Email Marketing

7 Minutes To An Irresistible Opt-In Box

Today I have one simple question for you.

Do you have an email opt-in box in your sidebar that nobody seems to notice?

Trying to encourage people to subscribe to your newsletter can feel a lot like trying to herd cats, even if you have an excellent free opt-in gift (aka: "lead magnet") that you've spent weeks carefully crafting and designing.

(You hear me, right? I mean, let's be really, completely, 100% honest here. At times growing our email lists can be excrrrrruciating.)

But WHY? What's going on that makes sidebar opt-in forms so notorious for blah performance?

1. First of all, everybody has those little boxes in the sidebar of their website. They’re easy to ignore because they're nearly all the same. Common layout elements condition people to be "opt-in blind."

2. In an effort to be pretty, too many people try to blend the opt-in box into the rest of their theme by choosing neutral colors and making it diminutive. As a result, the opt-in area doesn't compete for anybody's attention. Rather than saying, "Look over here!" it says, "Oh, don't mind me...