I bet you have heard it before: you need to capture emails from your blog visitors. It is the most effective way to implement your marketing plan. For many of us bloggers, 80% of visitors pop by once and never return. Getting their email address is the best way to develop a relationship with that person and win them over to customer status.
WP101: If you are getting started you may confuse asking people to sign up to get your blog posts via email vs. building an email list. If you want people to subscribe to your blog then use JetPack Subscriptions. The differentiator is that with a blog subscription the content is first live on your website, then pushed out to subscribers inbox.
An email list is most typically built with the intention of marketing your business, products or services. This communication is not live on your blog, therefore it can be more personal in nature and include special offers, product launches, in depth tutorials or educational pieces.
The most compelling argument for implementing an email capture program is that you own the list. Social media platforms change, people ebb and flow from it's use and restrictions apply (for example Edge Rank with Facebook). The reality is that we all use email. Your odds of getting someone's attention via email is pretty high, the typical person spends 13 hours a week with their email.
A pretty typical strategy to get people to initially hand over their email is to make 'em an offer they can't refuse:
- Ebook
- Pack of images
- Template (business plan, business pitch, social media sharing)
- Discount offer
- Free gift
- Video series
- Podcast
- MP3 download
Once you have created the offer, you need an awesome way to implement the project onto your website. Lucky for us, WordPress has some terrific plugins that are easy to configure and use.
1. Mailchimp
The Official MailChimp plugin by Crowd Favorite allows you to quickly and easily add a signup form for your MailChimp list. But MailChimp for WordPress has more customizable features than the Official Plugin.
2. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is the best lead-generation plugin for WordPress that allows you to create attention grabbing optin forms that convert. This is a premium plugin, but if you are serious about building your list, this has loads of options and features that will save you time and money.
3. Spokal
Get Spokal - this is more than just an email capture, it is a fully integrated inbound marketing integration platform. I probably should have included this in my Alternative to HubSpot post, but I like how you can insert email sign up forms right into the middle of blog posts with Spokal.
I use mailchimp and a subscribe box sits above the fold on my homepage. Works really well except the settings for the widget are a tiny bit fidgety.