Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. Running a business can be challenging, and it takes hard work and perseverance to achieve a high level of success. And that is not the only challenge you are going to face. In today’s competitive world of Internet Marketing, building an email contact list is more important than ever.
The bottom line is clear; If you are not building an email list, then you are definitely going to fail. Period.
You may place the multiple call to action banners but you are still not able to convert your visitors into followers … the one that subscribe to your email and newsletter. Continue reading and I will share with you one trick that could potentially double or even triple your sign up email sign up rates.
For the record, I am a huge fan of pop ups and it is a know fact that pop up helps to increase your sign up rate. Personally, I consider it as an intrusive but effective marketing tactic. I received a number of emails and even social shouts that at times, my pop ups aren’t working proper and this is really annoying for readers.
It didn’t took me long before I decided to remove the pop up but just like any other greedy marketers out there, I decided that I got to do something about it. I need to cut or reduce any potential loses.
Generating lead and email contact list building strategy
I have been a huge fan of Neil Patel and I came across this article, How to Convert Blog Readers Into Customers which is great. Neil listed several highly effective call to action methods which are great but I wanted to think out of the box.
And so I thought, “Hey, if I am able to make my readers interact with me, I would stand a higher chance to encourage them to sign up for my newsletter!”
I decided to scout through the list of Internet Marketing tools I have experience with and decided to stick to one that I had been using for some time now; Lead Converter.
Building email contact list using Lead Converter
Lead Converter is a great marketing tool as it offers analytics, widgets and engagement tools. The analytic works exactly like Google Analytics while widgets allows you to build specific widgets to automatically show up on your site which I will explain shortly. Lastly, engagement tool is a feature where it allows live chat with your visitors.
Want to know more about Lead Converter? Sign up for free here!
Lead Converter allows you to build many engagement strategies using the widget options such as:
- Top bar (alternative to the famous Hello Bar)
- Questions and answers pop up boxes
- Discount offer boxes
- Survey options
- Lightbox
- InPageBox
- eBook option
- Yes/No question boxes
And yes, you are right. 8 different type of engagement options which you can integrate when it comes to building an email list.
Note: Widgets in Lead Converter is not the same with widgets on WordPress.
I decided to use only one which is the ‘Yes/No question‘. Basically, a small box will pop up on the bottom right of the page within 2-3 seconds after the page load.
Here’s the text I used:
You seem interested in reading my blog post. Would you like to sign up for my FREE newsletter?
> Yes [Please key in your email]
> No [Tell me what to improve]
As you can see, I started a simple conversation and then emphasized on the word ‘FREE’ with capital letters. To further increase the effectiveness of this method, I gave my visitors a ‘yes-no’ choice and even ask for feedback.
Now tell me, how many birds did I kill with this method?
I got my first feedback within an hour and I was getting around 5 feedbacks out of an average of 500 visitors on a daily basis. Out of every 5 feedbacks I get, half of them would actually signup for my newsletter. This proves that I would have around 0.5% success to get a new subscriber.
The conversion rate is low (call me greedy) but I get additional feedback daily and I started to understand what my readers are looking for and what they are expecting! For the visitors, they are happy as they felt their view points are taken into consideration.
What did I learn from this email marketing strategy?
- Making small conversation before even convincing visitors to sign up for mailing list works like charm
- Express your willingness to listen to their feedbacks is a huge plus point
Related read: How to increase conversion rate by Ben Hunt
Generating leads (indirectly)
I am not sure if you are aware on this but Lead Converter is a great tool to generate leads.
Do you need me to remind you the importance of creating good leads? I bet you know that already!
Imagine changing the ‘asking feedback’ to a more specific question such as “will you buy this” or “will you recommend this product to your friends” to name a few. The sky is basically the only limit if you are a real imaginator.
Lead Converter comes with a live chat feature which is an absolute must have for any marketer and the ability to chat with any of your visitors at any time during their visit to your site is a killer move.
Now, here’s a food for thought moment.
From the above, how far has your imagination brought you to? Tell me using the comment form below!
What are issues I came across when I am using Lead Converter?
Firstly, Lead Converter takes up approximately 4 HTTP requests per visitor’s impression. Even though 4 requests might be small, it could still affect your website loading speed. Through my experience using Lead Converter for some time now, there are times where each of these HTTP requests are slow to respond.
Secondly, the free Lead Converter account comes with just 50 clicks per month. This means that even thought I have a good email marketing strategy, the limitation is and will affect my results. The figures are calculated based on the number of engagements instead of impressions.
If you are deciding to use Lead Converter, I would highly recommend it. However, bear in mind that when you hit the limit, the widget option will automatically be disabled until the next cycle. For a new blog, I would say 50 clicks of engagement could be relatively enough but again, that’s just what I think. You could easily have a more engaging audience … so to say!
Bonus Tip – AWeber as alternative in building email list
With the limited clicks offered, I got to change my game plan and AWeber is my next option. Even though AWeber do not have a diverse option like what Lead Converter has, I could still leverage from AWeber with their Lightbox feature.
Now, make no mistake as Lightbox is often considered as a pop up. I know many readers hate pop ups but with such a great conversion rate, is it really worth using it?
For me, it wasn’t really an option as my Lead Converter quota usually hit the max even before reaching middle of the month and therefore, it was a no brainer for me to utilize AWeber to the maximum.
With proper configurations, AWeber inbuilt forms are great alternative to Lead Converter. From the point of view of a webmaster, building an email list with AWeber could be a better choice as it has lower HTTP request.
Heard about AWeber and tempted to try it? Click here to try it for $1 or 30 days money back guarantee!
Pro tip: Setting the timer to for the pop up form to be visible is a great deal when it comes to building an email list.
Do you think this email contact list building will work?
My readers usually asked me why I am always trying on new strategy and plans. In this competitive business world, there isn’t any space for slack and if you want to be successful, you got to start getting out of your safe zone.
These email marketing strategy worked very well for me and my blog. How about you? Do you have any other strategy you would like to share with me? Tell me using the comment form below!
