Send to KindleOnce again this week I find myself defending the use of a pop-up email capture on my blog sites. I have been sticking to my usual mantra – blogging is a business and not a charity, no one forces you to subscribe to anything that your don’t want… if you use a pop-up you will know the drill by now 
Pop-ups help capture email but only when the reader is reassured.
For bloggers that are list building the email address is the holy grail, or so it would seem. Once you have someone’s email, more likely to return to your site than a one-time visitor. Visitors today are much more reluctant to hand out their email address to just anyone, and who can blame them? Some internet marketers email you “offers” several times a week and you find yourself slowly resenting their emails if you were not 100% into them when you subscribed.
How do you get someone to trust you enough to give you their email address?
What’s in it for me?
This is the most important question that a potential subscriber asks; “What do I have to gain, what’s in it for me?”
If you are offering a 50% increase in income by being on your email list, no matter how many emails they’re getting today they’re probably going to sign up for your list – providing you come across as credible and authentic. Come across like a sleazeball and no matter what you promise the would be subscriber you will still be waiting for opt-ins until the second coming with no success.
Your offer must be relevant – if you’re offering lessons on hair weaving and they have no interest in hair weaving, it doesn’t matter how good your marketing is: they’re not going to sign up.
The technique to using this method successfully is crafting a great offer. Make sure they know that the moment they sign up, they’ll get something valuable that’ll help them in their business, and deliver it immediately to their inbox.
The higher the perceived value of this offer, the better. Some examples of offers that have worked include free digital reports, free audio interviews and even free shipped DVDs. That doesn’t mean you should inflate a report to being worth $97 just for the sake of it, the offer really should be worth $97
Who Are You, Why Should I Listen?
With many people claiming to be experts on so many different subjects, it’s hard for people on the web to know who to trust. I know, I see enough of them claiming to be couriers when they have just bought a van and crossed their fingers, it’s no different online.
Why should they believe that you know what you’re talking about? What sets you apart from all the other “experts”; and why should they sign up for your list rather than someone else’s? In this situation I differentiate myself by explaining to potential subscribers that I too am a small business owner, that my “income” doesn’t come from selling ebooks or blogging training. It comes from using the techniques here to make my transport business more effective.
To overcome this potential objection start by sharing your experiences, qualifications, personality and most importantly results. What have you done in the past that would impress your potential customers? I know us Brits like to hide our lights under a bushel but we need to get over that, don’t be shy about highlighting your skills – but only if they are skills.
Reassurance – What Will You Do with My Email Address?
Once you have your reader’s email address, what will you do with it?
- Will you add it to a bunch of spam lists
- Sell it to internet marketers?
- Will you email them every day with sales offers?
- Will you give them high-value content, once or twice a week?
When it comes down to it, new subscribers just want to know that they’re going to have a positive experience as a result of being on your list.
Okay just to get this into perspective here – you don’t need to give them a detailed business plan about what you’re going to use their email address for. What you need to do is reassure them. Many bloggers have found that just one or two lines explaining to potential subscribers that they won’t be spammed, that they’ll only be emailed great content once a week actually increases their conversion rates significantly. Adding a privacy statement helps too. Often your email list provider (I use Aweber) will offer to add that in for you.
These are the three things potential subscribers need to know before they’ll feel comfortable enough to give you their email address.
If you do these things you build trust with your community and your opt-ins will increase steadily.
Sarah Arrow
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Spot on Sarah and really useful reminder. You’ve hit the nail on the head with ‘your experiences, qualifications, personality and most importantly results’ People buy from people at the end of the day and that is the key. I do agree that we are not very good at sharing our own good news stories but we are getting better. It’s definitely more British to find fault with everything you can and then moan about it
We are also living in a society that is breeding mistrust. I’m not sure where it comes from however I think it has something to do with people’s changing values. Don’t get me started with that one!
Thanks Lisa, yes, people do buy from people, they need to know who you are.
And yes, sadly, it is the British way to find fault rather than share praise, we need to get over that need to criticise everything we come across!
If there were a contest for the greatest critics in the world, we would find fault with it…
Thanks for dropping by
I find myself signing up for a lot more than I did before I started my business. I do read very carefully to find out what will be done with my email address and always appreciate knowing that I will never be spammed and will not be bombarded with several emails a day.
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I have to admit to disliking those pop ups – was just thinking there wasn’t one on this page when up it popped
Naomi Johnson recently posted..Social Media in Network Marketing
Ah but this one is gentle Naomi, it doesn’t convert as well as the aggressive ones but it’s more sensitive… just like me
I have an email address just for “newsletters” and there is one guy that sends me an email every 2 days without fail. Have been on his list 2 years and I have yet to unsubscribe and I never read them… have no idea what I was thinking of that day!
Thanks for dropping by and commenting, it’s appreciated
Can an offer be simply sheer interest? A readable blog is very enticing- it says it’s got substance and people buy this too.
I find myself ignoring the pop-up the first couple of times- but remembering it- reading again- and clicking. Why not? It’s a free world.
I think an offer can be interest – but it would have to be explained to the reader. I also get curious and click and I find if they are in my face too soon I just close the pop up and carry on reading. Some I find stalk you all over the place! I couldn’t go that far and have it chase my readers around the site.
Good sense and sound advice as usual, Sarah.
I’ve found that the freebies of varying types do act as an incentive, and that quality is the key to building confidence. Sometimes giving away more than seems sensible works really well, because people still want more contact to be sure they benefit most.
The challenge can be even greater when you are building up to a paid membership, and I am currently revising my ideas about how much is too much for free. Interestingly a lot of our readers are saying we don’t contact them enough with article snippets and reminders etc… so I need to get busy with the newsletters etc. as we seem to be too shy!
I’ve tried various means of getting email addresses, including Viper, which I didn’t like in the end, but I haven’t yet gone to pop-ups or pop-overs. I do tend to ignore them myself, though.
It is a very densely packed information filled world we occupy, for sure.
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Thanks Christine, that’s a very interesting area you bring up, about how much is free and how much is paid for. And your audience want to hear my from you – clearly they value the information that you send to them
Viper converted well over at Birds, was thinking of getting a Hello Bar in place as well as the pop up. I need to write the post about what pop up works best and why.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting
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Sarah Arrow recently posted..Why next day delivery guarantees cost your business money
I don’t yet use a pop up. Not because I disagree with how they work and what they do but for my own reasons. I think they can be super effective tools in building a list and you’ve made an excellent argument about why when you use them you really should be thinking of the person on the other end. I have to admit that I sign up for very few lists now because mostly I get marketing crap and nothing of value. The few I still subscribe to I have been weeding out slowly.
The deal is this, I don’t want to be marketed to! I want to get solid and valuable information. So if I sign up for your list that’s what I expect: consistently useful and valuable information.
OR I’ll simply unsubscribe. If you truly want to build a responsive and loyal list, don’t give them a reason to unsubscribe!
Thanks Sarah!
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Yolanda recently posted..I’ve Got Nothing to Say…
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Great point Yolanda, too much marketing and not enough content makes a reader unsubscribe and it’s variable as to what counts as great content.
For me solid, valuable information… well that would be Sean d’Souza and his list. I have read every single thing that guy has sent me. I also recently sprang the cash for his “brain audit” and it took a year of being on his newsletter to get me to open my wallet!
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Sarah Arrow recently posted..Why next day delivery guarantees cost your business money
Sarah, gaining and keeping someone’s trust is so important. I hate when I get a newsletter from someone I exchanged business cards with – that doesn’t give them the right to automatically add me to their list. I’m very careful with this regarding my own list, and I actually don’t even have a freebie right now. My newsletter list isn’t huge, but the people that are on it are there because they want to hear what I have to say.
I don’t like popups but know they are effective. Yours isn’t nearly as intrusive as the ones that pop up as soon as you get to the page – when you get the popup before you even see what’s on the site, that’s a turnoff.
The HelloBar can be extremely effective, but people are growing blind to that too – because the messages people put up there are almost always promotional.
Figure out what your readers want, and do that.
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Lisa Wood recently posted..Are you a spectator or a participant?
Thank for your wise words Lisa, much appreciated. I try and educate people about opt-in lists all the time, some times it falls on deaf ears sometimes it doesn’t. Failing that I get them to read UnMarketing and how Scott Stratten initially managed his email list, that usually gets through
Thinking a bit creatively, what could we do with the Hello bar to add value but not be promotional? How can we use it to help our readers get better value from our posts?
The one I have here and on Birds is very gentle, I must get around to writing the post about what one’s what works best, where and why.
Sarah, definitely a link to a freebie that doesn’t require an opt-in would be a value-added benefit for your readers. You can monitor the downloads and see what kind of response you’re getting.
Another option would simply treat it as a “new here” message – where you use the Hello Bar as a welcome and telling them where to go next.
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Lisa recently posted..Are you a spectator or a participant?
Sarah—I love the way you lay out the high ground (no spamming, offer value, full disclosure, etc.) in such a positive way.
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I sign up for oodles of lists, knowing how easy it is to unsubscribe, and I end up unsubscribing from many of them because the communications I get are spammy, poorly thought-out, and way too frequent. That just reinforces my resolve to retain my own readers’ trust.
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Hey Mary, thanks for dropping by
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I think it’s the spammy communications that make the whole staying in touch via newsletter aspect, sleazy. I have subscribed to some that just make your skin crawl, I think well I ain’t the sucker thats gonna get taken in. Gaining trust is vital to building a responsive email list and providing great value.
Sarah Arrow recently posted..Why next day delivery guarantees cost your business money
Awesome, sharing this. I’m in my infancy of blogging and very uninformed about all the things I should be doing lol. Your tips are really helping! Thanks!
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Hi Sarah
Interesting stuff.
Do people care so much nowadays about the “I will never rent out/ sell… blah, blah, blah”? I admit it used to be an issue with me but now much more important is am I getting value from being on this list or is it just wasting precious time?
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Some people do care, and newcomers need the reassurance. I know we are both on the email list of the guy I find a PITA, you have forwarded his emails to me but he still drives me nuts…
Gosh, I think it’s major, and I’m far from a newcomer. If I sign up for your list, I want to be given the info that my deets will not be shared or the chance to opt out of all the ways you propose using my info. I can’t possibly know whether the list will be valuable until I start receiving the content. That’s a risk I take because it’s easy to unsub. But if you’ve shared my data with heaven knows whom? I no longer have control.
I think we absolutely have to be clear with people that they are in charge and in control.
Twitter: themusclediva
I wondered about this too Lisa? Indeed although it’s seems good advice I wonder who has tested it? I’m pretty close to two on-line marketers one of whom always puts a I hate SPAM etc under his opt in box.
The other, however, claims to have tested both and finds that the vey mention of what is done with the opt in, in any form, reduces the numbers of opt-ins he receives. Moreover, he thinks it a cuckoo idea because if you decide to sell you business, or blog, where do you stand.
I have only run with the opt-ins with reassuring messages beneath them but intend to test this before jumping to conclusions.
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Great advice Sarah.
I add ‘what I will do and won’t do with your details’ to my privacy policy on my website and blog, as feel it’s really important to show people that you value the trust they place in you and your service. I feel this is important on websites and blogs (anywhere where we offer a newsletter option)
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“With many people claiming to be experts on so many different subjects, it’s hard for people on the web to know who to trust. I know, I see enough of them claiming to be couriers when they have just bought a van and crossed their fingers, it’s no different online.”
These are probably the truest words ever spoken.
I’m often asked “What’s the best thing about the Internet?” My answer is always the same. “The best thing about the Internet is that anyone can have a voice and have their opinion published”.
The next question is invariably “What’s the worst thing about the Internet?” My answer? “The worst thing about the Internet is that anyone can have a voice and have their opinion published”.
When someone agrees to receive your newsletter, they’re not just giving you their email address. They’re making an investment in you.
That investment is the time and effort that it’s going to take for them to read your newsletter every month.
That’s why it’s so important that when you blog you demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about and that your expertise really comes across. Then, and only then, will people trust you enough to make that investment.
Hey Charles thanks for dropping by, yes you are right the giving of an email address is an investment in the blogger and should always be seen as a reward and not a right. I love your quote, I may have to borrow it
I use Aweber for my newsletters, and I use their privacy statement. However, I’ve often wondered if the English language learners who sign up for my newsletter actually understand this privacy statement! It’s another thing on my list that I must do – write a simple privacy statement. I do have one on my website as well, but even that is probably more long-winded than necessary.
I hope my blog posts and About page demonstrate my expertise and help readers feel they can trust me with their email address, and that it’s worth investing their time in reading the newsletters. I certainly don’t sign up for newsletters lightly, so there’s no reason why I would expect anyone to do the same for mine.
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