The 6 Best Spots for Your Email Opt-In Forms

The top, the bottom, the right and the left…

Yes? No? Anyone?

Here’s the thing.

 The secret to crafting effective email opt in forms lies in a website designer knowing exactly the type of visitor he or she is looking for and catering their visitors’ internet experience accordingly. Without a nuanced understanding of your audience and what they expect, successful subscription rates may elude an otherwise highly visited website.

A simple, user-friendly interface works best. Ideally, when designing a website, a variety of email opt in forms should be utilized to provide broad coverage and appeal to as many visitors as possible. While one form may not entice a reader to sign up, another one might. Placement of email opt in forms is a delicate art that relies heavily on reader psychology; below are six excellent strategies to capture a reader’s attention and have them signing up for more.

1. Pop-up light box

This is an effective, attention-grabbing way to ensnare readers, but it should be used carefully. Even mildly web-savvy users often employ pop-up blocking software to eliminate distractions during their web-browsing sessions. In spite of this, pop-ups endure because they can be very successful ways to gather information from even casual visitors.

Be sure to make a pop-up light box as enticing as possible. From special offers to concise information, a pop-up layout that has visitors stopping to read rather than simply clicking on through to the main page is the most effective way to rack up thousands of names on email opt in forms.

Using a pop-up light box in conjunction with other types of email opt in forms throughout your website is the best way to cover your bases and ensure any pop-up blocking software used by visitors won’t keep them from signing up for an email list.

2. Top Featured Box

This is one of the most aesthetically pleasings sites to place an email opt in form. Often these headers include information about the website in addition to the email form and keep relevant resources for visitors in one informative location. A reader’s eye is naturally drawn here; why waste such valuable website real estate?

3. Sidebar Top

Placing email opt in forms on the sidebar top makes an eye-catching introduction to the page, especially when the form is colored in striking contrast to the rest of the text. Known as one of the more popular spots in which to place email opt in forms, the sidebar commands attention while not obscuring the main body of the article that visitors came to your website to read.

Readers’ eyes subconsciously drift to the top right of a page, making this prime real estate for the placement of email opt in forms to which visitors will notice and positively respond. Halpern’s emphatic statement tells us that even placing an opt in form slightly lower on the page will contribute to lower subscription rates.

4. Two times on Your About Page

Statistically, an “About” page will have the highest hit rate of visitors compared to any other part of your website. This makes it a vitally important area to include email opt in forms. Recent studies have shown that the format of the Internet encourages readers to skim pages rather than read them in-depth. This attention-deficit form of reading means relevant information you want to share with your audience needs to be highly simple to locate.

This especially includes email opt in forms, as impatient readers will most likely move on rather than stay to hunt for an obscure opt in form. An “About” page is the natural spot to encourage readers to sign up for more and most visitors will expect to find a subscription form there. Don’t disappoint them!

5. After Every Post

Another superb place for email opt in forms, blog posts can almost function as a “call to action” for readers to subscribe to a mailing list. If they like what they are reading, an opt in form at the end of a post is a convenient and logical place for a visitor to sign up for more of what they have just been enjoying. Not having an opt in form at the end of a post almost guarantees you will stifle email address growth.

Blog posts can also function as stand-alone webpages on search engines. This makes placing an email opt in form after every post even more important, as readers may not find your “About” page right away. A blog post might be their first introduction to your website, so placing opt in forms after every post ensures optimal email form traffic.

Not only that, but readers who have made it all the way to the end of your post have passed a “test” of sorts; they have proven to be highly interested in your website content and are probably hungry for future posts or information from you. Don’t let them get away! Make sure to harness their interest with a strategically placed opt in form.

6. On a Resource Page featured in Your Navigation

This is another piece of prime real estate that is almost begging for email opt in forms. Internet users have come to expect a certain etiquette or format when visiting a website; your resource page is the natural location for placing an email opt in form. Not only will it be used frequently by visitors to your website, but it also will have a high hit rate from search engines.

7. Extra tip: use a “hello bar” to link to a squeeze page.

While the use of squeeze pages has decreased somewhat, they continue to make effective ways to encourage readers to submit email addresses. This format may not always work, however; it’s important to know exactly what kind of audience traffic your website attracts and if a squeeze page is the best way to appeal to that audience.

The “Hello bar” also makes an excellent, attention-grabbing introduction that can be used to great effect. While repeat visitors tend to stop “seeing” them after a while, first-time readers will be drawn to a “Hello bar” and have a higher-than-average frequency of signing up on email opt in forms placed there.

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