An email list is the most valuable asset in your online business.

It’s traffic and sales on demand.

Did you know that in the last study Google conducted, the average client needed 11 points of contact with a brand before buying?

11(!)

Your future customers have to see you, your brand, your message, your website 11 times before they are ready to buy.

With the reach on social media plummeting, you need another way to contact your audience.

Email marketing is still the most effective way to create a relationship with your visitors and to transform them to leads, customers and loyal fans.

List building is a very extensive topic, but the basics principles are fairly simple :

1. Get your visitors to notice your opt-in form.
2. Bribe them into giving their email address with an offer they can’t resist.
3. Test and tweak the above.

How to get your visitors to notice your opt-in forms?

Putting an opt-in form in your sidebar isn’t going to cut it anymore in today's online market. You have to grab the attention of your visitor.

You can do this by using:

• A lightbox pop-up. Even though they have a bad reputation, they work! The number of subscribers you’ll get by using a pop-up versus an on page opt-in form is mindblowing. You should test this on your website.
• A Screen filler opt-in. This is a pop-up that fills the whole screen. It’s basically impossible for your visitors to ignore this opt-in form.
• A Scroll mat: This is an opt-in form that scrolls down from the top of the page upon page load and fills the whole screen.

How to bribe your visitors and get happy subscribers?

If you’re asking people for their email address simply to get “regular updates”, you’re missing out on a lot of new subscribers (and new customers).

A better way is to promise value in exchange for the email address.

This can be done by advertising an opt-in offer.

If you’re currently not having an opt-in offer or if your current opt-in offer is not working, check out our popular blog post: 7 Examples of Brilliantly Effective Opt-in Offers and How You Can Use Them in Your Business

How to test and tweak

Once you have an opt-in form that demands attention and an incentive for your visitors. You should start to test and tweak.

You’re not a magician and you can’t know what will strike a chord with your visitors. That’s exactly why you should be testing.

Here are some things to test:

• Headlines for your opt-in offers. For inspiration, you can take a look at these opt-in form examples and possible improvements.
• Opt-in offers.
• Types of opt-in forms.
• (Entry) animations on your opt-in forms
• One step vs. multi-step opt-in forms

Now it’s up to you! Focus on building your email list and you’ll see your online business grow.