TIPS TO CAPTURE & CONVERT TRAFFIC TO SUBSCRIBERS
Here’s a common question I get asked:
Shouldn’t I focus on traffic first?
Because if I don’t get traffic, I can forget about getting subscribers,
right?
Yes and no.
What’s not found can’t be subscribed to. So if your website leaks
traffic and is unable to capture it, no amount of traffic will help you
grow your email list.
From conducting webinars to doing live streams, there are several
strategies you can employ to grow your email list. I could write an
entire book on list-building strategies.
But none of these list-building strategies will make a difference if the
lead magnet you have on hand just doesn’t work. Or if your opt-in
forms and landing pages don’t “sell” your lead magnet. Set a solid
foundation with your lead magnet, landing page, and website before
trying out any list-building or traffic strategy.
As I mentioned at the start, the focus of this book is not list building.
The tips below will focus on bite-sized hacks you can deploy on your
website and social media so that both of those channels are
optimized to capture traffic. The idea is to make small actions that
cumulate to give your list a much-needed boost and set a solid listbuilding
foundation.
WEBSITE
Before you launch a lead magnet, you want to optimize your site as
much as possible. Don’t be defeated by opt-in blindness. People are
“blind” to opt-in forms because they see them in all the usual places.
You have to work harder at getting their attention. You can have an
attractive lead magnet and still not be able to convert traffic to
subscribers because you have a leaky website.
Here are places on your site that you can add an opt-in form to boost
your sign-up rate: • Top bar
• Footer
• Top and bottom of a post
• Exit intent pop-up
• Scroll box
• Below the header or within the header area
• “About me” or “Start here” page (this is one of the most visited
pages on your site) • Resources page
There are plenty of ways to get opt-in forms on your site. Some
email service providers provide opt-in forms, but you could also use
separate plug-ins like Thrive Leads, Bloom, or PopupAlly.
Use Landing Pages
While opt-in forms are good at capturing readers, they don’t have the
converting power of landing pages. An opt-in form is usually
embedded within a blog post or on a website. Have a look at the
diagram below. Think for a second about all the distractions—
images, links, sidebar posts, footer, and logos.
A landing page, however, has no navigation bar or external links.
Have a look at the diagram below. The focus of a landing page is to
get someone to opt in to your lead magnet. This is why my landing
pages convert at 30–80% compared to my opt-in forms, which
convert between 5–20%. So you definitely want to use landing pages
to promote your lead magnets.
Note: The conversion rate is the number of people who sign up for
an opt-in incentive divided by the total number of people who visit
the opt-in form/landing page, as a percentage.
To craft your landing page effortlessly and not have to stare at a
blank template for long, you need the following elements: • The title
of your lead magnet
• The main benefit or main promise of your lead magnet
• What your lead magnet teaches or what your subscribers will learn
from it?
o What will they achieve or overcome by consuming your lead
magnet?
o What pain points or problems does your lead magnet solve?
o What desires or motivations does your lead magnet fulfill?
o What mini transformation does it give?
• Testimonials for social proof
• A screenshot, mock-up, or visual of your lead magnet
Note: You want to convert these benefits into 3–7 bullet points.
These bullet points should begin with an action verb, with “how to” or
“why,” or with a number. They should also include specific details
such as page numbers or time stamps in videos where key
information is found. For example, • How a 20-minute video
recording turned into my first digital product that brought in
$36,429.56 in the first month • 13 limiting beliefs that keep 99% of
people from ever launching their ecommerce store—and how to beat
them (Hint: You’re probably suffering from at least 5 of these) – pg. 3
• The ONLY two blogging rules ever (seriously, if you ignore these it
will take you YEARS to launch your blog and business!) – 1min
37sec
Your landing page should be a reflection of the words and sentences
your target audience uses to describe their pain points. When it
does, your target audience recognizes and identifies with the
problem. Your lead magnet also becomes immediately more
attractive.
Once you have these elements, it’s easier to create your landing
page.
Add Opt-In Forms or Content Upgrades to Your Top 5–10 Most Trafficked Posts
You can find out what these are by going to Google Analytics >
Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.
This gives you a chance to capture the bulk of the traffic that comes
to your site even if you don’t have the time to add content upgrades
to each and every one of your posts. Your opt-in forms should have
a mock-up of your content upgrade or lead magnet as well as
mention the benefits in attractive bullet points. Here are two
examples of opt-in forms on my site.
Add a Link to Your Main Lead Magnets in Your Navigation Bar
Your navigation bar is immediately visible to your site visitors. By
adding a heading such as “FREE COURSES” or “FREE REPORT”
on your navigation bar, it prompts more people to click through to
them.
Create a Subscribe Page
This is a page dedicated to promoting your email list. A subscribe
page should have • A strong headline that states the benefits of your
email list.
• An indication of what they can expect to receive in return for their
email address. If it’s a digital report or guide, a mock-up or image of
it should also appear.
• A sample or two of the emails that you actually send out. (Optional)
Here’s a link to my subscribe page:
http://www.meerakothand.com/blogging-strategy/.
Use Your 404 Page to Build Your Email List
Broken links can scare potential readers away from your website.
Get a plug-in like 404page—a smart custom 404 error page that
allows you to change a WordPress page into a custom 404 page.
Then add an opt-in form on the page.
MAKE SHARING YOUR POSTS RIDICULOUSLY EASY
The more you get your posts in front of people, the easier it will be
for new readers to subscribe.
Add Click to Tweets within Your Blog Posts
Click to tweets are quotes or punchy sentences within each post. If
you use the Social Warfare plug-in, you can easily create click to
tweet boxes within your posts like I’ve done here. You can also do so
by downloading the free Click to Tweet plug-in.
Add Share Links to Emails, Thank-You Pages, and within Lead Magnets
Here’s how you add share links:
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=INSERT
YOUR LINK
It’s as simple as that. You can hyperlink that link to a word, Facebook
icon, or image. Whenever someone clicks on it, the Facebook
window will open up with your image and link.
Twitter – Head to Bit.ly and shorten the URL of your landing page.
Then head to Click to Tweet and type in a custom tweet.
See how I’ve done it on this thank-you page.
KEEP PEOPLE ON YOUR SITE LONGER BY ADDING RELATED POSTS
The longer your readers are on your site, the higher the chances of
them signing up for a content upgrade or a lead magnet.
Add UpPrev
This is a free plug-in that recommends a post to your readers at the
bottom of the page. This is how it looked on my old site.
Add Related Posts
I use Related Posts by Zemanta, which adds images of related posts
right at the end of the post. See the image below. Another similar
plug-in you can use is Contextual Related Posts.
Make Use of White Space by Adding a Sticky Sidebar Widget
How do you make use of the white space in a sidebar after a reader
scrolls down a certain portion of the page? You can do this by adding
a sticky widget such as the Q2W3 Fixed Widget. After activating the
plug-in, go to Appearance » Widgets and click on the widget that you
want to make sticky. This will give you a sticky, floating widget that
follows along the length of the page with the reader.
Remove Categories from Your Sidebar for New Blogs
If your blog is new and you don’t have a lot of posts, don’t add
categories to your sidebar. When a user clicks through, it doesn’t
reflect well when there are only one or two posts in each category.
Don’t clutter your sidebar with several opt-ins, banners, or affiliate
products. When you give readers too many options, they take none.
Remove Unnecessary Widgets
Avoid adding unnecessary widgets like Facebook or Pinterest
widgets that make the reader click away from your site.
Share Landing Pages in PR Activities
If you’re doing a guest post or are featured on a podcast, share a
landing page in your author bio rather than your home page link so
that you convert more new readers to subscribers.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Add Your Landing Page Links to Your Social Media Profiles and Pages
Rather than send people to your home page, leave a link to your
landing page or subscribe page in your social media profiles.
Share Your Lead Magnet on Social Media
Don’t just share your articles and posts on social media. Make
separate images for your lead magnets and share those as well.
Create a description of your lead magnet and share it within
Facebook group promotion or share threads. The link you want to
send people to is your landing page link.
Add a Sign-Up Form to Your Facebook Business Page
You’ve probably noticed the call to action button appearing under
your cover photo.
This button can be customized to show a variety of calls to action
such as “Send Message,” “Contact Us,” “Sign Up,” and more. Simply
hover over the button, select “Edit Button,” then click “Sign Up.”
You’ll now be asked to provide a link to your landing page, and that’s
it!
Now whenever someone clicks on the “Sign Up” button, they’ll be
taken directly to your landing page.
Promote Your Lead Magnet on Your Facebook Cover Photo
Your cover photo is one of the most valuable pieces of real estate
you have on your Facebook page. I’ve seen several entrepreneurs
promote their lead magnet on this cover page with a captivating
image and a short link. This link directs readers away from Facebook
and on to your site.
Share Your Lead Magnet on Pinterest
The pin image that you share does not need to be one that’s found
on your website. You can create 2–3 separate vertical pins
promoting your lead magnet. Write a compelling description with
keywords. Head over to your Pinterest profile, find the “plus” sign
and upload your image. Link the image to your landing page.
Here are three examples of pin images that lead to landing pages.
These take readers away from Pinterest directly to my landing
pages.
Promote Your Lead Magnet on Your Twitter Cover Photo
FAQ 7: I have thirty thousand page views a month but get only forty-two subscribers for an ENTIRE month. What am I doing wrong?
What’s important in list building isn’t the different tactics you use but
your list building foundation. Here's what I mean by foundation: 1.
Are potential subscribers familiar with the words you’ve used on your
landing page and opt-in forms? Can your audience see themselves
in the problem you’re describing?
2. Is this something they want (NOT need)?
Does your opt-in incentive solve a burning pain point or is it
something you think they need? Do they immediately recognize that
they need this?
3. Do the words used on the call to action button prompt action or
does the button say “Subscribe Now”? (I've seen several sites that
still use the Subscribe Now button) 4. Is your site optimized?
Traffic is good. But are you able to convert that traffic into
subscribers?
5. Do you have a landing page with an attractive headline and does
it clearly spell out the benefits of the lead magnet?
A landing page is distraction-free which means you'll be able to
convert more traffic, but you need to have a compelling and
attractive headline.
So there are lots of things that could be wrong, and you may need to
analyze the issue on a few fronts. Have a look at your opt-in forms
and landing pages and run them through these points. What do you
need to improve on? Where are you stuck?
ACTION
1. Where are you missing out on opportunities to grow your list? For
example, posts with no content upgrade, no opt-in incentive?
2. What methods will you use to capture traffic from your site?
• Footer
• Exit intent pop-up
• Top bar
• Sidebar
• Header
• Below the header
• About page
• Resources/tools page
• Top and bottom of every blog post
• Others
3. What channels will you use to promote your email list? Note: If
you’re starting out, pick one platform first. Once you’re getting a
steady number of subscribers from that source, move on to work on
another platform. Don’t spread yourself too thin by working on
multiple platforms at the same time.
• Influencer outreach
• Guest posting
• Others
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