Improve email opt-in rates through the wisdom of crowds?
Latest posts | Feed | | By Mark Brownlow
We all like the comfort of the crowd. The knowledge that others went here before us tells us we're on the right path.You see this concept of social proof applied all the time by online retailers, who use testimonials, customer reviews, bestseller lists etc. to help drive conversions.
A new sign-up to your email list is also a conversion.
So why not apply the same approach to your sign-up forms and sign-up page copy? It makes intuitive sense, yet hardly anybody does it.
Try testing testimonials, text and display widgets:
Add testimonials to your sign-up page
Whenever you get positive feedback about your email, ask the sender if you can use their comment and name in a testimonial and post it on your sign-up page.
Unsolicited testimonials come across as more genuine and less contrived than those you get when you ask for them. (See this post for excellent advice on online testimonials.)
Add indicative text
At its simplest, using social proof just means changing a line or two of copy. Here's what I added to my sign-up page a while back:
"Over 3,000 marketers, agencies and businesses already benefit from their email subscription...join them:"
I've not done A/B tests yet, but since adding that line of text, sign-up rates have increased. Coincidence?
Add dynamic social proof indicators
I made that term up. It means any automated display that gives people the feeling that others believe signing up is worth doing.
See whether your IT folk or ESP can come up with any of the following to test out:
1. A small icon displaying real-time subscriber numbers:
Last year, AWeber published a case study showing how displaying such an icon lifted sign-up rates by over 30%.
2. A self-updating display widget stating how many people signed-up recently:
436 visitors signed up for the newsletter in the last 24 hours
3. A scrolling display widget which updates every time someone signs-up:
mark@**********.com signed up to this newsletter 5 minutes ago
jamie@*******.de signed up to this newsletter 15 minutes ago
(Obviously you'd need to disguise the actual email address as above for privacy reasons.)
4. An interactive map:
Zappos just launched a map page with a real-time display of new purchases and the location of the purchaser. It's fun.
Why not do that for email sign-ups? Let people watch new subscribers appearing in real time on a map of the world or your region.
One argument which might make the social proof tactic backfire is that of exclusivity. If your list is positioned as an exclusive club available only to the lucky few, then mentioning all those other subscribers might take some of the shine off that selling point.
And, of course, you need to have enough existing subscribers or regular new sign-ups to have the desired impact. Otherwise you might actually discourage opt-ins when your widget says you have 23 subscribers and the last one signed up in 2007.
Hence, as always, these ideas are for testing before simply implementing.
Any other thoughts on using social proof to drive opt-ins?
More on list building | Tags: email marketing, list growth
Permalink | April 08, 2009 | 9 comment(s) - add yours!
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9 Comments:
These are very cool ideas. There's no reason why email marketers can take advantage of tactics that spur RSS subscriptions, etc. in the social media world.
By 
Chad White, on
08 April, 2009
Love the Zappos map. Very cool use of the technology.
A while back one of our customers did something similar - he took a static map of his subscribers' locations and placed it near the signup form.
Looking at his site now, I no longer see the map, so perhaps he found it to not work for him after all. Even if that's the case, it may be worth testing for the rest of us!
By 
Justin Premick, on
08 April, 2009
Thanks Chad. I think it helps to look over the fence and borrow ideas from other channels. eretailers are experts at closing online conversions, but I wonder if they sometimes simply forget to apply those same skills to non-traditional conversions (like sign-ups).
By , on
08 April, 2009
Justin that's another good idea that's pretty simple to do - no clever technology needed, just the time required to produce the image.
By , on
08 April, 2009
Thanks for these great tips. Very well thought out. I particularly like the one about indicative text.
I believe this works similar to the network 'snowball' effect on Twitter. You see someone with lots of followers, therefore there's generally (not always) a belief that that individual has high authority in their network and must be worth following.
The status scrolling updates of who has recently signed up is always nice too.
Taking this even further it would be good to be able to tie this info and connect these people who have a similar interest into a network (like Twitter), maybe even suggest a group of a #tag, or provide a space for these subscribers with common interests to communicate further.
By Chris Eden, on
11 April, 2009
Thanks Chris. Yes, it seems like we're just discovering all the potential points of interaction between email and social media. I like the idea of giving subscribers alternative forums to communicate with each other. After all, by subscribing they have self-identified themselves as "fans" of a kind.
By , on
13 April, 2009
I find testimonials work great. They are the best referrals you can have and they carry a lot of weight.
Adding a testimonial in a message will certainly increase success.
The important part is you have to then back it up.
By Michael, on
13 April, 2009
Good point Michael. A key to successful email marketing is setting the right expectations. if you're declaring your value (through testimonials etc.) then you have to make sure you can fulfill that "promise" in your actual emails.
By , on
13 April, 2009
Mark,
Love the suggestion about mentioning the size of your list. Excellent and I've just made the update on my sign-up page.
Michael
By Michael Katz | Blue Penguin, on
20 April, 2009
