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To get straight to the point, a newsletter keeps your audience engaged, it drives traffic to your website, it builds trust, and best of all, it may generate you more sales. In fact, according to Convince & Convert, 44% of people made at least one purchase based on a promotional email in 2015.
With all that said, a newsletter is nothing without subscribers, and the bigger list, the cooler the marketer! But increasing newsletter sign-ups isn’t exactly easy, so how exactly do you do it? Well, what better way to learn and get newsletter promotion ideas then by looking at the experts, SaaS marketing companies. With a business model focused on making marketing easier and more effective, and with the impossible challenge of having to market to marketers, these companies must have a few good newsletter promotion ideas up their sleeves.
We will be looking at these 3 SaaS marketing companies:
1.
HootSuite: a simplified Social Media manager
2. OptinMonster: an easy to use conversion optimization toolkit for your website
3. HubSpot: a CRM tool with a free version
On every OptinMonster blog page you will be able to find this sign-up form on the right side at the same spot:
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The constant placement makes it easy for visitors to sign up at any point during their blog experience while still avoiding being too intrusive. By mentioning 60,000 subscribers, the form is using social proof, a social phenomenon where people copy other’s actions. In other words, the use of social proof increases the likelihood of converting a visitor. An argument can be made for the removal of the name field in the form as it adds an extra step that may deter some from signing up; however, this is a widely debated topic and some believe the extra information gathered is worth it. Therefore, only use the name field if it adds value to your goal.
Key Takeaways: make it easy to signup, use social proof, and only use a name field if it adds value.
Halfway down the Hootsuite blog main page, you will see the this form on the side inviting you to
sign-up for their newsletter:
/maleks-website-6175/Hootsuite_side_box-h53a2.png)
This form is simple and easy to read, straight to the point, and does not take away from the blog experience due to its non-intrusiveness. One note to make is the form does not convey a clearest value proposition and may confuse some as to what they will get in return if they sign-up.
At the bottom of the page, right above the footer is another subscription form:
/maleks-website-6175/Hootsuite_footer_form-b826e.png)
This is a great place commonly used by many others as it is one last chance to catch any potential interested subscribers (including those that may have missed the first form). The copy is different from the first form (if they didn’t want to sign-up the first time try something else), and it is personalized to those that made it to the bottom of the page.
All in all, Hootsuite does a great job at keeping it simple and ensuring not to take away from the main blog experience. On the other hand, considering these are the only newsletter forms, it is possible they are missing out on those who aren’t ready to sign up right away or that simply don’t scroll down to see the forms. Hootsuite could consider adding forms somewhere on their blogs and not just the main page.
Key Takeaways: Keep it simple while conveying a clear value proposition and balance the blog experience and the number of blog subscription forms.
On the Hubspot blog main page, the first thing you will see is this subscribe box mixed in with their other content:
/maleks-website-6175/hubspot_subscribe_box-o0a35.png)
The copy in the box conveys a clear value proposition, and the color makes it pop-up making it hard to miss. Hubspot uses a two-step form where they don’t show the email field right away. Interestingly, doing so has been proven to increase conversions in some cases (test this as it is not always the case!). Another interesting aspect to mention is they accommodate slack users by offering the opportunity to sign up with slack.
HubSpot also has a form at the bottom of their main blog page:
/maleks-website-6175/hubspot_footer_subscribe-cfd76.png)
To avoid repeating myself from above, I only want to emphasize the fact that this form gives users the opportunity to choose type of content they receive. Giving potential subscribers the opportunity to choose their own content (type of newsletter) not only increases their likelihood of conversion but also reduces their chance of unsubscribing later on.
It doesn’t stop there, HubSpot even has a small non-intrusive floating bar that follows you as you scroll with a subscribe button. This makes it possible to always have the opportunity to sign-up.
/maleks-website-6175/hubspot_subscribe_bar-ha65d.png)
Lastly, my favorite part of their newsletter subscription strategy is this pop-up that appeared on exit intent in their marketing section to their blog.
/maleks-website-6175/hubspot_pop-up-vbb6d.png)
The pop-up catches your attention as you leave, it uses social
proof, it conveys a clear value proposition, but most importantly it is
personalized to where I am on their website. Best of all, you can expect this
same level of personalization when visiting other sections of their blog.
Key Takeaways: Personalize the experience wherever possible and test new things like slack or two-step forms.
Based off what we just saw, when it comes to increasing newsletter sign-ups the main thing to consider are:
With all that said, regardless of all these newsletter promotion ideas, there is only one guaranteed way to increase newsletter sign-ups and it's by letting me know what you’re doing to increase newsletter subscribers! Head over to my contact page and send me a message with a link to your website/newsletter. In turn, I will subscribe to your newsletter and share my thoughts with you.
