign up process also helps you remain GDPR compliant.

This landing page from Cat’s Meow Village tells subscribers they can expect to receive fun, light-hearted emails every day for 21 days. As a subscriber, you know what to expect.

• Type of form: Landing page
• Type of business: Crafting & Ecommerce
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

4. Keep input form fields to a minimum.

Asking for too much information at the point of sign up can negatively impact your subscriber rates. Forms with fewer input fields are more likely to increase your conversion rates since visitors spend less time signing up.

In most cases, name and email address are all you really need.

But it also depends on your goal with your sign up form. If it’s to get a new subscriber, ask for name and email ⏤ that’s it! If your goal is lead generation, perhaps you can ask for more information to help qualify that lead. Think about your goal to determine how many form fields are right for you.

Asking for the subscriber’s name can allow you to personalize your emails. And keep in mind, you can always gather additional information from your subscribers later on.

Ann Handley uses a sign up form that’s quick and simple with two form fields to make the subscription process easy for visitors.

• Type of form: Inline
• Type of business: Personal brand
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

5. Let subscribers choose their preferences.

Letting your subscribers choose their email preferences can help with your email engagement rates because it allows subscribers to customize the kind of content they receive in their inbox. When subscribers are able to personalize their experience, they’ll get more value and engage more.

The Intrepid Guide’s sign up form lets subscribers choose their topic preferences, which can give them a more personalized email experience.

• Type of form: Inline form
• Type of business: Travel blog
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

BONUS CASE STUDY

When AWeber was looking to freshen up our popular “What to Write in Your Emails” course, some subscribers told us they’d prefer more frequent emails, while others requested less frequent emails.

So we decided to let subscribers choose their own course email frequency. Subscribers simply selected their preferred email frequency on the course sign up form. Then, email automation delivered their course emails at their preferred time.

This simple change skyrocketed engagement. Open rates increase by 47 percent and click-through rates increase by 150 percent!

Want to see how we did it? Check out our step-by-step explanation.

6. Use a clear call to action.

Use your call to action (or CTA) button to remind people of what they’re signing up for. A call-to-action button that simply says “Sign Up” isn’t just boring ⏤ it can be a total lost opportunity for attracting more subscribers.

When it comes to your CTA text, you have very few characters to work with – make them count!

First, the text on your CTA button should relate to the action your new subscriber is taking. For example, if you’re offering a free guide, your button could say, “Send me my free guide!”

Second, placing some urgency in your CTA can encourage visitors to take action. Think “Join now!” or “Yes, I want in!”

Third, using personal or possessive language on a CTA button can increase clicks. Phrases like “Send me updates!” or “Start my free trial” or “Download my free templates” help your soon-to-be subscribers connect with you.

Here’s an example of how Paul Kirtley uses possessive language and text that relates to the action a subscriber is taking on his CTA button.

• Type of form: Exit-intent pop-up
• Type of business: Travel blog
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

7. Visually represent your incentive.

People love visuals – 90 percent of the information transmitted to our brains is visual. A great-looking, branded sign up form will do a better job communicating the value of your business and help you get more email subscribers.

Being able to envision the tangible benefits of signing up to your email list can often be that extra push over the edge in a person’s decision to subscribe. Not to mention sign up forms with images receive 94 percent more views than those without images.

A sign up form with a visual representation of your incentive, like this one from Spoon Graphics, is an effective way to entice visitors to subscribe.

• Type of form: Pop-up
• Type of business: Design blog
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

8. Present an unfavorable alternative.

By positioning opting out as an unfavorable alternative, you can get visitors to think about the negative consequences of not subscribing and give visitors a compelling reason to join your email list. This copy can increase opt-in rates, because it positions subscribing as the better option.

This tactic works for pop-up forms or any type of form that can be dismissed. It doesn’t work for inline forms or landing pages.

This sign up form by Boast gives subscribers a discount just for signing up, like many retailers do. What makes this copy different is the alternative Boast gives to those who choose not to sign up.

• Type of form: Pop-up
• Type of business: Apparel
• Goal of sign up form: New purchases

If visitors don’t want to sign up, they can click “No thanks, I prefer paying full price.” at the bottom of the form. Who wants to pay full price? Not many people would like that alternative.

9. Write conversational copy.

Your website visitors don’t expect to see phrases like “Oh hey!” or “Hey you!” This copy attracts their attention, which you can use to hook them in and tell them what value they’ll get from being subscribed to your email list.

When you use conversational copy in your sign up form like Really Good Emails, it grabs the visitor’s attention and feels more personal.

• Type of form: Pop-up
• Type of business: Email design
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

10. Be creative, witty, or humorous.

Similar to using a conversational tone in your copy, being creative, witty, or humorous with your copy builds trust and allows your subscribers to relate to you more easily.

How Not to Sail uses creative and witty copy on his sign up form to delight visitors. Instead of using a button that just says “Sign Up,” this sign up form ties in the theme of his brand by using sailing terminology. The visitor will imagine themselves as a sailor climbing aboard a ship and sailing away.

• Type of form: Landing page
• Type of business: Travel blog and podcast
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

11. Use social proof.

Social proof is a strategy where you leverage herd mentality to convince people to take an action. If people see that everyone else is doing something, they’ll be more likely to do it themselves.

Social proof makes people feel good about signing up for your list. It gives them confidence that you’re not a spammer and that they’re making the right choice.

In the wise words of Peep Laja at Conversion XL, “No one wants to be the only idiot filling [out] your stupid sign up form.” So if you have the social proof, use it!

Nerd Fitness’s sign up form lets new visitors know that over 300,000 people are subscribed to their email list. Besides leveraging social proof, this also works because it builds trust. If visitors know that other people have signed up for their list (or read testimonials), they’re more likely to believe that they publish trustworthy and valuable content.

• Type of form: Inline form
• Type of business: Fitness blog
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

Design your form for maximum conversions.

Design can have a major impact on how people perceive your form. That’s because 90 percent of first impressions are based on visual or color cues alone.

In order to maximize your sign up form’s potential, here are a few things to consider:

12. Use a big CTA button.

The reality is that more than half of website visits come from mobile devices (source: Statista). So the chances your would-be subscriber is viewing your signup form on a mobile device are very high. Make it easy for them to easily enter their information and tap the button.

Mark Asquith’s sign up form has a big, bold button that reads “Download Now.” It’s easy to see, and, just as importantly, it’s easy to click or tap (including the checkbox).

• Type of form: Landing page
• Type of business: Personal brand
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

13. Create color contrast.

Using contrasting colors in your sign up form helps it stand out on your website. A bright color, like yellow, on a black and white website draws attention to the sign up form, which can increase the number of people who complete it.

Try using a bold color palette or font so that your form stands out from the rest of your content.

Teach Me To Talk uses a simple sign up form that easily spells out the incentive and value, while the color scheme attracts the attention of visitors.

• Type of form: Inline
• Type of business: Education blog
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

14. Use plenty of white space.

Give your copy room to breath by spacing out the copy, images, and form fields on your sign up form. This makes it easier for your subscribers to read and sign up, and helps your sign up form feel more professional, which can increase trust with your subscribers.

This sign up form by 1 Chic Retreat uses plenty of white space to give their copy room to breath.

• Type of form: Two-step pop-up
• Type of business: Fashion blog
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

15. Follow a hierarchy for font sizes and types

When writing headlines, subheads, and description text for your sign up form, it’s important to follow a typographic hierarchy for font sizes and types.

As described in this article by Canva, typographic hierarchy is the process of “organizing and formatting your type choices in such a way that readers or users can clearly see what’s most important, which enables them to easily navigate the layout at a glance and quickly scan to find the information they’re looking for.”

When done correctly, typographic hierarchy makes a sign up form easier to read and understand, and can help a subscriber quickly and easily see the value in signing up.

When it comes to font size, your headline should be the largest text, followed by your subheads, and then your description text.

Stick with 1-2 font types (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, etc.) on your sign up form. If you decide to use more than one font type, use a font type for your headline that stands out from the rest of your text.

This sign up form by FroKnowsPhoto uses good typographic hierarchy, with the headline being the largest font, followed by the subhead and description which are both a smaller font. He also uses various font styles (bold, italicized, all caps, etc.) to give visual interest to the text.

• Type of form: Slide-in form
• Type of business: Photography blog
• Goal of sign up form: New course students

16. Stick to 1-2 font colors.

Similar to font types, stick with 1-2 font colors on your sign up form, like the sign up form by the Daily Skimm. Too many font colors can be distracting and make it difficult for subscribers to easily read and understand.

• Type of form: Inline
• Type of business: News blog
• Goal of sign up form: New subscribers

Testing and optimizing your sign up form

Congratulations, you’ve published your sign up form! Give yourself a pat on the back. But don’t get too comfortable ⏤ your work is not done. It’s important to continually improve and update your form by testing various parts of it.

How do you know if your headline explains your incentive well enough? Or that your CTA button text is yielding the most clicks possible?

You can do some A/B tests (or split tests) to compare two versions of your sign up form and find out which one performs best.

Additionally, over time, your sign up form can become less effective because people will have seen it multiple times. If it didn’t entice them to sign up the previous times they saw it, it most likely won’t now. So every once in a while, it’s important to test updates to your sign up form with a fresh look.

Split testing your sign up form is easy and can help you easily optimize various elements of your sign up form.

You can test anything on your sign up form, including:

• Headline text
• Image vs no image
• Image vs video
• Description text
• CTA button text
• CTA button color
• Whether you ask for a subscriber’s name or not
• Timing of your pop-up form
• Placement of your sign up form

Pro tip: Use AWeber’s sign up form split testing to automatically perform an A/B test of your sign up forms.

Put these ideas into practice and watch your email lists boom.

Pin these sign up form ideas on Pinterest to save as inspiration for later!

With these nine ideas for a creative, new sign up form, you can bring a breath of fresh air to your website and email list.

If you’re looking for more strategies and resources for creating a sign up form and lead magnet, enroll in this short video course: Email List Growth Blueprint. It’ll help you build the perfect tools for growing your email list.

Updated 5/5/20

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