I had been trucking along with a podcast for 4-5 months without much focus on email conversions. HOWEVER – we all know how important conversion rates are… So I decided to dive in and see where I was at and where I wanted to get.

My conversion rate for all site traffic over the last 4 months was 2.3%.

Here’s the deal… I wasn’t happy with that.
So my goal was to double the conversion on my podcast’s website.

The goal = 4.5% of all traffic converting into email subscribers.

I didn’t know what to do so I consumed a bunch of content. Tried a bunch of different things and figured out what works best. Here’s a brief summary of what I learned. Some of them are super simple and some of them take a little more time.

Post on Twitter and Facebook and simply tell people to subscribe.

“I send out a weekly newsletter that will blow your mind. You should sign up here:”

I’ve been doing this twice a month. This takes no change on your website. Simply loading up buffer with a tweet that goes out every once in awhile. Simple small step.

Strengthen your sidebar’s call to action.

Couple things to do here. Make sure the button people have to click to subscribe is a nice bright color with bold text.

Also – (something that Aweber has a problem with) make sure the button has a scroll over effect. Take a look at what you have and then think about how you can take it to the next level.

Add a pop up (or make sure yours more aggressive)

I know I know. Nobody likes it, but it works.

If you want to double your conversion rate this is going to be a large part of hitting that goal. On this podcast’s website… If someone sees the pop up there is a 7.34% chance they’re going to put in their email. That’s huge.

I recommend sumo me for the pop up and scroll box. They work with most email providers and I haven’t had any problems with them.

Here are my example stats from my more aggressive pop up

Don’t be this aggressive though (yes this did happen to me today)

Make sure it all works on mobile

I bet a good percentage of your traffic is mobile. For this podcast’s website 41% of traffic is from mobile. More people come from mobile than a desktop (38%)

So. If you’re sign up page or forms aren’t responsive… Now would be the time to do that.

Start split testing ideas

This is a fun one. I signed up for Visual Website Optimizer and started testing my home page and one other page that I get a lot of conversions on.

I came up with a couple ideas tested them and figured out there really wasn’t a change. Although it didn’t help I learned something. So I would recommend giving it a shot. It’s about small steps to get to a large change.

Change your copy.

There are two really simple things to add to your copy.

#1 – More testimonials in the sign up area.
#2 – Add some form of Exclusivity

Basic easy stuff. But when you go back and look at your site I bet in the beginning you either didn’t have anything along these lines or have the understanding to add it. So now you probably have a testimonial or some way to give some social credibility. Go back and add that. It’s a small piece of the puzzle toward doubling your conversion rate.

Here’s the full list I was working with when I started.

1. Post on Twitter and Facebook to tell people to subscribe. “I send out a weekly newsletter that will blow your mind. You should sign up here:” Do it twice per month.
2. Strengthen the sidebar call to action.
3. Add a CTA in the author by line.
4. Pop up more aggressive.
5. Add opt in at bottom of every page.
6. Welcome Gate
7. Strengthen the opt in page.
8. Start split testing ideas. Colors of buttons for one.
9. Make sure it all works well on mobile.
10. Make submit activity more interactive (colors changing)
11. Try Bounce Exchange for pop up.
12. More testimonials in the sign up area.
13. If you have a lot of subscribers / people go through it display it.
14. Talk about exclusive club. Exclusivity.
15. Clean up the home page to focus on conversions
16. Add scroll box

Here are a couple of great articles and resources as well

http://unbounce.com/email-marketing/increase-your-email-opt-ins-and-subscribers/
Email2X_Checklist_Questions