Getting fans to sign up for your email list requires more than simply dropping a signup form on your website. Although it’s certainly a critical step, there’s much more artists can do when it comes to raising their signup conversion rate.
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Guest Post from Team FanBridge
So you’ve finally set up your sign up form front and center on your website. Now your fans will flock to join your mailing list, right? Not always. While setting up a signup form is a great first step, there’s always more to do to receive an excellent rate of conversion.
What is “conversion”?
Let’s kick things off by explaining what conversion is. It’s simply when a person visiting your site performs a desired action (i.e. signing up for your mailing list, buying tickets or merchandise, etc). If you divide the number of people who subscribed to your list over a period of time by the total number of site visits during that same time period, you’ll find your rate of conversion. This is what you want to increase.
Offer Incentives
We’ve mentioned before how to set up a free giveaway to new subscribers. It’s an excellent way to encourage new and old fans to join your mailing list. A free song, PDF or coupon could be that little extra push fans need to sign up.
Info fields: Less is more
Have you ever filled out a survey online and by the 8th page, you’re wondering if the end is in sight? Well, if you’re requesting tons of info from your subscribers, they might have the same feeling. Fortunately, there’s only so many fields to choose from when creating a form through FanBridge. But unless you plan on creating geo-targeted fan groups and campaigns (which you only need a fan’s zip code or city & state for), just an email should be fine.
Test what works best
Change up your call to action, edit the form’s size, or maybe just mess with the color scheme. You could even try an embedded form one week, and switch to a pop-up form after that. There’s plenty of ways to find out what your subscribers respond to best. You could even track the performance of your signup forms with widget analytics. Don’t be afraid to experiment! Be sure to test out the actual form after making edits just to make sure fans can sign up properly.
Transparency
Sometimes, it helps to let fans know WHY they’re joining your list. You can always edit the headline of your signup form to let fans know what they get out of signing up. Inform them a bit of the content they’ll receive in the newsletters you’ll be sending them and how frequently they’ll be sent. (i.e. “Sign up for weekly announcements, tour dates, merch coupons and more!”)
Getting fans to subscribe to your list can feel like an uphill battle sometimes. But an excellent signup form can be just the right tool you need to set yourself on the path to victory.