13 High Converting Locations To Build Your List with Email Signup Forms

What is the best way to get more email subscribers to your site?

Use email signup forms.

But what most people don’t know or don’t do very effectively is placing the sign up forms to maximize the number of sign ups. Perhaps you have too many or they are somewhat invisible to potential subscribers.

So where should you put them?

There are 13 high converting locations to put your email signup forms and build your list. Let’s go through each of them now.

1. Feature box

The feature box concept has been made quite popular by Derek Halpern and is essentially a email sign up form that occupies the feature space above the fold of your website and lets people know exactly what they can expect.

2. Sidebar

The sidebar is a popular location for email signup forms but it is critical to have it located right at the very top of the sidebar. In fact you will loose valuable subscribers if it is below other content or ads.

3. Before The Single Post

Now this may not be very obvious but for readers who may be returning to your site without having previously subscribed, this serves as a reminder to subscribe to content that they obvious like since they are coming back and to keep in touch.

4. After The Single Post

This is a great location to place an email signup form. The reader would have just finished reading through the article and would now be more likely to want to receive more. That is if they should like your content. Think about it – a new reader who perhaps found your site through a search query or referral is more likely to take action when they are keen on taking it after having gone through your great content.

5. In The Footer Of Your Site

The footer is another location where a lot of sites miss out on the potential for gaining valuable subscribers. Think about it – if they have made it all the way down to the footer of your site then they are more than likely to be engaged with your content. If they are engaged with your content then they are likely to be primed to take action if you ask them to subscribe to receive more of your great content. So put an email signup form in the footer of your site.

6. Email Signup On your About Page

Chances are that the about page is one of the most visited pages on your site. If you don’t think so, take a look at your analytics.

Given the traffic that the page receives it only makes sense to include an email signup form on the page. In fact don’t just add one email signup form add more than one giving people the chance to sign up after you tell them what the site is about , what content, services or products they can access and again after you introduce yourself and or your team. To get a better idea, check out my about page.

7. Resource page

A resource page is really a webpage that lists content around a particular theme or topic that your readers find useful and is a fundamental part of what you offer or teach. Such pages tend to attract traffic and including an email signup box at the end of the resource page will allow for more sign ups once they have read through your resource page.

8. Menu bar

The menu bar tends to attract a fair bit of attention as people scan your webpage for additional options.

Now think about this – if increasing email subscribers to your list is a core focus, does it not make sense to have a page dedicated to explaining in some detail what you are offering and the benefits of signing up?

So put a link on your menu to the landing page which promotes email signups.

9. Video

Yes, I did say video, videos are incredibly popular these days and if you include video tutorials or have a tv channel as an additional means of content that also gets featured on your site, then here is an excellent opportunity to grab emails.

Lead Player is an excellent wordpress plugin that allows for an email sign up box to appear during the initial, middle or end of your video, it also has a bunch of other cool features that are well worth checking out. It is also a breeze to add the email signup forms to existing videos.

10. Hello bar

You’ve probably seen a little bar across the top of certain websites. It could be a Hello bar or a Viper bar.
When people visit your site you can grab their attention with the Hello bar or Viper bar.

Watch your conversions with these as they can drop if they remain unchanged, so consider varying content on the bar to see what works best. Also just so you know the Viper bar whilst free only works with Aweber, mailchimp and Feedburner.

11. Light box pop up

Yes I said the Light box pop up or modal box as some people call it.
Depending on the niche you are in, it can work well and is a great way to get email subscribers. It can work quite poorly in some markets as readers find it annoying but it is well worth testing out.

I find traditional light box pop ups quite annoying as well but am loving a new alternative that works well on wordpress sites called unpop.

12. Content blocker

Now let me say up front that this method is not for everyone or every niche. If you do have a great deal of traffic and are producing some valuable content that you really just don’t want everyone to access for nothing in return then using a content blocker may be the way to go.

A wordpress plugin called wpleadmagnet is an excellent option that simplifies the process of content blocking with an email sign up form.

13. Exit pop up

The exit pop is another often overlooked way to get email sign ups. But given that it takes so much work to get traffic to your site doesn’t it make sense to maximise the chance of getting their email address, even as yet plan to exit your site.

The wordpress plugin wpleadmagnet offers this option as well. Once again this works well in certain niches so testing is recommended to watch conversions.

So this leads us to the question – which email sign up forms should you use?

Well there is no one answer that fits all. It is very much niche or industry specific. So I do recommend testing them out to see which ones work best.

At Sproutworth we do not use them all. The reason we work with tech savvy people like you and you know where my sign up forms are when you need them.

However if you are in another niche like real estate or finance for example, your audience may not be as savvy as you and you could be more aggressive.

Now what about your website…

Where do you currently use sign up forms on your site?