If you’ve stopped by my site before, you probably noticed I write a lot of blog posts to help convince my audience that building their email list is in the best interest of their blog and business.
So today’s post is for those of you who got the message loud and clear. You heard list building is important because it will help grow your connection with your audience, boost blog traffic and content shares, and help to grow your client list or product sales.
You’re on top of your game so you put time into setting everything up and adding opt-ins to your site. Maybe you even added on a freebie as incentive. But still…sign-ups are moving like molasses. Like your freebie is a flu shot + two slices of week-old pizza.
I know this can be discouraging, but don’t panic and don’t give up. It’s fixable! There are a few adjustments you can make to your site design, your opt-ins, and your blog content to help get things moving faster.
Check your site to see which one of these might be the culprit . . .
Readers don’t know what you do
This is more of a website problem than a list problem. People won’t waste their time digging through your about or services page to figure out if you can help them or not. Your site title, tagline, homepage, and blog sidebar should be loud and clear about what you do and who you do it for.
This may mean you need to get more specific with your niche. If you’re a life coach, you could be helping anybody with anything, which means you really help no one. If my problem is getting past anxiety or creating healthy relationships, I’m going to go off in search of someone who specifically helps with those issues. That might not be you, which is totally fine, but if it is, it needs to be immediately clear.
Readers who come to your site and see everything directed at fixing their specific problems are more likely to sign up for your list AND they’re more likely to hire you, purchase your products, share your content, and be an all-around awesome and engaged member of your community.
They don’t know what you send
“Newsletter,” anyone?? If your opt-in says anything like “latest news,” “weekly updates,” or just “subscribe,” THIS is your problem. And it’s a big one.
Because you’re going to be showing up in subscribers’ inboxes often, you need to be specific about what you send and how they will benefit. Don’t think of it as getting readers to give you their email. Think of it as providing them with the opportunity to get even more of your great content, tips, advice, ideas, support, and motivation, and let them know what they can hope to learn or accomplish with all that good stuff.
Add one line of text to all of your opt-in boxes that explains what you send, how often you send it, and how people will benefit by subscribing.
They don’t trust you enough to hand over their email
Can you really build enough trust on someone’s first visit to get them to join your email list? Absolutely! You can make this happen by creating a professional-looking, clutter-free site design with high-quality photos and graphics. The photo you took of your cat at 9pm at night…(unless you are a professional photographer with a lighting kit) is not gonna cut it. You must be clear about your expertise and experience, and your blog posts need to be jam-packed with great info.
You need to leave new readers thinking, “Damn! This person knows what they’re talking about!” That thought easily turns into an opt-in.
They haven’t found your opt-in box
Ideally your email opt-in should be in 3 spots on EVERY single page of your site. THREE. Generally, this means your site header or blog sidebar, site footer, and somewhere in between. Even on your about page, start here, and services page.
If you only have an opt-in on your homepage and people enter your site through a blog post, they’ll never see it. If you only have an opt-in in your site header and readers scroll down while reading, they might never scroll back up. The opportunity to join your list needs to be present whether they stop at the top, middle, or bottom of your site.
There are too many opt-in fields
This is an email list, not a 20-question survey. Ask for their email and maybe their first name, and THAT’S IT. Seriously. If you want tons of other info, head over to Typeform.com and go to town. People expect certain things to work in a certain way. So when they go to join your email list they expect that it will take all of five seconds. If you ask for tons of information, it feels like THEM giving YOU something instead of the other way around.
