Businesses worldwide use emails for many purposes: communicating with employees, promoting products, and reaching out to potential clients. Emails are a top choice for business promotion, but sending them without permission isn't just bad practice; it's often illegal. So, how do you get that permission? How do you know which of your prospects want to hear from you? How do you determine what they want to receive from you and how often they want to receive your emails? The answers to all of these questions lie in email subscriptions.
In this guide, we'll explore the world of email subscriptions, how to make people want to subscribe, how the process works, and how to set one up for yourself. Let’s get started!
What is an email subscription?
An email subscription is a process by which people can sign up for updates, newsletters, promotions, and other content sent via email from a business, organization, or individual.
When people sign up for these emails, they share their email addresses and sometimes details like their names or preferences. This helps the sender create and send relevant content directly to the subscriber’s inbox.
Why would anyone want to subscribe to your emails?
You can't force someone to subscribe to your emails. As we said earlier, emailing without their consent is unethical. However, you can always encourage subscriptions using smart tactics and appealing incentives. Here are some ideas you can use:
- Offer special deals, discount codes, or freebies like ebooks to motivate people to subscribe.
- Provide access to unique content, such as articles on current events, guides, or resources unavailable on the main site.
- Offer early access to new products or services before the general public.
How to utilize email subscriptions for your business
Now you know how you can make people want to subscribe to your business emails. But how does that help your business? Here are a few best ways to use email subscriptions for your business.
1. Promote new products or services
You can strategically announce new products and services to your subscribers, such as offering exclusive sneak peeks or early access. This approach helps create excitement and buzz even before your new offerings go public, ensuring you have an eager audience ready to buy.
2. Nurture leads
Email subscriptions are great for nurturing leads after lead generation. They help you educate subscribers about your brand, share stories of your impact, email updates and provide useful information to guide their decisions.
3. Offer educational content
Educational content like tutorials, podcasts, webinars, or informative articles can teach your subscribers something new. By offering valuable knowledge, you'll position your business as a credible source of information. This establishes your brand as an authority in the field and enhances your brand image.
4. Highlight customer testimonials
In your emails, you can share testimonials from satisfied customers and local communities. This strengthens the trust and encourages other subscribers to engage with your business. It also creates a positive image of your brand and your products.
The anatomy of an email subscription process
Ever wondered what a usual email subscription process looks like? We’ll take you through the steps.
Collecting subscriber information
To begin with, gather subscriber information. As a business, you can start by collecting the user's email address. You might also ask for extra details like their name, city, or date of birth. This can be done using forms.
Forms are tools on your website where visitors can enter their information, such as their email address and other details. They act as a bridge between you and your potential subscribers, allowing you to capture valuable data for your email list. These forms can come in different formats.
- Popups: You can use popups that appear when visitors land on your website, browse through it, or plan to leave. Use different types of popups and experiment with different strategies for best results.
Inline forms: These forms are embedded within one of the pages of your website, making it seamless for visitors to subscribe to your emails without leaving the page they’re on.
Landing page: You can also create a dedicated page with a great user experience for users to land on and subscribe to your emails. This page can discuss all the perks they get when they subscribe and include a form to fill out and submit.
Add to email list
After you get the information, you must store all the subscriber data in one place, called an email list. This way, you have all the emails and their details together, which helps when you want to sort them by different attributes. You can either upload the details manually to your mailing list in the email service provider (ESP) you use, or set up an automatic trigger to add the emails to your list. We'll explain how to do this later in the article.
Send welcome/confirmation email
After someone submits your form, you need to send them an email. The email you send can vary depending on whether you use a single or double opt-in process.
Welcome email for single-opt-in process: A welcome email confirms their subscription and welcomes them to your list. It often includes a friendly greeting and perhaps a special offer or introductory content.
Confirmation email for double opt-in process: The confirmation email sends a notification to verify the subscriber's subscription by clicking a link. This step ensures the email address is valid, and the subscriber is genuinely interested. Additionally, you should still send the user a welcome email after the user confirms the subscription.
How to set up your email subscription process with Mailmodo
Step 1: Sign up on Mailmodo
First, you need to create an account on Mailmodo. Go to the website, click the sign-up button, and follow the easy registration process. You can start for free as Mailmodo offers a 21-day free trial.
Step 2: Choose your form type
When choosing your form type, consider which type will best capture your audience's attention and fit your brand’s needs. You can then choose to go forward using one of the following ways.:
- Create a form from scratch: Mailmodo offers a variety of pre-designed form templates that you can customize to match your brand or you can choose to create a popup from scratch. You can also choose between embedded forms, popups, or standalone landing pages to capture subscriber information.
If you want to learn how to create popup forms from scratch in Mailmodo, read the article below.
- Integrate with an existing form: If you already have a form built by your development team, you can integrate it with Mailmodo by adding the action URL from Mailmodo to your HTML form. This lets you capture form submissions and save them as a list in Mailmodo.
You can check out the video below to see how to use form integration.
If you want a detailed step-by-step guide on how to do it, check out the article below.
- Utilize third-party integrations: Mailmodo supports integrations and workflow with popular form-building tools like Google Forms, Typeform, and JotForm. You can easily connect these tools to Mailmodo, enabling you to import form data and manage your subscriber lists within the platform.
Step 3: Create an email
With Mailmodo's email builder, creating an email is simple and intuitive. Easily design a welcome sequence for a single opt-in process, greeting new subscribers and making a great first impression. For a double opt-in process, set up a confirmation email right after someone submits the form to verify their subscription.
You can create your email using their customizable templates and edit them to suit your needs with the drag-and-drop editor.
Step 4: Set up the trigger email
Once you've created the email, you must set up a trigger email. This automated email will be sent whenever a user submits a form and their email address is added to your email list.
You can follow the article below to see how you can set up a trigger campaign.
Step 5: Launch and monitor
Once you’ve tested your email campaign, you can launch it. Additionally, with Mailmodo’s analytics, you can track its performance and measure subscriber engagement.
With these steps, you'll have a robust email subscription process using Mailmodo, ensuring you capture and engage your audience effectively.
Best practices for more email subscriptions
- Show social proof by highlighting your number of subscribers, sharing testimonials, or showcasing success stories. This is a great way to encourage others to sign up.
- Make your call-to-action (CTA) irresistible. Use clear, compelling words that create a sense of urgency and make the CTA stand out.
- Use timed pop-ups or slide-ins strategically. They should capture attention without intruding, appearing when visitors have spent time on your site or are about to leave.
- Optimize your sign-up forms and pop-ups for mobile devices. This makes them look good and work well, boosting subscriptions from mobile users. Set up automation to send welcome and confirmation emails.
Conclusion
In this blog, we understood unlocking the potential of email subscriptions can transform how you engage with customers. With the right strategies and an email marketing tool like Mailmodo, you can keep your email subscribers engaged and make your email marketing dynamic and personalized. It’s not just about growing your email list; it’s about building strong connections that drive loyalty and boost your business. So, use email subscriptions to grow your audience and your business simultaneously.
