PPC ads are a vital part of any eCommerce digital marketing strategy. However, it can be disheartening to spend time and money on Google Ads, only to find they’re not generating the traffic or sales you expected them to.

If you want to see better results from your Google Ads, you need to improve your CTR (click-through rate). But first, it helps to know what a good click-through rate is so you can accurately evaluate the performance of your ads.

In this article, we’ll share what is a good CTR rate for Google Ads. Plus, if you find your Google Ads CTR to be on the low side, we’ll share tips on how to improve it.

• Google Ads Click-Through Rate Basics
• What Is a Good CTR for Google Ads?
• Factors That Affect Your Google Ad CTR
• How to Improve CTR for Google Ads
• Make the Most of Your Google Ad Traffic

Google Ads Click-Through Rate Basics

Before we find out what click-through rate you should be aiming for, let’s start with the basics.

What Is a Click-Through Rate?

Click-through rate (CTR) is simply the ratio of people who click on your Google Ad when they see it.

You can calculate your CTR by taking the number of clicks that your Google Ad gets and dividing it by the number of times your ad is shown, like this:

For example, if your ad gets 5 clicks and 100 impressions, then your CTR would be 5%.

Related Content: How to Boost the ROI of PPC Campaigns With Targeted Optins

Figuring out your CTR is important because it lets you see how well your ads are performing. If your CTR is good, it shows that your Google Ads are helpful and relevant. But, if your click-through rates are low, then your time, money, and efforts are going to waste.

Here’s how to link Google Ads to Google Analytics to track your ad campaigns better.

Your CTR will vary depending on which networks you use to place your ads. There are 2 Google networks you can use to place ads. This article is going to mostly focus on ads for the Search Network, but I’ll briefly go over both.

The Search Network

With the Search Network, your ad shows when a user searches for terms related to your keywords.

For instance, if a user searches Google for “hiking boots,” ads with those keywords will display at the top of search results with a “Sponsored” label above each one:

Click-through rates for the Search Network are typically higher because your ads are relevant to what the user is searching for.

Related Content: Remarketing Lists for Search Ads: Custom Campaigns and Tailored Bids

The Display Network

On the other hand, with the Display Network, you can show ads on websites or apps that users are browsing, like in the image below.

These Display Ads can appear on any of the millions of websites that use Google AdSense for revenue. Users might see your ad on a particular website because the content is relevant to your keywords or because you’re retargeting previous visitors to your website.

Since these users aren’t actively searching for your keywords on the web, they’re less likely to click on a Display Network ad. Therefore, CTR is generally lower for the Display Network, as you’ll see below.

Related Content: Google Display Retargeting Ads: A Budget-Friendly Google Ads Option

Now that you’re more familiar with click-through rates for Google Ads, let’s find out what a good CTR rate is.

What Is a Good CTR for Google Ads?

A good click-through rate (CTR) for Google Ads typically ranges from 7% to 9%, depending on your industry. Let’s take a closer look.

According to WordStream/LocaliQ’s 2023 Google Ads Benchmarks (PDF) report, the average click-through rate for Google search ads is 6.11% across all industries.

The current CTR for Google display ads is more difficult to find, as LocaliQ no longer tracks that metric. Their 2018 data showed an average CTR of 0.46% for Google display ads, compared to 3.17% for search ads during that same year.

We can pull 2 important conclusions from this data:

• The CTR for Google search ads has increased drastically over the last 6 years.
• The CTR for Google display ads is much lower than for search ads.

What defines a good CTR for your industry? Here’s a breakdown of search ad CTR for 23 different industries in 2023:

The average CTR varies from 4.76% for Attorneys & Legal Services all the way to 11.78% for Arts & Entertainment.

However, different studies also show very different CTR averages. For instance, 2024 data from FirstPageSage says the average CTR for a #1-ranking search ad is 2-6%. They also list the average display ad CTR as 0.089%.

So, what is a good CTR for Google Ads? It’s complicated. If your click-through rate is well below the industry average, you have plenty of room for improvement.

And, even if you’re meeting industry standards, you can still take steps to get a higher CTR to generate even more leads and sales.

Want to boost your lead generation the quick and easy way? Sign up for OptinMonster today!

Before trying to improve click-through rate, let’s talk about the factors that affect it.

Factors That Affect Your Click-Through Rate

Your click-through rate isn’t up to chance. Instead, a number of elements help determine whether your ad gets a lot of clicks or whether it’s ignored.

Here are some of the factors that can affect it:

Ad Position

When a user searches on Google for their keywords, the search results will potentially include several relevant ads at the top of each page.

Since the #1 spot is the first ad that users see, it gets the most clicks out of them all. 2024 Google Ad data from FirstPageSage shows that the higher your ad is ranked in search engine results, the higher your CTR:

Headline and Copy

Your CTR also depends on the effectiveness of the messaging in your Google Ad. Your ad headline and copy need to stand out and encourage users to click.

Related Content: 21 Viral Headline Examples and How You Can Copy Their Success

To provide an example, I did a quick Google for “bridesmaid dresses” The top-ranking ad was from the bridal apparel company Azazie:

Their headline focuses on the affordability of their bridesmaid dresses, which start at $79. The descriptive text highlights their try-before-you-buy service and the 500+ styles available. Their ad also includes a photo of one of their dresses.

When you give users solid information about why they should choose your company, they’ll be more likely to click on your ad.

Ad Relevance

Users are more likely to click on an ad that’s relevant to their search queries and interests.

If you want your ad to reach users who are interested in your products, then you need to include relevant keywords in your ad.

An ad that has the users’ relevant keywords within the headline and copy will get more clicks than a generic ad.

How to Improve Click-Through Rate for Google Ads

If your click-through rate leaves something to be desired, check out these tips for getting a high CTR for your Google Ads.

1. Include a Special Deal in Your Headline

People are drawn to great deals like moths to a flame. So, if you want to improve a low CTR, add a special deal in your headline.

For instance, check out this Google Ad from Bed Bath & Beyond.

Users will be more likely to click on this ad that offers 70% off versus a similar ad that doesn’t offer any savings.

2. Write Higher-Converting Ad Copy

Now it’s time to bust out your writing skills. You need to start writing higher-converting ad copy to improve your CTR. Thankfully, you don’t have to be an expert writer. Instead, you just need to practice these simple tips.

Add a Strong Call-to-Action

You need to persuade users to click your ad by adding strong calls-to-action (CTAs) like “Buy Now,” “Learn More,” “Get Started,” etc.

Use Power Words:

Power words like “You,” “Now,” “Best,” and “Find” are good at convincing users to engage with your business.

Solve Customers’ Problems:

Think about the user’s point of view. When they search for your keywords, what problems are they hoping to solve? Clearly state how you can solve those problems, like Neutrogena does in this Google Ad:

I got this ad after searching for “acne treatment.” The ad uses phrases like “Tackle Your Acne Concerns” and “Less Acne Marks in 1 Week” to explicitly promise to address the customer’s problems.

3. Link Ads to Relevant Landing Pages

This tip can not only boost CTR but can also improve your conversion rates after users click your ad.

When someone clicks on your Google Ad, they should be taken to a page on your website that matches what they’re looking for.

Earlier, I showed you a Google Ad from Azazie. The ad was for their bridesmaid dresses, so when I clicked the link, I was taken specifically to the bridesmaid dress section of their site:

Azazie also sells wedding dresses, shoes, accessories, and other formal apparel. But this ad was targeted to people searching for “bridesmaid dresses.” Therefore, the ad needed to link to that section of their site, rather than just their homepage.

So, make sure your Google Ad leads to a relevant landing page, sales page, or product page, so youre target audience finds the exact products they’re seeking.

4. Use Detailed Audience Targeting

If your ad isn’t being seen by your target audience, it’s not going to get any clicks. That’s why it’s important to use detailed audience targeting for your Google Ads campaigns.

Detailed audience targeting lets you be more accurate when choosing who sees your ads. With Google Ads, you can target remarketing lists, custom combination lists, life events, and interest categories.

For instance, if you want to create a Google Ad for your personal training business, you can target users who are interested in fitness.

You can dramatically increase your CTR by putting your ads in front of the users that are most likely to buy from you.

6. Take Advantage of Ad Extensions

Google Ads are quite small, which means you don’t have a lot of space to try and sell your business. But, with Ad extensions, you can increase the size of your Google Ads and give yourself more room to work with. This means you can make your ads more relevant to users, and they’ll stand out from the crowd.

There are a number of different types of Ad extensions you can take advantage of, here are a few examples:

Location Extension:

The location extension lets you add an extra line at the bottom of your Google Ad that displays your business’s physical address.

Did you knowYou can target visitors to your site using OptinMonster’s geo-location targeting feature. Our customer Skates.co.uk increased daily sales by £2000 just by using geotargeting. Check it out!

Call Extensions:

With call extensions, you can show your business phone number on your Google Ad. On mobile, users can simply click on your ad to make a call to you.

Sitelink Extensions:

Sitelink extensions let you link people to other specific pages of your website. This lets you show the user more of what you offer, making the ad more relevant to their needs.

In the Zoho ad below, the company links to pages for their Forever Free Plan, their Features, and their Integrations:

Sitelinks are a great option if there are multiple pages that are relevant to the search query.

7. A/B Test Your Ads

You may have heard about A/B testing, also known as split testing, for websites and email marketing. These tests let you try out 2 or more different versions of a webpage or email campaign to see which version performs better.

In Google Ads, split tests are called custom experiments.

With these testing features, you can determine which headlines, copy, images, and extensions get the highest CTR. Then, you can end your experiment and run the most effective version of your ad.

8. Improve Your Quality Score

In your Google Ads account, you can view the Quality Score of your ad groups. Ultimately, this score plays a huge role in how your ad ranks.

If you’ve implemented all of the tips above, you should have a solid score. However, continue to refine and tweak your ads to see if you can bring it up even more.

Make the Most of Your Google Ad Traffic

What is a good CTR for Google Ads? A good Google Ads CTR is one that matches up with your industry’s benchmarks and succeeds in driving new leads to your website.

Of course, paid ads aren’t the only way to reach your target audience. You also need to focus on your website’s SEO (search engine optimization). Here are a few resources to help:

• Beginner’s SEO Guide: Learn the Basics & Most Important Tips
• Cracking the Code: Unveiling 10 Powerful SEO Ranking Factors
• 15 SEO Tips to Boost Your Traffic & Rankings
• White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO: How to NOT do SEO

Once you have all this new traffic coming to your site, you need to take advantage of it.

OptinMonster is the best tool available to convert your website traffic into leads and sales.

With our popups, floating bars, inline forms, and other onsite marketing campaigns, you can:

• Use lead magnets to grow your email list
• Offer relevant deals and offers to each visitor with page-level targeting
• Reduce cart abandonment with Exit-Intent® popups

And that’s just the beginning!

Shockbyte doubled their sales with a single, extremely simple exit popup from OptinMonster:

And PodBike converted 18.22% of visitors into email subscribers with geotargeted campaigns.

If you want to see these kinds of results for your business, try OptinMonster!

Customer testimonials are a powerful tool that every marketer should have in their arsenal.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the different types of testimonials – from crafting them effectively to designing impactful testimonial pages.

• What Is a Testimonial?
• Why Customer Testimonials Are So Effective?
• How To Write a Testimonial
• Testimonial Design Best Practices
• 10 Examples of Testimonials
• How to Boost Customer Testimonials

What Is a Testimonial?

Testimonials are authentic endorsements from satisfied customers, sharing their personal experiences with a product or service. They provide valuable social proof, helping potential customers make informed decisions by showcasing the real-world benefits and outcomes achieved.

When searching for the answer, shoppers almost always turn to other shoppers. This phenomenon is known as social proof: a psychological mechanism where people tend to follow the actions and behaviors of other people in an attempt to make the “right” choices.

Why Customer Testimonials Are So Effective?

Customer testimonials work like magic for several compelling reasons, deeply rooted in psychology and consumer behavior. Here are reasons why they are so effective:

Trust and Credibility

In a world flooded with marketing messages, consumers often view testimonials as more genuine and trustworthy than traditional advertising. Hearing or reading about someone else’s positive experience with a product or service reduces doubt and builds credibility.

Social Proof

Psychologically, people tend to do what they see others doing. This concept is known as social proof. Testimonials prove that others have not only purchased your product or service but are satisfied customers, encouraging prospective customers to follow suit.

Relatability and Empathy

Testimonials often include personal stories or specific scenarios in which a product or service has made a difference. This relatability allows potential customers to see themselves in the testimonial, creating an emotional connection and making the product or service more appealing.

Risk Reduction

Purchasing a product or service often comes with perceived risk, especially in online and high-value transactions. Testimonials help mitigate this risk by assuring others who have already made the purchase and are happy with their decision.

Real-World Proof

Unlike theoretical benefits listed in a sales pitch, testimonials offer real-world proof of a product’s or service’s effectiveness. They often include practical examples of how a product has solved a problem or improved someone’s life, which is more convincing than abstract claims.

Variety of Perspectives

Testimonials can offer a range of perspectives and experiences, catering to a diverse customer base. Different testimonials (written, video, or case studies) appeal to different people, making the overall content marketing strategy more inclusive and effective.

Enhanced Engagement

Testimonials are often more engaging than standard marketing copy, especially in video or story format. They can capture attention and maintain interest more effectively, leading to higher engagement rates.

SEO Benefits

From an online marketing perspective, testimonials can improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization). They often include relevant keywords and phrases that potential customers might use in search queries.

Building a Community

Testimonials can contribute to a sense of community around a brand. When customers see others praising a product or service, they feel part of a group of like-minded individuals, which can foster brand loyalty.

Feedback Loop

Testimonials attract new customers and provide valuable feedback for businesses. They can highlight strengths and areas for improvement, guiding future product development and marketing strategies.

In summary, customer testimonials work like magic because they leverage trust, social proof, emotional connection, and real customers evidence to influence consumer behavior, making them a potent tool in any marketing arsenal.

How To Write a Testimonial

Here’s a guide to copywriting a testimonial that’s both impactful and genuine:

1. Be Genuine

• Authenticity is Key: Your testimonial should reflect your experience. Authentic testimonials resonate more with the audience.
• Honest Feedback: Share what you genuinely liked about the product or service. If there were any downsides, it’s okay to mention them, as this adds to the credibility.

2. Be Specific

• Detail Your Experience: Instead of vague statements like “great product,” explain what made it great. Was it the customer service, the efficiency of the product, or something else?
• Highlight Unique Features: Mention specific features or aspects of the service that stood out to you and why they were important.

3. Keep it Concise

• Brevity is Effective: A concise testimonial is more likely to be read and remembered. Aim to deliver your message in a few impactful sentences.
• Focus on Key Points: Stick to the most critical aspects of your experience. Avoid going off on tangents.

4. Personal Touch

• Share Your Story: If the product or service significantly impacted you, share that success story. Did it solve a problem for you? How did it improve your life or work?
• Relatable Scenarios: Mention specific scenarios where the product or service made a tangible difference. This helps potential customers relate to your experience.

5. Clear Endorsement

• Recommend Confidently: If you’re happy with the product or service, clarify it. A straightforward endorsement can be very persuasive.
• Why You Recommend: Briefly state why you would recommend this product or service to others. Is it because of its quality, reliability, or something else?

Example of a Well-Written Testimonial:

“I recently purchased the XYZ software, which has transformed how I manage my business. The user-friendly interface and powerful analytics tools have saved me hours of work each week. What impressed me most was the customer support team, who were always available to help with my queries. I highly recommend XYZ for any small business owner looking for an efficient and reliable management tool.”

The best testimonial is the one that is compelling because it’s genuine, specific, concise, includes the customer’s story, and ends with an explicit endorsement. Remember, a well-crafted testimonial helps others make better choices and strengthens the credibility of the product or service you endorse.

Testimonial Design Best Practices

Brands tend to display their best testimonials on the homepage. But it is also recommended to have a dedicated testimonial landing page.

Creating a testimonial landing page that effectively showcases customer endorsements requires thoughtful design. Here are some best practices to ensure your testimonial page is as impactful as the testimonials themselves:

Layout and Visuals

• Clean and Engaging Design: Opt for an uncluttered and visually appealing layout. A well-organized page helps in drawing attention to the testimonials themselves.
• Visual Hierarchy: Use design elements like font size, color, and spacing to create a hierarchy, making the most important parts (like the testimonial text) stand out.
• Consistent Theme: Ensure the design theme is consistent with the rest of your website for a cohesive user experience.

Use of Multimedia

• Diverse Formats: Incorporate a mix of text, video, and audio testimonials. Testimonial videos can be engaging, showing real people and their emotions.
• Quality Matters: Ensure that all multimedia elements are of high quality. Poor-quality images or videos can detract from the credibility of the testimonials.
• Subtitles and Transcripts: For video and audio testimonials, provide subtitles or transcripts not only for accessibility but also for those who might browse in sound-sensitive environments.

Readability

• Clear Fonts: Choose fonts that are easy to read. Avoid overly stylized fonts that might be difficult to decipher.
• Contrast and Color: Ensure sufficient contrast between the text and the background. Poor contrast can make reading difficult.
• Bite-Sized Chunks: Break up longer testimonials into shorter paragraphs or bullet points for easier consumption.

Branding

• Brand Alignment: The design of your testimonial page should align with your overall brand identity. This includes using your brand’s color scheme, fonts, and tone.
• Consistent Messaging: How testimonials are presented should reflect your brand’s voice and messaging. It should be consistent across the page, whether professional, casual, or playful.
• Brand Imagery: Use elements or imagery that resonate with your brand’s ethos. This could be anything from your logo to specific graphics or icons that are part of your brand’s visual language.

Additional Tips

• Navigation and Accessibility: Ensure the testimonial page is easy to navigate and accessible to all users, including those with disabilities.
• Call to Action: Consider including a call-to-action (CTA) encouraging visitors to learn more about your products or services or to submit their own testimonials.
• Regular Updates: Keep the testimonial page updated with fresh content to show that those who use your product or service are happy customers.

A well-designed testimonial page showcases customer satisfaction and reinforces your brand’s credibility and trustworthiness. By following these best practices, you can create an effective testimonial page that supports your marketing efforts and resonates with your target audience.

10 Examples of Testimonials

The following are the 10 different types of customer testimonials examples that you can use on your website:

1. Quotes
2. Social Media Posts
3. Case Studies
4. Video Testimonials
5. Interview testimonials
6. Influencer Testimonials
7. Press Reviews
8. Peer Reviews
9. Image Testimonials 
10. Blog Testimonials/Reviews

1. Quotes

Quote testimonials are the most popular form of testimonials. They’re powerful, they’re credible, and, most importantly, they’re effective.

As the name suggests, these are testimonials simply pull a quote directly from a customer.

Here’s an example of using a customer quote from one of OptinMonster’s campaigns:

This example is highly effective for 2 reasons:

• It uses a testimonial with a photo to build credibility
• It’s displayed on a popup campaign

Popups have been proven to increase conversions. Especially when you add custom triggers to the campaign to attract visitors based on their behavior.

In fact, a simple popup with an exit-intent trigger is how Crossrope increased its email list by 900%.

Adding a customer quote only increases your chances of converting your site’s traffic. If you can, add a high-quality image of the customer providing the quote.

This adds extra credibility to your campaign and will boost your conversion rates for signups, pre-orders, revenue, and more!

Want to see more conversions on your site?

2. Social Media Posts

With the popularity of social media, getting customer testimonials is extremely convenient.

All you have to do is pull screenshots from a Facebook post or a Twitter update, and you have instant proof that your customers love your products.

No one questions the authenticity of these screenshot testimonials. Many of these social media posts are public, so if someone wants to check it out for themselves, they can usually do so.

Here’s an example of a very good testimonial pulled from Facebook:

To get social media testimonials like these, keep your customers engaged with your social media accounts by posting regularly yourself, and encourage them to tell you about their experience with your products.

And instead of taking screenshots, you can keep your website automatically updated with social media testimonials using a plugin like Smash Balloon.

With Smash Balloon, you can easily create a feed of tweets that mention your account or use your branded hashtag. Or, you can embed a feed of Facebook reviews on your website.

Here’s an example of a Twitter testimonials feed:

Setting up a feed is super simple, you can design the feed to match your brand, and you can control exactly what content is displayed in your feed.

3. Case Studies

Case studies can also serve as great testimonials when you take small sections of them.

For instance, you could take a full-blown case study and break it down into brief, digestible tidbits. Then, showcase these tidbits on a product page.

You can link back to the full case study so users can conduct a further investigation if they desire.

Here is an example of a case study for one of our customers, DealDoktor:

We used the full case study as a blog post and used just a small quote from it on our Testimonials page. Then we linked back to the full case study.

Here’s what that testimonial looks like:

4. Video Testimonials

Video testimonials have quickly gained popularity in recent years, and it’s become easier than ever to create and publish videos on your website.

The great thing about video testimonials is that they really stand out and make a big impression. There’s just something about seeing a talking head and hearing an actual voice that establishes likability and trust.

Timothy Sykes features his top student front and center in a lengthy video on his “Testimonials” page:

In fact, the entire page is filled with video testimonials.

5. Interview Testimonials

Interviews are especially effective because they help to get more details about the customer experience, painting a vivid picture in the minds of your prospects.

To get a great interview, make sure you ask questions that elicit a story about how and why your customer came to buy your product.

Here are some examples of questions to ask your customer in an interview (suggested by Sean D’Souza):

• What was the obstacle that would have prevented you from buying this product?
• Would you recommend this product? If so, why?
• What did you find as a result of buying this product?
• Is there a specific feature you liked most about this product?
• What would be three other benefits of this product?
• Is there anything you’d like to add?

6. Influencer Testimonials

Influencer testimonials are a powerful form of endorsement, leveraging the credibility and reach of influencers to promote products or services. These testimonials are particularly effective due to the influencer’s established trust and rapport with their audience.

One example is the YouTube sensation from Karachi, Pakistan, Irfan Junejo. Irfan often uploads testimonials as reels, videos, or posts. Brands then repurpose the testimonials in their marketing collaterals.

In the video above, he can be seen talking about the pizza place Famous O’s.

People tend to place a higher value on something when an authority figure approves of it. So if one or more of your customers are well-known or authorities, make sure to feature those people on your website.

These customers could be celebrities, well-known professionals in your industry, or people who have certain qualifications that make them authorities.

On our Testimonials page, we showcase our customers Michael Stelzner, Joost de Valk, Chris Brogan, Neil Patel, and many other high-profile authorities.

If you can’t get an actual testimonial, simply drop the names of your high profile customers.

Or, display the logos of high profile companies you’ve served like Neil Patel does on his “Consulting” page:

7. Press Reviews

Press reviews are persuasive because they come from sources who are professionally qualified to speak on the topic.

For example, new restaurants often try to get reviews from local restaurant critics. Here’s an example from the LA Times:

The key to getting press reviews is making real relationships with the right people.

Press reviews aren’t easy to come by, but when you do land one, it can make your brand popular in an instant!

8. Peer Reviews

Remember what we said about how people are influenced by the behaviors of other people like them? That’s why peer reviews–especially from people who resemble your customer profile–are so powerful.

Yelp is a great place to get peer reviews. You can use a screenshot to place these reviews on your website.

But there are a lot of other review sites and apps besides just Yelp. Here are a few:

• Bazaarvoice – for any kind of product or service
• Goodsnitch – for any kind of product or service
• TripAdvisor – for hotels and restaurants
• Foursquare – for local shops and restaurants
• UrbanSpoon – for restaurants
• Chefs Feed – for restaurants
• Chekplate – for restaurants
• GoodReads – for book reviews

9. Image Testimonials

You may have seen this type of testimonial in the past, and it’s usually limited to healthcare/fitness niches. That said, you can use these if your business has any kind of “Before/After” effect on your customers.

Here’s an example from the skincare company Bioclarity:

This can be one of the most powerful types of customer testimonials. It doesn’t require any commentary from the actual customers.

Instead, the images show the radical transformation your product or services can have.

It’s like they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

10. Blog Testimonials and Reviews

Finally, you might be lucky enough to have customers write blog posts or reviews about your products.

These can be incredibly effective at showcasing your product or services from a neutral point of view. Plus, these are fairly common types of posts.

You’ll see product reviews across most websites, including our own. Here’s an example of an OptinMonster review from the WPForms blog:

These are excellent resources for sharing across social media, using for social proof in your own blog posts, sending to your mailing list, and much more.

The customer testimonial examples shared above can be used in a variety of ways. You can add them to your website, embed them in blog posts, reshare them on social media, and much more.

We highly recommend trying to get each type of customer testimonial and leveraging this social proof to grow your business faster.

Now that we’ve seen customer testimonial examples, let’s quickly look at 3 ways you can increase your testimonials/reviews.

How to Boost Customer Testimonials

1. Leverage Social Proof Notifications

If you’re serious about getting more customer testimonials, then you’ll definitely want to add social proof notifications to your website.

These are small, non-intrusive messages that show your site’s traffic how others are engaging with your brand.

As a result, your site’s visitors get hit with a dose of FOMO (“fear of missing out”), and they’re more likely to take the same actions as others.

That means you can quickly create a notification for when someone leaves a review or testimonial on your site. And this will motivate more of your customers to do the same.

But how do you create customer testimonial notifications if you’re not a professional coder?

The easiest way is with a tool like TrustPulse:

TrustPulse is the BEST social proof software on the market and the easiest way to increase customer testimonials FAST.

That’s because TrustPulse gives you everything you need to create your notifications without requiring any technical skills.

Instead, you can design these notifications to suit your exact needs. That means you can change the image, text, link, and layout of your notification to match your brand’s unique style.

Then you can create a trigger to make the notification display, like when someone leaves you a review on Google My Business or Yelp.

So let’s say you want your site’s traffic to see when someone leaves your business a review on Google.

You create your notification and sync it with your Google My Business account through the TrustPulse Zapier integration.

Then when someone leaves you a review, the following message appears on your website:

When users click on the notification, they’ll be redirected to your Google review. As a result, they’ll be more likely to leave their own customer testimonial on your behalf.

You can even tailor the message to ask customers to leave a review, depending on where they are in their customer journey.

Social proof notifications are one of the easiest ways to get more customer testimonials in less time. And TrustPulse users have been shown to see an instant boost in sales by up to 15%.

Want to see it in action for yourself? Try out TrustPulse today 100% risk-free!

2. Reward Customers for Sharing Their Experiences

Offering a discount, coupon code, or extra product as an incentive to review your business’s products is one of the most effective ways to increase the number of reviews you receive.

Add an incentive at the checkout page to get the most reviews. If you can capture customers at the moment of their purchase, your brand will be fresh on their minds, and excitement for their new product will be high.

This is the perfect time to get them talking about your business through a review.

Or you can send an email thanking customers for their purchase and offering them an exclusive discount or coupon code for writing a review on your company.

This also gives users a chance to test your product before they leave a review, which sometimes might be necessary.

That said, the longer you wait to ask for a customer testimonial, the harder it will be to get users to give you one.

3. Segment Your Emails

Audience segmentation is the process of dividing a larger group into smaller groups (or “segments”) based on their similarities.

It’s a way to organize and categorize your audience, so you can target them more easily and know the types of content that will appeal to each of those groups.

Take this example: You’re a marketing manager for a popular food company, which makes and sells orange-flavored dog biscuits. Your job is to increase the number of sales from your current customer base by getting more online reviews.

First, you want to figure out which online groups of people are most likely to buy your product—let’s call these people your “market segments.”

So how do you go about doing this?

The first thing to do is look at who you already sell to. If the customers who have given a review tend to be older than those who haven’t, you might want to create a segment of your audience who are seniors.

If another segment is more likely to buy products directly from Amazon rather than from your company’s website, there may be a significant opportunity to build sales around that group specifically and drive them back to your business.

There are many ways you can segment your audience, but the most effective method is to figure out which parts of your audience have similarities in demographics and online behavior.

This will help you to determine what content they might respond to and increase your chances of getting more customer testimonials.

Looking for even more ways to increase customer testimonials? We’ve written an ultimate guide on how to ask for a testimonial including 7 tips from industry experts as well as templates.

Remember: testimonials are critical for making sales, so don’t delay. Choose one of the types of testimonials above and implement it on your website today!

And that’s all for today. These have been 10 types of customer testimonial examples, along with 3 concrete strategies for getting more.

We hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, you’ll definitely want to check out the following:

• Best Social Proof Software to Boost Sales
• 9 Ways to Get More Product Reviews and Increase Social Proof
• 5 Reasons You Need to Invest in Case Studies Right Now

These articles will have everything you need to improve social proof on your site so you can start generating higher sales today!

Harnessing the Power of Customer Testimonials with OptinMonster

From showcasing real-life experiences to leveraging the influential power of social proof, testimonials can dramatically transform how potential customers perceive your products or services.

But how do you effectively gather, manage, and display these powerful testimonials? This is where OptinMonster steps in.

OptinMonster isn’t just about creating stunning pop-ups and engaging lead forms; it’s a comprehensive tool that can help you harness the full potential of customer testimonials.

With OptinMonster, you can easily collect testimonials through targeted, well-designed forms and pop-ups.

Imagine capturing customer feedback right at the peak of their satisfaction – OptinMonster makes this a reality. But it doesn’t stop there. You can then strategically display these testimonials on your website, using OptinMonster’s templates and customization options to ensure they align perfectly with your brand and catch your visitors’ attention.

Moreover, OptinMonster’s A/B testing feature lets you see which testimonials resonate most with your audience, helping you refine your approach for maximum impact. And with detailed analytics, you’re always in the know about how your testimonial-driven campaigns are performing.

In a world where consumers are bombarded with choices, let OptinMonster be your partner in standing out.

Start your journey with OptinMonster today and transform your customer testimonials into a powerful driver of trust, engagement, and conversions.

In this article, you will learn everything there is to know about split testing.

By the end, you will know how to run split tests to improve your marketing efforts’ returns.

Table of Contents

• What Is Split Testing?
• Why Should You Run a Split Test?
• When to Use Split Testing?
• How to Conduct Split Testing
• Best Practices for Split Testing
• Advanced Split Testing Strategies
• Best Split Testing Tools

What Is Split Testing?

Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a data-driven marketing technique that involves creating two or more variations of a marketing asset (e.g., a webpage, email, or ad) and showing them to different segments of your audience to measure which version performs better. This method helps optimize campaigns based on real-world user behavior and preferences.

While split testing compares two different versions, multivariate testing goes a step further by examining multiple variables simultaneously. Though both methods are invaluable, split testing is often the starting point for many due to its simplicity and effectiveness.

Key Components of Split Testing

• Control Group and Variation: The original version serves as the control, while the modified version is the variation.
• Metrics: These are the success indicators, such as conversion rate or click-through rate, that you’ll use to measure the outcome.

Why Should You Run a Split Test?

Here are some benefits that stand out:

Improved User Experience: By understanding what resonates with your target audience, you can tailor experiences that meet their needs and preferences, leading to a more engaging and satisfying interaction with your brand.

Increased Conversion Rates: One of my earliest successes with split testing involved tweaking a call-to-action button on the homepage. By changing its color and text, we saw a 20% increase in sign-ups. It was a small change with a significant impact, highlighting how minor adjustments can lead to significant improvements in conversion rates.

Enhanced Content Effectiveness: Split testing can reveal what types of content your audience prefers, allowing you to produce more of what works and less of what doesn’t, thereby maximizing your content marketing efforts.

Cost Efficiency: By making data-driven decisions, you minimize the risks associated with large-scale changes, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently and effectively.

When to Use Split Testing?

Split testing isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution; it’s most effective when used under the right circumstances. Here are scenarios where split testing shines:

• Website Redesigns: Before overhauling your entire site, test page elements individually to understand their impact on user behavior.
• Landing Page Optimization: This is where I’ve seen the most dramatic results, as even minor tweaks can significantly affect conversion rates.
• Email Marketing Campaigns: From subject lines to email layouts, split testing can help you refine your approach for better engagement.

How to Conduct Split Testing

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to conduct split testing effectively:

Step 1. Define Your Objective

Start by clearly defining what you want to achieve with your split test. Objectives can range from increasing email open rates, improving click-through rates on a webpage, to boosting conversion rates on a product page. Having a clear goal helps in designing the test and measuring success.

Step 2. Identify the Variable to Test

Choose one variable to test at a time to isolate its impact on your objective. This could be anything from a headline, call to action (CTA) button color, email subject line, or image placement. Testing one variable ensures that any changes in performance can be attributed to that specific modification.

Step 3. Create the Variations

Develop two versions of your asset: the control version (A), which is the current version, and the variation (B), which includes the change you’re testing. Ensure that the variations differ only in the variable being tested to maintain the integrity of the test.

Step 4. Segment Your Audience

Divide your sample size audience randomly into two equal groups to ensure that each group is statistically similar. One group will be exposed to the control version, while the other group will see the variation. This randomization helps eliminate biases and external factors that could skew the split test results.

Step 5. Choose the Right Tool

Select a split testing tool that fits your needs. Tools like Google Optimize, Optimizely, and VWO can help you set up, run, and analyze your tests with ease. Ensure the tool you choose integrates well with your website or marketing platform.

Step 6. Run the Test

Launch your test, allowing both versions to run simultaneously for a set period or until you have collected enough data to achieve statistical significance. The duration of the test can vary depending on your website’s traffic, the size of your email list, and the expected difference in performance between the two versions.

Step 7. Analyze the Test Results

After the test is complete, analyze the data to determine which version performed better in achieving your objective. Look for statistical significance in the results to ensure that the observed differences are not due to chance. Tools typically provide this analysis, showing you which version is the winner.

Step 8. Implement and Learn

If the variation outperforms the control, consider implementing the change permanently. If there’s no significant difference or the control performs better, use the insights gained to inform future tests. Every test, whether successful or not, provides valuable information about your audience’s preferences and behavior.

Step 9. Document and Share Insights

Document the testing process, results, and insights from your split test. Sharing these findings with your team can help inform broader marketing strategies and foster a culture of data-driven decision-making.

Step 10. Iterate

Split testing is an iterative process. Based on the insights gained from one test, you can develop new hypotheses and continue testing to optimize further and improve your marketing assets.

By following these steps, you can effectively conduct split testing to make data-driven decisions that enrich your marketing efforts and improve user experience.

Best Practices for Split Testing

Keep Tests Simple: Focus on one variable at a time to clearly understand its impact. Testing multiple variables simultaneously can muddy the waters, making it difficult to pinpoint what led to changes in user behavior.

Ensure Tests Run Long Enough: Patience is key. Running a test for a sufficient duration ensures that you collect enough data to make informed decisions. A test I ran on email send times took weeks to show clear trends, but the insights gained were invaluable for optimizing our email marketing strategy.

Avoid Common Pitfalls: Changing your test mid-way or not waiting for statistical significance can lead to misleading conclusions. It’s also important to avoid testing too many variables at once, as this can complicate the analysis.

Continuous Learning: Every test, whether successful or not, is a learning opportunity. Document your findings and use them to inform future tests and strategies.

Advanced Split Testing Strategies

Advanced split testing strategies provide deeper insights into user behavior and preferences. Here’s a concise overview of some sophisticated approaches:

1. Multivariate Testing

Test multiple variables and their combinations simultaneously to understand their collective impact on user behavior. Ideal for complex pages, requiring more traffic for statistical significance.

2. Sequential Testing

Run a series of tests one after the other, using insights from one test to inform the next. This methodical approach allows for deeper optimization over time.

3. Personalization Testing

Create tailored content for different audience segments based on behavior, demographics, or past interactions. Compare personalized messages against generic versions to drive better engagement.

4. Full Funnel Testing

Examine the entire user journey from engagement to conversion. Optimize the path to purchase by testing variations across multiple touchpoints.

5. Behavioral Email Segmentation

Segment your audience based on their behavior and test different messaging for each group. This strategy enhances the effectiveness of email campaigns.

6. AI and Machine Learning

Use AI and machine learning to predict successful variations, identify testing opportunities, and automate the optimization process.

7. Cross-Channel Testing

Test messaging consistency across different marketing channels (e.g., email, social media, PPC) to understand how they work together to drive conversions.

Implementing these advanced strategies requires a clear hypothesis, sufficient website traffic or data for significance, and the right tools for analysis. Prioritize user experience to ensure testing enhances rather than detracts from user satisfaction.

Best Split Testing Tools

Here’s a list of some of the best split testing tools available, each offering unique features to suit different needs:

1. Optimizely

Features: Optimizely is one of the most popular tools for A/B testing, offering a robust platform that supports multivariate testing, personalization, and mobile app testing. It’s designed for ease of use, allowing marketers to set up and run tests without needing deep technical knowledge.

2. VWO (Visual Website Optimizer)

Features: VWO provides a comprehensive suite of testing and optimization tools, including A/B testing, split URL testing, and multivariate testing. It also offers features for visitor behavior analysis, such as heatmaps and session recordings, to inform testing strategies.

3. Unbounce

Features: Unbounce specializes in landing page optimization and offers A/B testing as part of its platform. It’s particularly useful for marketers looking to boost conversion rates on landing pages with easy-to-use drag-and-drop functionality.

4. Convert

Features: Convert offers advanced A/B testing and multivariate testing capabilities, with a focus on ease of use and data privacy. It’s known for its excellent customer support and GDPR compliance, making it a good choice for businesses concerned about user privacy.

Conclusion

Mastering split testing is crucial for optimizing your strategies and improving outcomes. OptinMonster emerges as a standout tool, offering a comprehensive suite of features for conversion optimization.

It simplifies creating engaging opt-ins and conducting A/B tests, helping you make data-driven decisions to enhance user experience and boost conversion rates.

With OptinMonster, you can easily personalize your campaigns and see real results. In essence, leveraging OptinMonster’s capabilities can significantly elevate your digital marketing efforts, ensuring you stay ahead in the game.

Here’s one of our favorite split testing case study:

Social Media Examiner split tested its opt-in forms regularly to increase its subscribers by 250,000, a 66% increase in daily subscriber signups. The site continued tweaking to see what other improvements it could engineer.

Join OptinMonster today!

More on Conversion Optimization:

• The Ultimate eCommerce Optimization Guide: 13 Steps to Instantly Boost Revenue
• What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)? Complete Beginner’s Guide
• Google Analytics 101: How to Track Your Conversions (Step-by-Step)
• 31 Call to Action Examples + How To Write an Effective CTA
• 11 Best Marketing Automation Software for Small Businesses
• 12 Tips to Reduce Bounce Rate and Boost Your Conversions
• SEO Made Easy—Ultimate Guide to Explode Your Traffic

Email marketing is a great way to share your brand’s message, connect with your customers, and turn leads into subscribers. But, it can be hard to keep coming up with fresh, exciting email content ideas for newsletter regularly.

Plus, after working hard to grow your email list, it can be disappointing and frustrating when your subscribers aren’t interacting with the email newsletters you are sending.

So, what to include in a newsletter? Don’t worry, as we’re here to help.

This article will share 29 newsletter ideas to keep subscribers engaged. With these newsletter topics and ideas, you can keep your newsletter content strategy exciting, and your subscribers will love seeing your new messages in their inboxes.

What Is an Email Newsletter?

Why Are Email Newsletters Important?

How To Write a Newsletter That Performs?

29 Engaging Newsletter Ideas

• Helpful Newsletter Ideas
• Promotional Newsletter Ideas
• Newsletters Ideas For Events
• Business Newsletter Ideas
• Interactive Newsletter Ideas
• Fun Newsletter Ideas

But before we jump to our list of newsletter ideas, let’s also uncover what an email newsletter is, its importance, and the best practices for writing one.

What Is an Email Newsletter?

An email newsletter is a regular email sent out to a list of subscribers who have opted in to receive updates, promotions, or other content from a particular individual or organization.

Email newsletters are typically sent out daily, weekly, or monthly. They include different newsletter ideas, such as news, articles, promotions, event announcements, and other updates related to the topic of interest.

They help build relationships with subscribers, share information about products or services, promote a brand, and engage with an audience.

Why Are Email Newsletters Important?

There are several reasons why email newsletters are so valuable:

Direct communication: Email newsletters allow businesses to communicate directly with their subscribers without the distractions and limitations of other marketing channels. This enables them to share news, promotions, and other updates with a receptive and interested audience and to build a loyal following of engaged subscribers.

Relationship building: By providing valuable information and keeping subscribers informed, email newsletters can help to build trust, establish authority, and strengthen relationships between business owners and their audience. This can increase loyalty, repeat business, and positive word-of-mouth marketing.

Brand awareness: Email newsletters provide a valuable opportunity to promote your brand and raise awareness of your products or services. You can encourage subscribers to engage with your brand and share your newsletter content with their networks by featuring new products, promotions, and other updates.

Data collection: Email newsletters provide an effective means of collecting valuable data about your subscribers, including their interests, preferences, and behavior. This information can be used to refine your marketing strategy, improve your products or services, and better understand your target audience.

Overall, email newsletters are a powerful tool for connecting with your target audience, building your brand, and achieving your marketing goals.

By providing valuable newsletter content, promoting engagement, and building lasting relationships with your subscribers, you can establish yourself as a trusted authority in your industry and achieve long-term success.

How To Write a Newsletter That Performs?

To write a newsletter that gets opened and read, there are several best practices you can follow:

• Define your audience: Know your target audience and write for them. Tailor your newsletter ideas to their interests and needs.
• Choose a catchy subject line: Your subject line should grab the attention of your subscribers and make them want to open your newsletter.
• Keep it short and sweet: Keep your newsletter short. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and visuals to break up the text and make it easy to read.
• Provide valuable content: Offer your subscribers something of value, whether it’s news, insights, tips, or promotions. Make sure the newsletter content is relevant, engaging, and informative.
• Include a call-to-action: Encourage your subscribers to take action, whether visiting your website, making a purchase, or sharing your newsletter articles.
• Personalize your message: Use the recipient’s name, include personalized recommendations based on their interests, or tailor your newsletter content ideas to their location.
• Optimize for mobile devices: Make sure your newsletter is optimized for mobile devices, as over half of all emails are opened on mobile devices.
• A/B Test and analyze: Test different subject lines, layouts, and newsletter ideas to see what works best for your audience. Use data to analyze open and click-through rates and adjust as needed.
• By following these best practices, you can write a newsletter that captures the attention of your subscribers, provides value, and encourages engagement.

29 Engaging Newsletter Ideas

We have divided our list of 29 newsletter ideas into six categories to make it easier for our readers to navigate and find the content that is most relevant to their interests.

By organizing our newsletter ideas into these categories, we can ensure that our newsletter delivers diverse content that appeals to our entire audience.

Helpful Newsletter Ideas

• How-To Guides
• Share Blog Posts
• Create Blog Post Roundups
• Share Your YouTube Videos
• Share Templates
• Share Infographics

The best way to keep your subscribers around is by sending them newsletters that help them solve problems.

Let’s take a look at some ideas for newsletter that will help you bring value to your subscribers and let you promote your helpful content at the same time.

1. How-To Guides

Offer your subscribers step-by-step instructions on how to use your product or how to get something done by creating newsletters with how-to guides.

For example, Design Files sent this step-by-step video tutorial to their subscribers:

Creating a detailed video tutorial isn’t necessary for all businesses though.

For instance, if you make handmade scarves, you can show your subscribers ten different ways to wear them with photos. Or, if you’re a writing coach, you can create a text-based list that includes tips to help your subscribers improve their writing skills.

With how-to guides and tutorials, you can solve the biggest pain points of your target audience and easily demonstrate the value of your product/service.

2. Share Blog Posts

Want to get a lot of eyes on your latest blog post? Attaching them to your newsletter is a great email content idea.

Instead of waiting for your audience to check out your newest post, you can get them excited and drive traffic to your site by sharing it in a newsletter, as the blog Easy Cheesy Vegetarian does below:

Remember to encourage your subscribers to share the post on social media and make it easy for them by including share buttons in your newsletter.

3. Create Blog Post Roundups

Aside from sharing your latest blog posts one at a time, you can also create blog post roundups.

A blog post roundup offers your readers several of your company’s best blog posts. For example, you can create a blog post roundup of your most popular blog posts or pull together a best-of-the-best roundup of blogs on a particular topic.

This is the perfect way to introduce your new subscribers to some of your older blog posts.

4. Share Your YouTube Videos

Do you have a YouTube channel for your business? If you do, start sharing your YouTube videos in your newsletter.

Videos are super engaging. In fact, including a video in an email can lead to open rate increases of 6%!

It’s important to remember that your YouTube video will not necessarily play right inside an email. Email clients like Gmail, Outlook, and others don’t have the technical requirements to make that happen.

So, it’s best to add a static image of your YouTube video with a “play button” over the top and link the image to your video hosted on YouTube. That way, when subscribers click the play button on the image, it will open up the video on YouTube.

Here’s how Patagonia does it:

An obvious added bonus of sharing your videos with your newsletter subscribers is that it will help you get more YouTube subscribers and more views!

5. Share Templates

Offer your subscribers downloadable templates to help them with personal or professional tasks.

Whether it’s a planning calendar, a budget sheet, a workout plan, or a design template, providing something of tangible value can significantly boost engagement.

6. Share Infographics

Share visually appealing infographics that break complex information into easily digestible visual content.

Infographics can be about industry trends, how-to guides, statistical data, or any topic that your subscribers might find interesting.

Promotional Newsletter Ideas

• New Product Announcements
• Coupons and Promotions
• Gift Guides
• Refer-a-Friend Program
• Case Studies and Testimonials
• Show Off User-Generated Content

According to MarketingSherpa, about 60% of consumers subscribe to a brand’s list to get promotional messages. So, there’s nothing wrong with sending promotional emails to your subscribers occasionally.

Let’s dive into some promotional newsletter ideas that will generate sales

7. New Product Announcements

Before releasing a new product, you must excite your audience. One way to do that is by sending them a new product announcement newsletter.

In the newsletter, you can inform your audience about your new product and what day it’s being released.

A newsletter announcing your new product will create a buzz, and your subscribers will line up on launch day to purchase it.

8. Coupons and Promotions

Everyone loves a good deal, so your subscribers are sure to enjoy getting emails from you that contain awesome coupons and promotions.

To increase conversions, create urgency with limited-time offers. For example, take a look at this eye-catching 8-hour sale email from Virgin Airlines:

A limited-time offer like this will create a sense of urgency and have your customers rushing to the checkout.

You can increase urgency by adding a countdown timer to your newsletter to show the minutes ticking by.

Pair that with an OptinMonster sales countdown timer popup on your website, and your sales will skyrocket.

9. Gift Guides

For eCommerce businesses, gift guides are an excellent newsletter idea to promote your products and generate more sales around the holidays.

Plus, they help your customers finish their holiday shopping quickly and easily.

You don’t have to wait until Christmas to create a gift guide.

You can create gift guides for any occasion; Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Back-to-School, and so on.

10. Refer-a-Friend Program

Creating a refer-a-friend is another great newsletter idea, asking loyal subscribers to recommend your business to their family and friends.

You can have your subscribers forward the email to their contacts. Then, if someone signs up for your email list, you can reward the original subscriber with a special discount.

This is a great way to grow your email list and introduce your business to new, potential customers.

11. Case Studies and Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials act as social proof for your business. When a subscriber reads about a success story from one of your happy customers, it encourages them to become a customer too.

Social proof statistics show that 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer, and 70% will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know.

So, craft newsletters to show off your business’ case studies, testimonials, and reviews like Eight Sleep does below:

12. Show Off User-Generated Content

Another effective form of social proof is user-generated content. User-generated content is any content, like images or videos, created by users and shared on online platforms like social media.

Businesses typically repost user-generated content on their social media feeds, but they can also serve as an excellent newsletter idea.

Here’s how Glossier did it:

Creating a newsletter to showcase user-generated content will show your subscribers how many loyal fans your business has and will help you boost sales too.

Newsletters Ideas For Events

• Event Invitations
• Event Recaps
• Webinars

Do you have an upcoming event you want to promote? Send a newsletter!

Take a look at these awesome newsletter ideas for events.

13. Event Invitations

Everyone loves getting a personal invitation to an exciting event.

So, if your business is holding an event for your customers and subscribers, send them an email invite.

Check out this gorgeous email invitation for a Loeffler Randall X Jenni Kayne pop-up shop:

Sending an email invite is a great way to remind subscribers about upcoming events and get a lot of attendees.

14. Event Recaps

You can also create event recap newsletters. Event recap newsletters let subscribers who couldn’t attend the event find out what happened: what was talked about, who attended, how much money was raised, and even what was on the menu.

This helps everyone feel included even though they couldn’t be there.

But event recaps can also help inspire FOMO (the fear of missing out) in your subscribers. When your newsletter subscribers see what they missed out on, they’ll be sure to RSVP for the next event.

15. Webinars

Webinar marketing is an effective lead generation strategy. With a webinar, you can provide free, valuable information to your target audience and turn them into email subscribers and, eventually, customers.

To promote your upcoming webinar, send an email about it to your newsletter subscribers.

Like in this webinar email from Mintel, be sure to provide the date and time of your webinar, details about what attendees can learn, and a link where they can register.

Business Newsletter Ideas

• Share Your Company Story
• Behind-The-Scenes Tour
• Employee of the Month
• Job Postings
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Industry News
• Interview an Expert

Use your newsletters to keep your audience up-to-date with what’s going on in your business.

Check out these business information newsletter ideas you can send subscribers to educate them about your business and brand.

16. Share Your Company Story

To connect with your audience and let them get to know the person behind the brand, share your company story.

This email newsletter example from CharityWater.org tells how their non-profit organization started with a little idea among friends and how it grew into what it is today.

A personal, relatable story like this helps readers connect to the organization more meaningfully.

This newsletter idea doesn’t only work for non-profits. You can share the story of how your business started and why you do what you do to connect with your subscribers.

When your subscribers get to know the person behind the brand, they’ll be more invested in the emails you send them.

17. Behind-The-Scenes Tour

Make your newsletter subscribers and your customers feel like VIPs by giving them a glimpse behind-the-scenes of your company.

Lush is famous for taking their audience behind the scenes of their company. In their behind-the-scenes videos, people can see exactly how their bath bombs, soaps, and body washes are made.

If you don’t create a product, your business can give your subscribers a tour of your office space or take them behind the scenes of a photo shoot.

18. Employee of the Month

Let your newsletter subscribers get to know the incredible people working at your company by sending an “Employee of the Month” email.

With your employee of the month, you can include a photo of the employee, their name, job title, and a brief description of them, what they do, and what makes them so great.

When your subscribers feel connected to your and your employees, it increases brand loyalty.

19. Job Postings

Is your business hiring? Let your newsletter subscribers know!

Here’s how the Pemberton & District Public Library lets its audience know they’re hiring:

You never know if one of your loyal subscribers could become your newest employee. Or, they could pass the opportunity along to one of their talented family members or friends.

20. Frequently Asked Questions

You can also use your newsletter to answer frequently asked questions (FAQs). This is an easy way to help your subscribers learn more about your business.

Not sure what FAQs to answer?

Ask your customer support or sales team which questions they receive the most. That way, you can make sure your newsletter’s FAQs are relevant to your readers.

21. Industry News

Instead of only sharing news about your company in your newsletter, consider sharing news about your industry.

This won’t work for every business. For instance, if you own a pizza restaurant, your customers likely won’t be interested in hearing the news about the restaurant industry.

But, if your company is a B2B (business-to-business) digital marketing agency, your subscribers will be interested in digital marketing news. So, you can share the latest industry trends or news with them to keep them informed and up-to-date.

22. Interview an Expert

Another way to create an interesting newsletter for your subscribers is by interviewing an expert.

You can interview an important industry figure or someone on your company’s team.

You can also interview people your subscribers will relate to, like their peers. For example, Interface Lover, a magazine for creative professionals, regularly interviews designers that their readers can be inspired by.

To get the most engagement, provide a video of the interview in your newsletter and a link to a blog post with the full transcript.

Interactive Newsletter Ideas

• Ask for Feedback
• Run a Giveaway
• Quizzes

Have you ever heard of interactive content? Interactive content refers to content that lets the audience actively participate. So, users can click around and perform actions instead of passively reading or watching.

Here are some interactive newsletter content ideas you can use.

23. Ask for Feedback

People love sharing their thoughts and opinions. And interactive content like a poll or a survey does wonders for boosting engagement.

So, to keep subscribers engaged, ask them for their feedback with a survey!

Here’s how Lyft does it:

This triggered email asks customers to provide Lyft with feedback about the ride they’ve just taken.

Sending a triggered email survey right after a customer’s experience with your company is an effective way to gather feedback because the experience is fresh in the customer’s mind, making them more likely to take a few minutes to answer some questions.

Aside from triggered email surveys, you can also send out a survey periodically to get your customers’ opinions on your product or service.

You can easily create a survey using a tool like WPForms.

With WPForm’s drag-and-drop form builder, you can create a survey that fits your needs in minutes and embed it on a page, in a post, or to any part of your WordPress website.

Then, send an email to your subscribers asking them for their feedback and include a link to the survey.

Asking your subscribers for feedback is a great way to keep them engaged, but you can also gather valuable insights that will help you grow your business and keep your customers happy.

24. Run a Giveaway

Running a giveaway is another awesome way to keep subscribers engaged. Giveaways also help you drive more traffic to your site, grow your social media following, increase brand awareness, and more.

Giveaways work so well because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love winning a fabulous prize?

At OptinMonster, we recently ran a giveaway for a Macbook Pro that received over 60,000 entries!

Here’s the giveaway email we sent out:

When readers clicked on the green call-to-action in the email, they were sent to a distraction-free giveaway landing page we could easily create with the best WordPress giveaway and contest plugin, RafflePress.

Plus, using RafflePress, you can offer extra entries to users for completing bonus actions.

To enter your contest, you can ask your subscribers to follow you on Twitter or Pinterest, watch a YouTube video, share one of your Facebook posts, or visit a particular page on your website, all of which will help you keep your subscribers engaged.

25. Quizzes

Quizzes are super fun, and people love them. Just look at the success of the Buzzfeed website. Their silly quizzes, like “Build a sandwich, and we’ll tell you how old you are,” get a ton of engagement online.

Email content ideas of a newsletter with a quiz in it can get a similar amount of engagement.

But for the best results, instead of creating a silly Buzzfeed-esque quiz, create a quiz for your subscribers that’s relevant to them and your business.

Fun Newsletter Ideas

• Holiday Greetings
• Share Your Recommendations
• Inspirational Quotes
• Pet Pictures

Lastly, having a little fun with your email newsletters is important. So, let’s look at some “just for fun” ideas for newsletter.

26. Holiday Greetings

Bring your newsletter subscribers joy by sending them holiday greetings. A simple holiday greeting from your business will let your subscribers know you’re thinking of them on a special day.

For example, check out this email from Nordstrom, wishing their subscribers a Happy Thanksgiving.

Also, notice how they use a fun animation to let subscribers know that they’ll decorate their website for the holiday, which helps Nordstrom drive more traffic.

And remember, you don’t have to wait until a major holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas rolls around to send a cheerful greeting.

There are a ton of other fun marketing holidays you can whoop it up with your subscribers over, like:

• Science Fiction Day (January 2nd)
• National Pizza Day (February 9th)
• International Women’s Day (March 8th)
• National Best Friends Day (June 8th)
• And Many More

27. Share Your Recommendations

If you’ve recently listened to a great podcast, read a good book, or watched an awesome movie, share it with your subscribers!

Your subscribers will love learning about your interests and get some awesome new recommendations they can check out.

Aside from fun stuff like movies and TV shows, you can also recommend useful resources or tools to your audience. For instance, if you have a blog that helps others grow their blogs, you can recommend a cool WordPress plugin or content calendar tool you’ve been using.

28. Inspirational Quotes

When you find an inspirational quote meaningful to you, it can also be meaningful to your subscriber, hence an excellent newsletter idea.

Inspirational quotes will add more interest to your company newsletters, give your subscribers something to think about, give them something to relate to, and they can even help motivate them to reach their goals.

29. Pet Pictures

Talk about the safest newsletter idea. Everyone loves cute pet pictures, so why not share photos of your or employees’ pets in your email newsletter?

Here’s how Carhartt does it:

Sharing photos of adorable animals is a great way to skyrocket engagement, proven by the fact that animal photos are super popular on social media sites like Instagram and Facebook.

That’s a wrap!

With these 29 newsletter ideas to keep subscribers engaged, your newsletter content strategy won’t bore your subscribers. Instead, they’ll always be interested in your messages and eagerly awaiting your next email!

Need more subscribers to send all of your engaging content to? OptinMonster is hands down the best tool you can use to create beautiful lead capture forms and grow your email list.

Get started with OptinMonster today.

We hope you liked this article and if so, you may also be interested in:

• 5 Best WordPress Newsletter Plugins in 2023 for More Engagement

Sales promotion is a powerful tool that eCommerce businesses use to increase conversions, boost brand awareness, and generate leads.

Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, sales promotions can help you achieve your marketing goals.

In this blog post, I will share 23 real-life sales promotion examples of successful campaigns with you and explain how you can copy those examples for your own sales promotions.

1. What Is Sales Promotion?
2. Importance of Sales Promotion
3. Types of Sales Promotion Strategies
4. Other Common Types of Sales Promotions
5. Sales Promotion Examples

What Is Sales Promotion?

Sales promotion is a strategic marketing tactic designed to boost short-term sales and encourage immediate consumer action by offering limited-time incentives, discounts, or special offers.

It is a popular marketing tactic because it create a sense of urgency (FOMO) and exclusivity, encouraging customers to take advantage of the offer before it expires.

Importance of Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is important for several reasons:

Stimulates sales: Sales promotion offers such as discounts, coupons, and free shipping can attract customers and encourage them to purchase. This can stimulate sales and increase revenue for a business.

Attracts new customers: Sales promotions can attract new customers who may not have been interested in the product or service before. A business can entice new customers to try their product or service by offering a discount or free trial.

Builds brand loyalty: By offering promotions to loyal customers, businesses can strengthen the bond between the customer and the brand. This can lead to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth advertising.

Clears inventory: Sales promotions can help businesses to clear out old stock and make room for new products. This can reduce storage costs and generate revenue from products that may have been on the shelves for too long.

Creates a sense of urgency: Sales promotions are typically time-limited, creating a sense of urgency among customers to purchase before the offer expires. This can increase sales in the short term.

However, it’s important to use sales promotion strategically and not rely on it too heavily, as overuse can reduce the perceived value of a product or service.

Types of Sales Promotion Strategies

The following are, but not limited to, the most popular sales promotion strategies. Let’s look at each strategy with a classic sales promotion example for better understanding.

Discounts and Coupons

One of the most popular sales promotion strategies is offering discount codes and coupons.

One sales promotion example of a business using discount codes and coupons is the clothing retailer H&M. H&M is, a famous fashion brand that sells affordable and trendy clothing for men, women, and children.

H&M regularly offers discount codes and coupons to their customers through various channels. For example, they may offer a discount code to customers who sign up for their email newsletter or download their mobile app. The discount code can be used for a percentage off the customer’s next purchase or free shipping.

Buy One Get One (BOGO) Offers

BOGO offers are another effective sales promotion strategy.

An example of sales promotion using a Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) strategy is the online retailer Beauty Bay. Beauty Bay is a beauty and cosmetics retailer that operates exclusively online.

Beauty Bay frequently uses BOGO promotions to encourage customers to purchase and increase sales. For example, they may offer a free eyeshadow palette with the purchase of another eyeshadow palette or a free lipstick with the purchase of another lipstick.

Limited Time Offers

Limited-time offers create a sense of urgency and exclusivity, encouraging customers to take advantage of the offer before it expires.

Amazon is an example of a business using Limited Time Offers (LTOs) as a sales promotion strategy. Amazon is an eCommerce giant that sells a wide range of products, including electronics, home goods, books, and more.

Amazon frequently uses LTOs to promote products and increase sales. For example, they may offer a discount on a specific product for a limited time period, such as 20% off a popular tech gadget for a weekend only.

Free Shipping

Offering free shipping is an excellent way to attract customers and increase sales and the best example of it would be Zappos. Zappos is an online retailer specializing in shoes, clothing, and accessories.

Zappos offers free standard shipping on all orders with no minimum purchase requirement. Customers can purchase any item on the website and have it shipped to them for free, one of the most successful examples of sales promotion.

Cashback

Cashback offers are another popular sales promotion strategy.

An example of a business using cashback as a sales promotion strategy is Savyour. Savyour is an online marketplace that connects shoppers with retailers selling various products, including electronics, home goods, and more.

Savyour offers cashback to customers who make purchases through their platform. Customers can earn a percentage of their purchase amount back in cash, which is deposited into their account.

Referral Programs

Payoneer has an excellent referral program. It’s a payment platform for cross-border digital business.

Payoneer offers a referral program where users can invite friends to join Payoneer, and they both can earn money when their friend signup. The referral program incentivizes current customers to refer new customers to the platform, as you make 25$ just by telling your friends about Payoneer.

Contests and Sweepstakes

Contests and sweepstakes are an effective way to engage customers and create brand awareness.

Dove held a selfie contest, with the grand prize being a spa experience for two people.

Facebook Users were required to take a picture of themselves holding a Dove Beauty Bar. Then submit that picture in the comments section of the giveaway post.

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs reward customers for their repeat business and encourage them to continue shopping with the company.

Sephora’s Beauty Insider program is an example of a sales promotion loyalty program.

It’s a tiered loyalty program that offers customers a variety of benefits, including access to exclusive products, birthday gifts, free beauty classes, and early access to sales.

Customers can become Beauty Insiders by signing up for the program on Sephora’s website or in-store. Once customers become members, they earn points for every dollar they spend on Sephora’s website or in-store, which they can redeem for various rewards.

Other Common Types of Sales Promotions

A few other types of sales promotion ideas that brands typically use are:

• Percentage or dollar discounts
• Redeemable vouchers
• Free gifts or giveaways
• Rebates
• Free samples
• Free Trial

Retailers also offer:

• Pre-launch or exclusive offers
• Bundles
• Seasonal offers
• Regular daily, weekly or monthly deals

Watch out for those offer types in the examples below.

Sales Promotion Examples

Now, let’s get to those sales promotion examples. If you like a particular campaign, you can easily recreate your own version with OptinMonster.

OptinMonster is the best conversion optimization tool. It allows you to create eye-catching popups for your sales promotions easily.

OptinMonster comes with multiple eCommerce campaign types, like fullscreen mat, lightbox popup, floating bar, and countdown timer.

You can use OptinMonster’s prebuilt sales promotion templates to:

• Share discount offers
• Reduce cart abandonment
• Promote flash sales

And more.

You’ll also get to choose from special eCommerce targeting to control when and where you show your sales promotion.

Just follow our instructions for creating your first campaign, then customize it at will!

1.Macy’s

Let’s start the ball rolling with this email sales promotion example from Macy’s. It’s pretty simple, but effective.

It uses information about the site visitor to show them sales promotions they’re more likely to be interested in. In this case, the site visitor has already viewed printed dresses.

You can do this in OptinMonster with our Smart Tags feature.

Here are some of the things you can use to personalize sales promotions on your website:

• Site visitor’s name
• Date
• Country
• City
• Previous pages visited

And more.

Copy this example:

Here’s how you can implement Smart Tags with OptinMonster.

You might also want to check out 5 creative ways to personalize your optins to boost conversions.

2. Christmas Lite Show

This coupon campaign is a great sales promotion idea from Christmas Lite Show.

The beautiful background evokes the atmosphere of the annual show, and the headline highlights the company’s experience. It all adds up to a compelling reason to click the button. When visitors do, they see a coupon code with a countdown timer.

Christmas Lite Show converted 30% of visitors with this campaign.

Copy this example:

To do the same, create a countdown popup in the OptinMonster campaign builder. Then use a MonsterLink to create a clickable link on your web page or in your menu.

3. Cosmetic Capital

Cosmetic Capital saw an 300% increase in leads daily, using this floating bar sales promotion. The free shipping offer immediately tackles one of the biggest reasons for cart abandonment.

The timer adds urgency, and the shopper knows they need to act soon if they want to grab this deal. The button includes the word “exclusive”, making the visitor curious about the offer.

Copy this example:

You could create something similar in OptinMonster by using the floating bar campaign type and editing the colors to match your branding. Here are some more floating bar examples to inspire you.

4. Chamaileon.io

Chamaileon.io was able to increase conversions by 200% using this sales promotion, and here’s the main reason why this example worked so well.

They included a Yes/No form, and these are proven to increase conversions by as much as 18%. Why are Yes/No forms so effective? They’re based on a psychological concept called the Zeigarnik Effect. The idea is that people are more likely to finish an action they’ve already started. So, once they click the Yes button, they’re more likely opt in.

Copy this example:

If you wanted to achieve this with OptinMonster, you could enable our Yes/No forms in the campaign builder, as shown in the video below.

Then you can redirect visitors to a signup form when they click the Yes button. Here are some more creative ways to use Yes/No forms.

5. Stays.net

Here’s another example of an effective two-step optin from Stays.net.

Stays.net increased monthly sales by 10% using an on-click sales promotion. So, once the site visitor clicks on the link, they’re presented with the popup to start a free trial.

Copy this example:

You could easily include the shareable MonsterLink I mentioned earlier. Include it anywhere on your site to trigger a popup when customers click.

6. Fastrack

Fastrack managed to recover 53% of abandoning visitors with a simple sales promotion idea. The lightbox popup is a white box with matching the brand colors. This puts the offer on center stage, making it a no-brainer for people to sign up.

Fastrack showed this sales promotion popup as visitors were leaving their site.

Copy this example:

You could easily recreate this in OptinMonster and follow Fastrack’s example by choosing when the popup appears. By default, OptinMonster popups appear after 5 seconds, but you can change it using the Exit-Intent® rule.

You could also change that so they appear after visitors have scrolled. To do that, go to Display Rules and set the condition If distance scrolled.

7. Win in Health

Next on our list of sales promotion examples is Win in Health. The retailer keeps it simple with a green and white popup, making it easy for visitors to focus on the 10% offer. It matches their website colors perfectly.

The copy is clear and straight to the point. Even though it’s not explicit, there’s a sense of urgency here. Adding the words “Today’s Promotion” tells the customer the deal isn’t going to be around forever.

Copy this example:

To create appealing campaign copy, check out our list of copywriting templates.

8. Scott Wyden Imagery

How do you know you’re showing your sales promotions on the right pages?

Scott Wyden Imagery only show this 2-step optin on the cart and checkout pages when the shopper tries to leave the site. It recovers 21.06% of abandoning carts.

Copy this example:

You can get similar attention for your OptinMonster popups by adding the Exit-Intent® and Page Targeting rule.

9. Kennedy Blue

Kennedy Blue is another example of the effective use of OptinMonster’s countdown timer theme. This floating bar picks up one of the logo colors while contrasting with the site as a whole. That makes it super visible and very effective, and that’s helped by the white countdown block and the yellow discount block. This popup helped Kennedy Blue increase sales by 50%.

Copy this example:

If you’re using OptinMonster, you can easily set the countdown from within the campaign builder. Click on the countdown timer in the live preview to bring up the editing tools, the set the desired end date and time.

10. KnivesShipFree

Even if you’re not into knives, you’ve gotta love this giveaway popup campaign from KnivesShipFree. I like it because both the pictures and text make it clear what you can win. Plus, the CTA is crystal clear. This campaign ran on both desktop and mobile, giving the company more than $10,000 in additional sales.

Copy this example:

You can easily create this by using one of OptinMonster’s templates, then edit the text and the CTA button to create your own offer.

11. Maca Team

Here’s an example of referral marketing, which eventually leads to more sales. I know that people trust recommendations from friends and influencers more than ads, so this is a smart move by the Maca Team.

Here’s what I like. The background image is of the source product, with an overlay showing the offer. Plus, they have made it easy by including a button so visitors can copy the referral link easily. I also like the inclusion of social sharing buttons.

Copy this example:

To do this with OptinMonster you could easily create your own custom campaign using the Canvas theme.

12. Nashville Pedal Tavern

Party bike company Nashville Pedal Tavern has a sales promotion example with a difference. They’re not offering discounts. In fact, this innovative campaign earned them $2300 in just two weeks, simply by promoting gift certificates. Here’s the campaign.

This campaign works because it’s helping people feel good about themselves by giving others a fun experience. Simple as that.

And the genius of it is the Nashville Pedal Tavern only showed it to people who were really interested in their site. They set it so only visitors who’d been there for 30 seconds or more could see the campaign.

Copy this example:

You could do the same by adjusting the timing as described earlier.

13. Padstows

In this example, the image of happy customers inside the restaurant makes for a winning combination for Padstows. The optin campaign is beautiful and inviting, and the voucher is an added bonus. One thing the company could do is experiment with split testing the call to action. More compelling button text such as “Enter to Win” may boost their conversions even more.

Copy this example:

If you’re using OptinMonster, you can change the image on any campaign simply by clicking the image button. That’ll help you make an appealing optin campaign for your visitors. Check out our list of free image sites to find the right image.

14. Baublebar

Baublebar’s sales promotion is bright and in your face, so visitors won’t ignore it. Plus, it’s offering a discount, which is another win.

Copy this example:

I’ve already mentioned how easy it is to change text and colors in the OptinMonster campaign builder. You could also follow our guide to get your CTA right.

15. AutoAnything

Here’s another discount promotion, this time from AutoAnything. The image clearly conveys the brand, and there’s no mistaking the bold 20% discount offer.

AutoAnything increased email revenue by 20% using this sales promotion.

Copy this example:

Want to do something similar with OptinMonster? Use our lightbox popup, and upload an image.

Then you can edit the text and set display rules as usual.

16. Spinsterz

This sales promotion is the first thing people see when they land on Spinsterz’s website. These colors also contrast so they stand out.

Copy this example:

You could create something similar with a custom welcome mat in OptinMonster. This’ll appear as visitors land on your site and is a great way to introduce them to what’s on offer. See the video below to learn more about welcome mats.

17. Skates

Sometimes you want to target people who aren’t doing much on your site, in the hope that they will. That’s exactly what Skates.co.uk did and it resulted in an extra £2000 in daily sales. The popup itself is simple. It’s red to match the brand colors, with white writing, and the discount code in black. They showed it to inactive users with OptinMonster’s InactivitySensor.

Copy this example:

You can enable InactivitySensor by going to Display Rules and setting the condition If visitor inactive time.

18. Snack Nation

More leads means more sales, right? The next in our list of sales promotion examples are focused on lead generation. SnackNation offered free sampler boxes to people who signed up. That resulted in 1200 new subscribers each week and 15-25 additional daily sales.

Copy this example:

Snack Nation used a fullscreen campaign with a yes/no form to achieve this. I described how to enable both of those earlier.

19. Sportique

This is a really attractive fullscreen optin. Sportique has used the screen space to include a stunning image that fits with its active mission. I also like the informative wording in the email field, plus the accurate CTA. Those who sign up will have no doubts about what they’re getting. This campaign converts 4.9% of visitors and helped the brand triple its email list.

Copy this example:

You can edit the fields in any OptinMonster campaign. Just click on the email field to bring up the editing tools.

20. Urban Southern

Who doesn’t love a handbag discount, am I right, ladies? Urban Southern used a stark black and white color palette to offer a 10% discount to people who signed up. This campaign uses our Coupon template, and all they did was change the colors. The result? A 400% increase in sales.

Copy this example:

You can keep it just as simple as Urban Southern did. Create a new campaign using the Coupon theme. Then change the colors as described earlier to match your own branding.

21. Crush Empire

Crush Empire generated 460 sales using this coupon sales promotion.

You can choose to deliver the discount at another URL or via OptinMonster’s Success theme.

Copy this example:

An easy way to do this in OptinMonster is to edit the success message that appears when people opt into a campaign. You can easily add a coupon link to the success theme itself, or simply redirect visitors to a new page with the coupon.

22. Logic Inbound

Finding the best sales promotions for your business might require some testing.

Let’s look at one example.

This is a free trial offer, this time from Logic Inbound and ATLAS workspace. The optin converted at 25.71%.

Before using the above sales promotion, Logic Inbound was showing the below offer. But it only converted at 2.67%.

Copy this example:

Identify your best performing sales promotions using split testing. With OptinMonster, you can find the best performing designs, offers, copy, targeting, and more.

23. Cracku

Cracku increased conversions 300% using countdown timers. Countdown timers add urgency and encourage your customer to make a purchasing decision.

Copy this example:

You can easily add a countdown timer to any sales promotion using OptinMonster.

That’s it!

Now you have lots of sales promotion examples to use to fuel your own creativity.

As we’ve explored various successful examples of sales promotion, one common thread emerges: the strategic use of tools to optimize these promotions.

OptinMonster stands out as a premier solution in this domain. With its diverse range of features, from eye-catching popups to countdown timers, it offers businesses a unique edge to craft compelling sales promotions.

Whether you’re looking to share discount offers, reduce cart abandonment, or promote flash sales, OptinMonster provides the flexibility and efficiency to achieve your goals.

In a world where capturing a customer’s attention is increasingly challenging, it’s tools like OptinMonster that can make the difference between a missed opportunity and a successful conversion.

Ready to create a sales promotion that will win you more customers? Get started with OptinMonster today. It’s risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee.

Also checkout: 

• Email Marketing Made Simple: A Step by Step Guide [+ Examples]
• 5 of the Best eCommerce Marketing Strategies to Explode Your Sales
• How to Create a Live Sales Notification for WooCommerce
• 12 Ways to Use OptinMonster Follow Ups to Boost Engagement and Sales

These are impressive email marketing statistics. So, if you are not writing a perfect welcome email series, now is the time.

In this article, we’ll explore 14 effective welcome email examples businesses can use to make a positive first-time impression and kickstart their customer journey on the right foot.

• What Is a Welcome Email?
• Key Elements of a Great Welcome Email
• Welcome Email Examples
• Welcome Email Mistakes To Avoid
• Welcome Email Templates

What Is a Welcome Email?

A welcome email is the first email communication sent by a business or organization to a new subscriber, customer, or member. It serves as an initial point of contact after someone signs up for a mailing list, makes a purchase, registers for a service, or joins a community.

The purpose of a welcome email is to introduce the recipient to the brand’s story, provide them with relevant information about their account or subscription, and thank them for choosing to engage with the business.

A well-crafted welcome email can also help set expectations, guide the recipient through the next steps, and encourage them to take further action, such as making that first purchase, filling out a profile, or joining a loyalty program.

Welcome emails are an important part of a business’s customer engagement strategy and can help build a strong relationship with potential customers from the outset.

Key Elements of a Great Welcome Email

1. Crafting the First Impression: Welcome Email Subject Line

Your subject line is your first, and sometimes only, chance to grab attention. Make it intriguing, clear, and aligned with your brand’s voice. A personal favorite of mine was a client’s email campaign that used, “Welcome Aboard, [First Name]! Your Adventure Begins Here.”

Recommended reading: 15 Best Practices for Email Subject Lines That Can Boost Open Rates

2. Personalization: Making Each Recipient Feel Special

Personalization goes beyond just using the recipient’s name. Tailor your email body content based on their interests or actions. For instance, if they signed up after downloading a guide from your site, reference that guide in your email.

Recommended reading: eCommerce Personalization: Strategies & Examples to Boost Sales

3. Clear and Engaging Content: Setting the Tone

Your welcome email should reflect your brand’s personality. Consistency is key, whether professional, quirky, or somewhere in between. Use a friendly, conversational tone to make your new email subscribers feel at ease.

4. Call-to-Action: Encouraging Immediate Engagement

Your CTA button should be clear and compelling. Whether it’s to check out your latest blog post, follow you on social media, a discount code or browse your products, make sure it’s relevant and easy to find.

Recommended reading: 130+ Email CTA Examples That Can Boost Your Conversion Rate

Welcome Email Examples

1. Google Adwords

Google AdWords sends a couple of welcome emails, which seems overkill if you ask us, but they serve two different purposes.

What we liked:

• It’s short, making it easy for people to read it quickly.
• It gives the recipients some steps to follow.
• It includes helpful resources.
• There’s a call to action (CTA).

What we didn’t:

• The subject line is bland.
• There’s no personalization, although Google almost certainly knows the recipient’s name.
• It’s too plain, looking like a wall of text at first glance.
• The no-reply email address means there’s no way for people to respond to the email.

The second email from Adwords is a contrast. We liked everything about it, including:

• The subject line draws recipients in about a task they’ll all want to complete.
• The email is branded, inspiring trust.
• A single CTA is repeated three times to sign in and complete the account setup.
• It’s more visually appealing.

2. Ancestry

The color scheme leaves no doubt about who this Ancestry email is from.

What we liked:

• The email includes a tutorial, clear list of steps to follow to get started with its services.
• The design also highlights the first step in a shaded box.
• There’s a clear CTA early in the email.
• It’s branded.

What we didn’t:

• Including a second, different CTA in the box below could be confusing and make recipients decide to do nothing.
• Repeating the signup information twice is unnecessary.
• There’s no clear unsubscribe link, which opens them up to spam complaints.

3. Asana

The design of this Asana welcome email example splits it into panels, each showing an icon and a short description of an Asana function.

What we liked:

• It looks like Asana, which is great for brand recognition and trust.
• The three-panel design works.
• There are links you can follow to complete different tasks in the app.
• The email would work even without the images.
• There’s a clear link to where subscribers can manage email preferences.

What we didn’t:

• We’re probably picky here, but the CTA could have been nearer to the top of the email.

4. Carbonite

With the company’s logo at the top of this welcome email example, there’s no mistaking who it comes from.

What we liked:

• The email is branded.
• It answers two common questions people have about using Carbonite for backup. That’s pretty useful and will likely reduce the number of support requests from new users.
• It includes social media links, which are a big trust factor.
• The icons help make the content easier to understand.

What we didn’t:

• The email should be shorter.
• There is a CTA once you reach the end of the email, which many people may not do.
• There’s no clear unsubscribe link, though there is a link where you can manage email communication preferences.

5. Envira Gallery

Let’s see how this welcome email example from Envira Gallery stacks up.

What we liked:

• Personalization: the email addresses the recipient by name.
• The product logo is included for brand recognition.
• The copy has a friendly tone.
• There’s a visible unsubscribe link.
• It comes from a real person.

We couldn’t find anything to dislike in this email. The social links are visible, and there’s a callout box showing how people subscribed and why they should remain on the list. That’s why the Envira welcome email is an example of good practice.

6. GSuite

You get this email after you activate a GSuite account, and you’d hardly know this came from the same company as the AdWords email above.

What we liked:

• The email has a clean, uncluttered design, keeping with Google’s branding.
• There are short descriptions of four things you can do with GSuite and helpful links.
• The combination of text and icons makes it visually appealing, and they still work even if people have images turned off.

What we didn’t:

• The “no-reply” email address feels impersonal.

There’s no unsubscribe link, but who’s likely to want to unsubscribe from their GSuite account?

7. LawTrades

This welcome email example from LawTrades came after signing up for a deal via a third-party deals provider.

What we liked:

• The subject line tells you what you’ve signed up for.
• The email is branded.
• There’s a link to the company so you can check them out. This inspires trust.
• The clean, three-panel design makes the email easy to read, and the text is short.
• Social media links and address info are included.
• There’s a clear unsubscribe link.

What we didn’t:

• There are two different CTAs at the top of the email, and the second one is arguably more useful to new readers, so it should be first.
• The early attempt to get people to book a strategy session feels rushed.
• Although there’s an image of the sender, he doesn’t sign the email.

8. NDash

NDash takes a two-in-one approach, combining welcome and onboarding process.

What we liked:

• One email does it all; helping people get started rather than sending two separate emails is a good approach.
• Social media links are there to build trust.
• You can take multiple actions next (which is also a problem, as you’ll soon see).
• The one-column template works for any device.
• It includes the logo and social links.
• A real person signs it.

What we didn’t:

• There are too many actions to take from the email.
• The no-reply email address feels impersonal.
• There’s no unsubscribe link.

9. PostPlanner

PostPlanner takes a kitchen sink approach with this welcome email example; they have thrown everything in. It just goes on:

and on:

and on:

What we liked:

• It’s branded.
• It comes from a real person.
• The CTA is near the start.
• There are social media links.
• There’s a clear unsubscribe link.

What we didn’t:

• This email is way too long. With images not displayed, it’s a little more reasonable, but many email clients now display them by default.

PostPlanner’s email is a complete walkthrough, and we wonder if this is the best way to do it. No doubt, they’ve tested, and this is what converts well for them, but to us, it’s a bit too much.

10. Powr

This email comes from WordPress plugin maker Powr.

What we liked:

• Links to some key areas are in the email header.
• The icons are eye-catching.
• Social media links are included.
• There’s a clear unsubscribe link.

What we didn’t:

• See that broken image icon? That means they were running a promotion at the time that has now ended. Anyone revisiting the email later won’t see anything, which is not good.
• There are too many things to do and CTAs.
• It doesn’t come from a real person.

11. Quuu

This welcome email example from Quuu is a bit unusual. That’s because it comes via the Intercom communication system.

What we liked:

• This email is short, easy to read and a minimalist design.
• It comes from a real person, with a photo and email address.
• It’s a little bit funny; see the “ThankQuuu” signoff
• It’s conversational in tone.

What we didn’t:

• If we’re being picky, we could point to multiple CTAs.
• You could say there are too many emojis, but that could be part of the brand’s personality.
• There’s no unsubscribe link; you get that in later emails.

12. Smarter Artist

Can you have too much of a good thing? We think you can, as this welcome email example from Sean Platt’s and Johnny Truant’s Smarter Artist shows.

What we liked:

• It’s from a real person.
• It’s got lots of personality and humor.
• There’s tons of social proof in the form of links to successful products.
• There are freebies.
• There’s a clear unsubscribe link.

What we didn’t:

• It is way too long, though at least it’s not boring.
• The freebies people signed up for are near the end. People usually want the incentive immediately.
• There are too many links.
• It’s a wall of text.

13. TNW Deals

When you sign up for a deals email, you’ve got to expect people to try to sell to you, but does this email from TNW Deals go too far?

What we liked:

• The initial welcome message is short and sweet.
• They deliver what people are asking for: deals, and lots of them.
• There are lots of images that make it visually appealing.
• There are social media links.

What we didn’t:

• This is another very long email.
• It’s busy; there’s too much going on.
• There’s no unsubscribe link.

14. WiseStamp

This WiseStamp welcome email arrived after an upgrade to its pro service:

What we liked:

• The headline is appealing, showcasing the value proposition right upfront.
• There’s a single CTA, repeated twice.
• There’s an image showing what your landing page could look like.
• The unsubscribe link is clear.
• Social media icons are included.
• It’s short.

What we didn’t:

• There was only one thing to dislike here. The email came from the team rather than a person.

Welcome Email Mistakes To Avoid

In these welcome email examples, we’ve seen some key mistakes that might send your subscribers straight to the unsubscribe button if they can find it. Things that confuse people include:

• Sending more than one welcome email, like Adwords.
• Sending ridiculously long emails, like PostPlanner.
• Not being clear about who’s sending the email.
• Including multiple CTAs.
• Poor design.
• Failing to include trust factors like social media links.
• Being overwhelming.

Other good practice tips for welcome emails include:

• Don’t make them all about you; consider the new subscriber’s needs.
• Though we didn’t see it in this roundup, some welcome emails include passwords in plain text. This is an unnecessary security risk.

Now let’s look at five welcome email templates you can use immediately.

Welcome Email Templates

1. Welcome Email Template for New Customers:

Dear [First Name],

Welcome to [Brand Name]! We are thrilled to have you as our new customer and look forward to providing you the best possible service.

We want to extend a warm welcome by offering you [Insert Offer Details], which you can redeem during your next purchase.

We are confident that you will enjoy your time with us, and we look forward to building a lasting relationship.

Thank you for choosing [Brand Name], and we hope to serve you for years.

Best regards, [Your Name]

2. Welcome Email Template for a Newsletter Subscriber:

Dear [First Name],

Thank you for subscribing to the [Brand Name] newsletter! We’re excited to have you on board, and we can’t wait to share all our news and updates with you.

As a new subscriber, you’ll be the first to know about our latest products, promotions, and events. We’ll also send you exclusive content and special offers you won’t find anywhere else.

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [Insert Contact Details].

Thanks again for subscribing. We’re thrilled to have you on board!

Best, [Your Name]

3. Welcome Email Template for Trial User:

Dear [First Name],

Welcome to [Brand Name] trial! We are delighted to have you on board and look forward to helping you achieve your goals.

During your trial period, you will have access to all our features and tools, enabling you to test our product thoroughly. If you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team at [Insert Contact Details].

After your trial period, we would love to hear your feedback and insights on our product, which will help us improve and provide you with better service.

Thank you for choosing [Brand Name], and we hope you enjoy your trial period.

Best regards, [Your Name]

4. Welcome Email Template for App Download:

Dear [First Name],

Thank you for downloading the [Brand Name] app! We are thrilled to have you on board and look forward to providing you with an excellent mobile experience.

As a new user, we want to offer you [Insert Offer Details], which you can redeem within the app.

In the meantime, explore our app and check out its features. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [Insert Contact Details].

Thank you for choosing [Brand Name], and we hope you enjoy using our app.

Best regards, [Your Name]

5. Welcome Email Template for Introducing Your Product:

Dear [Recipient Name],

We are thrilled to introduce you to [Product Name], the latest addition to [Company Name] product line.

[Product Name] is designed to help you solve [specific problem/need], and it will provide you with [unique benefit]. Our team has worked hard to ensure that [Product Name] is user-friendly and effective.

Thank you for choosing [Company Name]. We look forward to hearing your feedback and hope [Product Name] exceeds your expectations.

Best regards, [Your Name] [Company Name]

Using the welcome email examples above and our free templates, you can start thinking about what kind of emails you want to send your subscribers.

After that, see our guide to email marketing for more help with your email marketing strategy.

The success of your welcome email strategy is closely tied to the quality of your email subscriber list. If your email list lacks subscribers who have willingly opted in to receive your newsletters, your email marketing efforts are unlikely to yield the desired results.

If you want to populate your email list with subscribers who want to hear from you, it’s important to deploy an effective email opt-in tool on your website.

OptinMonster is an excellent choice, trusted by over 2 million businesses for its ability to grow email lists effectively.

Here’s How PodBike Gets 18.22% More Email Subscribers with OptinMonster’s GeoTargeting feature.

Want to start grow your email list fast?

More on Email Marketing:

• Best Marketing Automation Tools: Streamline Your Digital Campaigns
• 63 Lead Magnet Examples to Boost Your Email List Growth
• How to Create an Email Marketing Campaign (Step-by-Step Guide + Examples)

It’s important to collect feedback from your customers and leads. That feedback can be related to the user experience (UX) on your site, market research, customer interests, the quality of your product, or the performance of your customer support.

With the right survey app, you can easily create, distribute, and analyze feedback surveys to improve your business strategy.

That’s why, in today’s post, I’m excited to share six of the best survey apps on the market.

• What to Look for in Survey Apps
• 6+ Best Survey Apps
  • 1. WPForms
  • 2. UserFeedback
  • 3. SurveyMonkey
  • 4. TypeForm
  • 5. Google Forms
  • 6. Jotform
  • BONUS: OptinMonster
• What is the Best Survey App?

What to Look for in Survey Apps

What you need in a survey app will depend on your business’s type, size, audience, and goals. However, there are a few universal characteristics you should expect in your survey app:

1. Ease of Use: The software should have an intuitive interface that lets you create and distribute surveys quickly. Look for drag-and-drop builders, customizable templates, and straightforward navigation to save time and effort.
2. Advanced Features: As your survey needs grow, advanced features become crucial. These features include conditional logic, diverse question types, and integrations with other platforms, such as CRMs (customer relationship management) and email marketing software.
3. Powerful Analytics: Creating a survey is just the first step. You also need to carefully monitor and interpret the results. Choose software that offers real-time reporting, visual data presentations like graphs and charts, and easy export options.
4. Scalability: Your survey tool should grow with your business. Whether you’re starting small or expanding rapidly, the software should support increasing response volumes and offer scalable pricing plans.

Fortunately, the online survey tools in this list check all these boxes.

Best Survey Apps

Apps	What This App is Best for	Free Plan?	Premium Pricing
WPForms	WordPress sites with a wide variety of survey and form needs		Starts at $49.50/year
UserFeedback	WordPress sites that need a dedicated survey plugin		Starts at $49.50/year
SurveyMonkey	Businesses that only need occasional basic surveys		Starts at $25/month
TypeForm	Businesses that need advanced surveys and extensive integrations		Starts at $25/month
Google Forms	Users who want surveys that seamlessly integrate with other Google tools		Starts at $6/month (Google Workspace)
Jotform	Feature-rich surveys with a top-notch visual builder		Starts at $34/month
BONUS OptinMonster	Precisely targeting your surveys to the right website users		Starts at $9.97/month

1. WPForms

WPForms is hands down the best WordPress form-building plugin available. The Pro plan includes a powerful and easy-to-use Survey and Polls addon that makes it the #1 survey app on our list today.

You can combine the Survey and Polls tools with other features like multi-page forms, email integration, and conditional logic to create highly engaging and detailed questionnaires.

We use WPForms regularly here at OptinMonster. I also installed WPForms on my own WordPress site and was able to create a form in minutes. You can build your survey from scratch or get a head start by using a premade template. The easy builder lets you drag and drop survey fields into place, including:

• Drop-down menus
• Multiple choice questions
• Single-line and paragraph text answers
• Name and email fields
• Advanced fields like file uploads, Likert scale, and more

Once you’ve placed the field, simply click on it to customize the Field Options in the left menu settings:

One of the things I love most about WPForms is its robust survey reporting features. Once you’ve published your survey, it’s easy to track the results. Here’s an example of the results from a survey that OptinMonster used for some of our customers:

I chose a horizontal bar graph to display the results, but you can also view the results as a pie, line, or vertical bar chart.

With WPForms, you get useful, real-time reports and graphs based on survey responses. This helps you collect and analyze your survey data to make smarter, data-driven decisions about your business.

You can also download these reports in an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file to import to 3rd-party marketing tools, such as a CRM platform like Salesforce or Hubspot.

And with their addons for offline surveys and form abandonment, WPForms ensures that you collect user data no matter what. It’s this type of functionality that makes WPForms the best survey app for WordPress.

You can also use a shortcode to display the survey results on any page of your site. You can even embed your WPForms survey inside an OptinMonster popup. Check out our instruction video:

Best for: WordPress sites with a wide variety of survey and form needs.

Is WForms Free? There is a free plugin that you can use for basic surveys and forms.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $49.50/year. For full survey functionality, choose the Pro plan at $199.50/year or higher.

2. UserFeedback

UserFeedback is a WordPress plugin dedicated to helping you collect feedback from your website visitors.

This software lets you easily build surveys, display them anywhere on your website, and monitor the results.

In my testing, I decided to create a website feedback survey. It was incredibly easy to get started with the Website Feedback template. It’s 1 of the 20+ templates available in the Additional Templates Add-on, which is included with the Pro plan or higher.

I added a question to the template, and I could choose between checkboxes, radio buttons, email capture, single text field, long answer, star rating, and Net Promoter Score.

Conditional logic is available for each question in your survey. I just turned on the Enable Conditional Logic toggle and chose my Display Logic settings:

UserFeedback provides 2 easy ways to display the survey form on your website: You can either embed it using a shortcode, or you can use the Targeting rules to determine when and where your survey will pop up for your website visitors.

The Targeting rules include:

• Which page or pages you want your survey to display on
• When the survey displays, such as immediately, after a certain number of second, after the user scrolls halfway down the page, or when a visitor leaves your site
• How many times each user will see your survey
• How long you want to run your survey
• Whether you want to start your survey minimized on the page

Best of all, UserFeedback even integrates with Google Analytics, providing you with further insights into your survey’s completion rate and audience.

Best for: WordPress sites that need a dedicated survey plugin.

Is UserFeedback Free? Yes, there is a free version with limited features.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $49.50/year

3. SurveyMonkey

No list of survey makers would be complete without mentioning SurveyMonkey. This free online survey tool lets you create and distribute unlimited surveys. I’ve used SurveyMonkey multiple times over the years, and it has continued to be an easy way to gather feedback.

It’s an easy-to-use, comprehensive, and all-around excellent survey app. SurveyMonkey’s dashboard is attractive and intuitive. You simply select the type of question you want to add and then edit it in the builder:

I logged in and was given 3 options to create a survey:

1. Start from scratch: Start with a blank slate and add the questions you want.
2. Use a quick template: Get a head start by customizing a premade survey.
3. Build with AI: Enter a prompt, and SurveyMonkey will use AI to build your survey for you.

These features are all free, but you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan to use advanced options like conditional logic and accepting payments. You also must have a paid plan if you want to embed SurveyMonkey surveys as popups on your website. If you use their free tool, you’ll have to share the survey link with your audience.

Best for: Businesses that only need occasional basic surveys.

Is SurveyMonkey Free? Yes, it’s free to create basic surveys without conditional logic or website embedding.

Premium Pricing: Start at $25/month

4. TypeForm

TypeForm is a robust survey app that lets you create in-depth surveys. You can create interactive surveys to get more responses, turning boring surveys into friendly conversations.

In my testing, I was impressed by just how powerful TypeForm’s survey features are. For example, I was able to add videos, images, and GIFs to a survey in just a few clicks. I also created a survey using their Qualify Leads option. TrueForm’s AI technology used information from OptinMonster’s website to create an Ideal Customer Profile, which I could add to and edit. Then, it built a lead-qualifying survey for me:

The survey was far from perfect, as the AI didn’t fully understand OptinMonster’s features. However, it gave a great starting point and included some useful questions I hadn’t thought of. For instance, TrueForm suggested asking new leads whether they prefer webinars, tutorials, or case studies when learning about software. With this survey data, our email marketing and sales teams can send more targeted and helpful information to each potential customer.

What else sets TypeForm apart from tools like SurveyMonkey? Its extensive integrations. You can connect Typeform to:

• CRMs like Hubspot, Salesforce, and Zoho
• Email marketing platforms, such as Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), Drip, Mailchimp, and ActiveCampaign.
• Payment platforms Stripe and Square
• Tracking software, such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Facebook Pixel
• And many more

Keep in mind that this advanced functionality comes at a higher price. At first glance, the pricing looks in line with SurveyMonkey’s paid plans. However, TypeForm severely limits the number of monthly responses allowed on its lower-tiered plans. For instance, the $25/month Basic plan only includes 100 responses per month, and you have you pay extra to increase that number.

Best for: Businesses that need advanced surveys and extensive integrations.

Is TypeForm Free? There’s a free plan, but you only get 10 responses per month.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $25/month

5. Google Forms

Google Forms is an excellent online survey tool like SurveyMonkey, and it’s completely free.

I’ve used Google Forms to create surveys, registration forms, applications, and more. It even includes basic conditional logic.

It’s an especially great choice for Google Workspace users, as it connects to Google Drive and Sheets. For instance, I’ve created forms that included a file upload field and was able to access those files in Drive.

I can view the results under Responses, or I can click Link to Sheets to sync the survey with a spreadsheet that will automatically update as new results come in:

You can build simple surveys, require users to enter an email address (to grow your email list), and gather the results quickly.

You can also use the embed code to add your form anywhere on your website or within an OptinMonster popup campaign:

Best for: Google Workspace users who want surveys that seamlessly integrate with other Google tools

Is Google Forms Free? Yes.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $6/month per user for full Google Workspace

6. Jotform

Jotform is a comprehensive form builder that you can use to create online surveys. It has an extremely easy drag-and-drop builder and high-quality templates to help you get started.

I was impressed by Jotform’s exceptionally clean and attractive user interface (UI). In fact, it may be the smoothest, least clunky experience of all the online survey tools on this list. That’s because you can edit your questions and options right in its visual builder:

Similar to TypeForm, Jotform offers a wide variety of integrations and advanced conditional logic. Jotform has the additional feature of letting you build fillable PDFs or convert your survey into one.

Best for: Feature-rich surveys with a top-notch visual builder

Is Jotform Free? The free version includes all features, but limites you to 5 forms and 100 montly submissions.

Premium Pricing: Starts at $34/month

Bonus App: OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best lead generation software on the market. Our popups, floating bars, and other onsite campaigns make it SUPER EASY for you to encourage your visitors to fill in surveys. This means OptinMonster is a great online survey app that can be used in many different contexts.

Let’s take a look at 4 ways OptinMonster can help you create, collect, and promote surveys on your site:

• Embed forms within a campaign: Easily embed survey forms in your popups, floating bars, slide-in scroll boxes, and more. Then distribute and promote the survey across your site to a targeted audience.
• Create short surveys directly in OptinMonster: If you only need to ask a few basic questions, you don’t even need a dedicated survey app. You can add fields like dropdowns, radio buttons, checkboxes, and text fields right in our drag-and-drop builder.
• Redirect traffic for longer surveys: Create exit popups, fullscreen welcome mats, or other optin campaigns with a button that redirects users to your long-form survey. This lets you get more responses from your organic traffic.
• Target your audience: Create a unique user experience by personalizing your messages and targeting them to the right people. This gets more people engaged with your survey form.

OptinMonster’s Page-Level Targeting and Exit-Intent® Technology can detect when a visitor has completed their purchase and is leaving your site. You can then trigger a popup to ask them to take a short feedback survey to tell you about their experience before they leave.

Check out how Kennedy Blue increases sales by 50% using OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent® popups to promote their customer surveys and get valuable feedback.

At the end of the day, OptinMonster is a great survey app because it encourages the right people to take your survey.

And since you can integrate OptinMonster with your email marketing service, you can use your survey data to segment your email list and send more targeted email campaigns.

Want to try it out? Click below to start using the best survey app to get more survey responses.

What Is the Best Survey App?

WPForms is the best survey app for WordPress websites.

WPForms is flexible, easy to use, and loaded with features. It makes survey design a breeze. You can embed it with OptinMonster to create powerful survey popups on your website.

Plus, it does more than just create surveys. That means you can use WPForms to make any form on your website, such as:

• Newsletter signups
• Event registrations
• Payment collection
• And much more.

If you don’t use WordPress, then your specific needs will determine which tool is best for you. If you need to create robust online surveys with lots of integrations, then I suggest TypeForm.

I hope this list helps you choose the best survey app for your business, so you can start collecting important data right away.

Want to learn more about online surveys? Check out these resources:

• Survey Best Practices: Everything You Need to Know
• 9 Ways to Collect Customer Feedback on Your Website
• How to Create a WordPress Survey Popup

These posts will have everything you need to increase survey response rates, learn about your audience, and increase profits.

Want to target your surveys to the right people at just the right time?

Get started with OptinMonster today!

Scarcity marketing works because it increases the perceived value of a product. When something feels rare or exclusive, we tend to want it more. This can lead to higher sales and a competitive edge for businesses that use it effectively.

In this article, we’ll share 34 scarcity examples to help you boost conversions.

What Is Scarcity Marketing?

Scarcity marketing is a strategy that leverages the fear of missing out (FOMO) by creating a sense of urgency through limited availability or time-sensitive offers. It’s a powerful technique for increasing perceived value and driving immediate action.

Here’s how it works:

• Limited Supply: This could involve limited quantities of a product, exclusive collections, or limited-time offers.
• Time Pressure: Countdown timers, flash sales, and “only a few left” notifications create a sense of urgency and encourage people to buy before it’s too late.
• Exclusivity: Making a product or service feel exclusive can make it more desirable. This could involve VIP access, limited edition releases, or high-end products.

By using these tactics, scarcity marketing aims to:

• Increase Demand: When something feels scarce, people are more likely to want it, leading to higher sales.
• Boost Perceived Value: Limited availability suggests a product is more valuable or desirable, making people more willing to pay a premium.
• Drive Action: The fear of missing out encourages people to make a purchase decision quickly before the opportunity disappears.

Scarcity marketing can be a powerful tool, but it’s important to use it ethically. If done wrong, it can come across as manipulative or inauthentic.

Let’s take a look at 34 examples of scarcity marketing.

Scarcity Marketing Examples

We have curated these scarcity examples from real-life brands that have used the scarcity principle in their online campaigns. The examples offer several ideas on how to apply the scarcity principle in your marketing.

1. Cracku: Urgency Through Countdown Timers
2. Wildist: 50% Discount for 2 Days
3. Tinder: Fear of Missing Out
4. Booking.com: Book Before It’s Too Late
5. Chemical Guys: Beat the Clock Sale
6. Bud Light: Limited Edition Pack
7. JACK1T: Only 2 Pieces in Stock
8. Clubhouse: Invite-Only Sign-Ups
9. Amazon Prime: Discount While Supplies Last
10. Bed Bath & Beyond: Top Deals Are Scarce
11. BookMyShow: Seats Filing Fast
12. Netflix: Only On Netflix
13. Tesla Apparrel: Notify When Available
14. MasterClass: BOGO Meets Limited-Time Offer
15. Coke: Share a Coke
16. Airbnb: Rare Find
17. Float: Request Access
18. Moto Z: Limited Time Offer
19. HappySales: Join the Waitlist
20. Nokia: Black Friday With a Twist
21. Amazon: Today’s Lightning Deals
22. Ninety9: Happy Hour Deals
23. Best Buy: Flash Sale
24. iHerb: 13 Sold in 24 Hours
25. Fleet Feet: Clearance Sale
26. Thread Up: End-of-Year Sale
27. Pulp & Press: Abandoned Cart Email
28. Asos: Black Friday Deal
29. Catalina Crunch: Early Access SMS Marketing
30. Jeffree Star: A Different Take on Scarcity
31. G Fuel: Giveaways Worth $10,000
32. Eightvape: Christmas Holiday Offer
33. Udemy: Sale Ends Today
34. Growth Marketing: Last Chance to Register

1. Cracku: Urgency Through Countdown Timers

Countdown timers are the best scarcity examples in marketing. Cracku, an online student coaching portal, used OptinMonster to create countdown timers on its website.

They combined it with a limited-time offer and increased conversions by 300%.

2. Wildist: 50% Discount for 2 Days

Wildist offers people to sign up for its workshops at half price, but only for 2 days.

Notice the testimonials from past customers on the top-right of the page. Social proof earns you trust and improves website conversions by 34%.

Pro-Tip: Check out this list of social proof notification apps you can use to add credibility to your site! We recommend TrustPulse. It’s the best social proof notification tool out there.

3. Tinder: Fear of Missing Out

Tinder uses a push notification for its mobile app users to improve product adoption. They notify inactive users that their profiles won’t be visible to possible matches if they don’t start using the app.

The clever use of scarcity triggers fear of missing out (FOMO) in buyers. Research suggests that about 69% of millennials experience FOMO, and 60% make impulsive purchases because of it.

In other words, FOMO works wonders in convincing people to take action.

Pro-tip: Want to create push notifications like Tinder’s? Take a look at PushEngage. It’s the world’s best push notification software that’s easy to install and set up.

4. Booking.com: Book Before It’s Too Late

Scarcity examples are more common in marketplaces with fluctuating supply and demand of goods and services. For instance, the travel and hospitality industry.

Booking.com is a master at scarcity marketing. Take a look at how they imply that this deal on a hotel won’t be available for very long.

5. Chemical Guys: Beat the Clock Sale

Car detailing company Chemical Guys creates urgency for website visitors with multiple limited-time offers.

The sooner buyers book a service, the more discounts they get.

6. Bud Light: Limited Edition Pack

Bud Light collaborated with the Philadelphia Eagles to launch a special edition commemorative beer pack to celebrate the team’s Super Bowl victory.

The beverage company produced 20,418 packs to honor the victory date: 02/04/2018. Special edition marketing also allows brands to sell products at higher prices. Fans don’t mind buying limited quantities of special merchandise at a premium.

7. JACK1T: Only 2 Pieces in Stock

JACK1T lets you know when they are running low on a particular item. This is a good scarcity example that highlights how creating urgency in marketing can improve conversions.

8. Clubhouse: Invite-Only Sign-Ups

Remember when Clubhouse was a rage? One of the reasons it became so popular in such a short time was because it created an illusion of exclusivity.

Only people who had an invite from existing Clubhouse members could join the social audio platform. This drove a huge demand for Clubhouse sign-ups.

Clubhouse had another level of scarcity baked into its platform. Initially, it was available only in iOS. A year later after its launch, it was launched on the Android platform.

Although the craze for the platform has died down, it remains a shining example of how to use a sense of scarcity and exclusivity to increase sign-ups.

9. Amazon Prime: Discount While Supplies Last

Amazon Prime Now has a weekly ad with a time-sensitive discount.

For more examples like these, read our post on how to use discount codes to increase conversions.

10. Bed Bath & Beyond: Top Deals Are Scarce

Bed Bath & Beyond uses a unique promo offer for each product category in its website’s Top Deals section. All deals have footer text to create urgency in buyers:

• Limited time
• Valid thru 2/2
• While supplies last

This is to let the buyers know they’ll get the most value for their money if they buy sooner.

11. BookMyShow: Seats Filing Fast

India’s largest online movie and events booking platform BookMyShow uses a popup to convert movie lovers to buy its most expensive tickets.

Let’s see how it works.

The most expensive seats have better reclining, extra leg room, and the best view of the screen. The booking page suggests that people might lose out on the premium experience if they don’t act fast.

They also use ember color text for the fast-selling seats. This is an example of demand-induced scarcity. What color you choose for CTA buttons can impact conversions.

12. Netflix: Only On Netflix

Netflix knows that movie lovers will go to any extent to watch their favorite movies and shows. It buys the copyright of high-demand content like Kill Boksoon and Money Heist.

It even has an entire genre called Only On Netflix for non-subscribers to browse. Netflix drives new subscriptions by making high-demand content available only on its platform.

13. Tesla Apparrel: Notify When Available

Tesla has an eCommerce shop that sells vehicle accessories, battery chargers, and apparel. The website has a functionality for buyers to receive an email notification for out-of-stock items.

This is a genius scarcity marketing example on many levels.

• First, it implies that out-of-stock products are scarce resources. People are more likely to opt in for notifications if they think it’s going to fly off the shelves.
• Second, it’s also a lead generation technique. Buyers who optin for a notification will also start getting marketing emails from Tesla for other products in the future.

Pro-tip: Want to target and convert website visitors based on their past interactions? Use OptinMonster’s Onsite Retargeting®. It lets you optimize campaigns for returning visitors and boost your eCommerce sales.

14. MasterClass: BOGO Meets Limited-Time Offer

Buy one get one (BOGO) is a great way to convert customers and increase your average order value.

In this scarcity example, MasterClass offers 2 memberships for the cost of 1. It combines the discount with a holiday offer that’s ending soon.

Product bundling like this gets buyers to convert faster because they get a 2x return on investment (ROI) on their purchase.

15. Coke: Share a Coke

The world-famous beverage company Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign was a hit when it came out. The campaign allowed customers to buy Coke bottles with the names of their friends and family members.

The campaign sold 1.25 million drinks in the U.S. and improved sales by 11% in a year.

Coke ran the campaign at the expense of replacing its brand name from the bottles. It’s a classic example of scarcity advertising coupled with emotional intelligence.

Depending on where you live, you can still order personalized Coke bottles from their website. Notice not 1 but 2 website notification bars on the website.

The company sure knows how to create multiple sale opportunities on a website!

16. Airbnb: Rare Find

Airbnb makes its customers feel lucky to find properties that aren’t sold out. It’s the company’s way to highlight resource scarcity for their premium property listings.

17. Float: Request Access

Float asks new users to request access to the app instead of handing out free signups. This means their platform isn’t easy for everyone to sign up for.

The message is clear: you might not be allowed if you don’t fit the bill. The scarcity of access makes it immediately appealing.

18. Moto Z: Limited Time Offer

Moto Z offers its customers a scarce opportunity to buy its new smartphone for only $200.

Limited-time offers convert like crazy.

An online clothing company ran an experiment offering one of its products with and without a limited-time next-day shipping offer. The one with the relative scarcity offer increased sales by 226%.

19. HappySales: Join the Waitlist

HappySales is a business-to-business (B2B) sales technology software that’s yet to launch. Its website allows users to join the private beta. When you click the CTA button, it takes you to a sign-up form.

But instead of asking users to sign up for free, Happysales encourages joining privately. This implies that they don’t entertain everyone. It’s an exclusive circle of users.

20. Nokia: Black Friday With a Twist

Nokia sent this marketing email to its customers a few years back. Instead of offering instant discounts or pre-orders, Nokia made it easy for customers to create a personalized wishlist.

This is among the best Black Friday-related scarcity examples.

21. Amazon: Today’s Lightning Deals

Amazon’s “Lightning Deals” are offered daily for only a few hours.

22. Ninety9: Happy Hour Deals

Protea Hotel in Kampala uses happy hour discounts to drive traffic to its retro bar. You can get amazing discounts on a limited variety of drinks, but only between 5-7 pm.

23. Best Buy: Flash Sale

Best Buy’s flash sale offers multiple scarcity examples rolled into one.

The sale is live only for 48 hours. The website notification bar lets users know the exact time and date when the sale will start and end. This heightens the sense of scarcity.

Best Buy also reminds buyers of the limited availability of products. And that they won’t accept rainchecks.

24. iHerb: 13 Sold in 24 Hours

iHerb’s website has multiple cues to convert visitor traffic. It uses a notification bar to offer a 20% discount, While also reminding buyers that the offer ends on a specific date.

Further down, iHerb lets people see the number of products other buyers have bought in the last 24 hours. If you don’t act on time, the product might run out of stock.

The limited availability of resources is one of the causes of scarcity.

Pro-tip: Are your customers dropping off of your website due to out-of-stock products? Read our guide on how to win more sales with out-of-stock pages.

25. Fleet Feet: Clearance Sale

A lot of online retailers use clearance sales to sell surplus products at reduced prices. Online apparel stores especially have clearance sales because they are closing down or need to clear old stocks to make room for new product inventory.

In any case, a clearance sale implies that the discounted offering is going to run for a short time. Here, Fleet Feet has an entire product category called Clearance with discounted products.

26. Thread Up: End-of-Year Sale

End-of-year sales are similar to clearance sale campaigns. Thread Up, a second-hand apparel store, combines its year-end sale with multiple other promotions.

The copy on the website offers a discount code and free shipping. It also reminds customers about the sale ending date and time to trigger buyers’ scarcity mindset.

27. Pulp & Press: Abandoned Cart Email

Pulp & Press sends buyers a limited-time discount on their orders to reduce cart abandonment. This is a great way to create artificial scarcity and convert lost opportunities into sales.

28. Asos: Black Friday Deal

Asos offers a Black Friday discount code. It follows its promotion by reminding people to stay safe and be ahead of the surge.

This is among the best scarcity examples that explicitly communicate the limited resources and time.

29. Catalina Crunch: Early Access SMS Marketing

Catalina Crunch offers users early access to its Black Friday deals. When visitors click on the signup button, the website asks them to enter their phone number.

These kinds of optin campaigns are trade-offs between what buyers want and what sellers can offer.

30. Jeffree Star: A Different Take on Scarcity

Jeffree Star has a different take on creating scarcity.

Instead of creating scarcity with limited-time offers or discounts, they do it with delivery times.

Jeffree Star uses a website alert banner to let customers know that orders after 12/19 will be delivered after Christmas. This means the earlier people place their orders, the earlier they will receive them.

Nice way to evoke scarcity!

31. G Fuel: Giveaways Worth $10,000

G Fuel runs a giveaway contest on its website for visitors to enter a chance to win 1 grand prize. Or, they can enter to win 10 runner-up incentives.

Either way, G Fuel’s scarcity example is not based on time. It’s built on the probability of winning by participating in the sweepstakes and answering a simple question.

Pro-tip: Do you want an easy way to run giveaways in WordPress? Get RafflePress. RafflePress is the best plugin that lets you run successful giveaways in WooCommerce.

32. Eightvape: Christmas Holiday Offer

Eightvape displays a banner on its website hero section, offering customers tempting Christmas offers for a limited period.

The website also uses a Yes/No campaign to convert visitors into leads. Yes/No campaigns offer people a no-brainer choice: to choose an easy option or skip it for an opportunity cost.

33. Udemy: Sale Ends Today

Udemy has a one-day flash sale for visitors to enroll in one of its online courses. The website also offers a discount code and has a notification bar with a countdown timer.

34. Growth Marketing: Last Chance to Register

Growth Marketing’s email uses an image of a clock to suggest the need to act fast and create urgency. The CTA adds to the sense of scarcity further.

These CTAs work well both on your site and in your email marketing copy. Read our guide to creating the perfect call to action for more tips to improve conversions.

Time Is Running Out: Use These Scarcity Marketing Examples Now

See what we did there? Scarcity can be a great incentive for buyers to act sooner. Take inspiration from the examples in this post to apply in marketing your business.

If you’re new to marketing, you may also want to check out our comprehensive lead generation guide. Lead generation is the starting point for most things in marketing.

If you’re already running lead generation campaigns on your website, get started with OptinMonster. OptinMonster is the #1 lead generation tool that helps you build marketing campaigns to capture leads through popups, floating bars, sidebar optins, and more.

Well-optimized sites get more and more traffic over time, which means more leads and sales. Without SEO ranking, searchers won’t be able to find your site, and all your hard work will be for nothing.

In this guide, we will share the updated and essential SEO ranking factors you need to dominate organic search results.

Before we get into the details of each ranking factor, let’s take a quick look at the basics of search engine optimization ranking.

Exclusive Bonus Download the SEO Ranking Factors Cheat Sheet to boost your search rankings quickly.

We’ve created this handy table of contents if you want to skip ahead to the SEO ranking factors.

1. A Secure and Accessible Website
2. Page Speed (Including Mobile Page Speed)
3. Mobile Friendliness
4. Domain Age, URL, and Authority
5. Optimized Content
6. Technical SEO
7. User Experience (RankBrain)
8. Links (Backlinks, Outbound and Internal)
9. Social Signals
10. Real Business Information

Recommended ResourceNeed more website traffic? Learn how to rank #1 on Google with our Ultimate Guide to SEO in 2023.

Stick around until the end of this article as we finally answer the question that plagues most beginner SEO learners: which is more important, pleasing Google or my audience?

Understanding SEO, or “How Do I Rank Higher on Google?”

Many people wonder how Google rankings work. So before we get into the actual SEO ranking factors, let’s start by answering some basic questions most people have about SEO.

What Is SEO Ranking?

SEO ranking is a website’s position on search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords or phrases. The higher a website ranks, the more likely it is to be seen, resulting in more clicks and traffic to the website.

Appearing in the top 3 results is excellent because your click-through rates skyrocket the closer you get to #1, as shown in the image provided by Backlinko below:

Appearing on the first page within the top 10 results is also useful. That’s because 95% of people never pass the first page.

Hence the famous joke in the Google SEO ranking world: where’s the best place to hide a dead body?

On page 2 of Google.

What Does Google Look for in SEO?

Google aims to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Delivering relevant search results is a huge part of that. Here’s how they work:

First, Google’s search bots (pieces of automated software called “spiders” or “crawlers”) crawl the web. Sounds creepy, we know. But all that means is they visit web pages.

Second, they add correctly optimized and crawlable pages to Google’s index and catalog them.

Third, when people search Google, it shows what it thinks are the most relevant results based on the search terms they enter (out of the trillions of pages in Google’s index).

Google has various deeply complex algorithms to decide which content gets displayed and in which order. But we’ll get into all that fun stuff later.

Once your page lands on the SERP, you have to rely on your page titles and meta descriptions to get searchers to click your link and visit your site.

How Do Google Search Rankings Work?

When people want to find information, they type or say words related to what they’re looking for. Those are called keywords, and we’ll look at those in the content optimization section of this guide.

But keeping your website ranking on Google isn’t just about making the most out of competitive keywords. It’s also about the quality of information.

According to Google’s own search quality ratings, when it indexes the main content of each page, it checks factors like:

• Purpose of the page
• Content quality and amount
• Website info and info about the content creator
• Website reputation and content creator reputation
• User interaction with the page (time on page, bounce rates, and so on)
• Expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T)

In just a moment, we’re going to explore that last one (E-A-T) in more detail because it has become very important.

For now, it’s enough to know that all the factors listed above go into Google’s algorithm and help to determine SEO ranking.

Based on the rating guidelines above, Google shows searchers the most relevant, high-quality results related to what they’re looking for. The most relevant are shown first, with the rest shown over successive pages.

One of the goals of addressing SEO ranking factors is to let Google know when your pages on your site are relevant to particular search queries, so people will click the links and visit your site.

Before getting into two types of SEO, let’s explore the concept of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in greater detail.

What Is E-A-T and Why Does It Matter?

In August 2018, Google rolled out the “medic update,” which emphasized expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) as major Google ranking factors. They even changed some instances of “high-quality content” to “high EAT.”

The goal of this change was to ensure that users weren’t just getting the highest quality content but also getting the right information from that content. And this is super important to understand.

Google realized that most searchers come to their platform for just about everything. That means their users’ lives could be seriously impacted for the worse if the wrong results appear.

Websites that could lead to potentially life-altering results fall under the umbrella “your money or your life” (YMYL). Think about medical sites, financial planning sites, or anything that could change the status of someone’s happiness, health, and wealth.

When someone goes to Google for information that could have real-world consequences, Google wants to be sure it’s giving its users the most accurate information possible.

Part of this means evaluating not only a page’s content but the creator’s reputation as well.

So instead of focusing solely on what a site’s page says, Google now tries to understand who is saying it. This is particularly true for the YMYL sites.

That means looking at each category individually:

• Expertise: Does the author of a piece of content have the requisite skills and knowledge in their field?
• Authority: Is this the best source to answer the searcher’s question, or is there another “go-to” person who would be a better source?
• Trustworthiness: Does the author provide an honest, unbiased presentation of the topic in their content?

But what is Google’s exact formula for measuring E-A-T? Well, that’s the tricky part.

No one outside of Google really knows.

However, we know they have a large team of human searchers to make sure E-A-T is being measured as accurately as possible. As Ahrefs explains, Google measures E-A-T in three

steps:

• Engineers create an algorithm to improve search results
• Quality Raters (the human searchers) see search results with and without the changes made by the engineers
• Google takes feedback from the Quality Raters to decide whether or not to use the algorithm change permanently

It’s not a perfect system yet. But it is surprisingly accurate at measuring a site’s expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

Now, some SEO-ers downplay the importance of E-A-T as an SEO ranking factor. And it’s hard to concretely argue with them because, again, no one truly understands Google’s complex ranking algorithms.

That said, some reputable people have documented strong correlations between E-A-T and ranking.

SEO expert Marie Haynes, CEO of Marie Haynes Consulting (MHC), sheds some light on how E-A-T affects SEO rankings:

“The team at MHC has seen quite a few websites that we believe have been negatively affected by Google Quality updates because they have a lack of E-A-T. We have also had the joy of helping businesses to improve their Google E-A-T with resulting traffic increases.”

Ok, but what does any of this mean for you, and how can you increase your E-A-T? Here are a few helpful tips:

• Create a detailed “About Us” page on your site
• Optimize your page for searcher intent (which we’ll cover later)
• Display any awards, certificates, or credentials proudly on your site
• Build your authoritativeness across the web with guest posts
• Respond to both positive and negative reviews
• Keep all the information on your page as unbiased and as accurate as possible
• Provide an easily accessible contact page with various ways your users can reach you or your team

These are all ways that people can increase their E-A-T for higher SEO rankings. And much of it boils down to using best practices to manage your online reputation.

Let’s be clear, though: there’s never a guarantee of a page one or #1 rank, and with SEO guidelines changing all the time, search engine rankings change with them.

But now, let’s better understand a couple of SEO terms you’ll hear a lot in the marketing world.

What is On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO?

Two terms you’ll hear mentioned a lot when talking about SEO ranking factors are on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

On-page SEO refers to factors on your own website that you can optimize, such as the underlying code and the content.

Off-page SEO refers to actions taken outside your site to affect your site’s trustworthiness and authority by building the right inbound links and social signals.

Both types are included in the top SEO ranking factors. Before we hit our top 10 ranking factors, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about monitoring and tracking ranking.

How To Monitor Search Engine Rankings

Before improving your SEO ranking, you’ll need to know your starting point.

There are a couple of ways to find this. First, search Google using the terms you think your customers will use. Use an incognito or private window in your browser so Google’s personalization doesn’t skew the results. See where your content appears.

However, this is impractical for larger sites with hundreds of pages, so you’ll likely want an SEO tool to help you out.

For example, with Semrush, you can type your domain into the search box, wait for the report to run, and see the top organic keywords you’re ranking for. Or, use their keyword position tracking tool to track the exact keywords you’re trying to SEO rank for.

But Semrush is just one of your many options. Check out our guide for some other keyword research tools.

Now let’s look in detail at the top SEO ranking factors and how to go about mastering Google search engine optimization ranking. After all, SEO is mostly about getting that #1 spot, specifically on Google.

Top 10 Current SEO Ranking Factors for Google

1. A Secure and Accessible Website

Unsurprisingly, the first of our SEO ranking factors has to do with having the right kind of URL. Specifically, that’s a URL that Google’s crawlers can easily reach and crawl.

In other words, Google has to be able to visit the URL and look at the page content to understand what that page is about. To help the bots out, you’ll need the following:

• A website created with a well-coded website builder
• A robots.txt file that tells Google where it can and can’t look for your site information
• A sitemap that lists all your pages

If you’re running a WordPress site, you can set up a sitemap via All in One SEO. If not, then you can use an online sitemap generator.

HTTPS isn’t a Google ranking factors in deciding whether or not to index a page, but Google’s own John Mueller has tweeted that it’s a “light-weight ranking factor” and that “having HTTPS is great for users.” We at OptinMonster agree.

If you still need to enable SSL security on your website, get to it.

2. Page Speed (Including Mobile Page Speed)

Page speed has been cited as one of the leading SEO ranking factors for years. Google wants to improve users’ web experience, and fast-loading web pages will do that.

Google announced a search engine algorithm update focused on mobile page speed that started affecting sites in July 2018. It could be penalized if your site doesn’t load fast on mobile devices.

Use Google’s PageSpeed Insight tool to see how your site stacks up.

And, if you’re using WordPress, check out these tips for speeding up a WordPress site from WPBeginner.

But the best idea is to start using Google Search Console (if you’re not already). This has an entire section dedicated to updating you on your site’s performance, including speed.

For a more in-depth overview, check out this guide on how to use Google Search Console to improve your SEO.

3. Mobile Friendliness

While we’re on the subject of mobile, mobile-friendliness is another major SEO ranking factor. More people use mobile devices than desktops to access the web, and that’s one reason there’ve been changes in how Google ranks search results.

Google’s mobile-first index is now a reality, which means it’s drawing its results from mobile-optimized sites first rather than sites geared to desktop computers. If your site is mobile-optimized, you can avoid getting needlessly under-ranked.

Many of the SEO ranking factors we’ll look at in this article will help you lay the foundation for a good search engine ranking, but you also have to look after user experience when people land on your site.

Things to look at include whether you:

• Have a responsive site that automatically resizes to fit the device
• Use large fonts for easy readability on a small screen
• Include accessible menus so your site is easy to navigate
• Ensure that ads don’t hide essential content

Get more tips on mobile-friendly design to improve Google search ranking in our guide to improving your mobile conversion rate.

If you have the team, the time, and the energy, you should explore Google AMP (accelerated mobile pages). The upside is that your pages load nearly instantly from mobile devices. There have also been rumors that Google ranks sites built with AMP more highly than others.

The downside is that you need to make another version of your site following AMP’s guidelines. Then, you need to maintain everything. As you can imagine, this can be a time-intensive project.

But whether you decide to try Google AMP or not, you still need to be sure that your site is 100% optimized for mobile devices.

4. Domain Age, URL, and Authority

Did you know that nearly 60% of the sites with a top ten Google search ranking are three or more years old? Data from an Ahrefs study of two million pages suggests fewer sites than a year old achieve that ranking.

So if you’ve had your site for a while and have optimized it using the tips in this article, that’s already an advantage.

In some cases, the domain name matters. Though Google has penalized exact-match domains (those where the target keyword is in the URL), that penalty is generally for spammy sites with thin content.

Research from Moz shows that exact-match domains deemed relevant, valuable, and high-quality can see a ranking boost because of it. However, if you already have an established website, you don’t need to go looking for an exact-match domain for your business.

What is the best route for choosing your domain? Focus on a URL that reflects your business and optimize the heck out of it instead!

When it comes to SEO ranking factors, authority matters. As you’ll see, that’s usually a combination of great content (see the next tip) and off-page SEO signals like inbound links and social shares. And thanks to E-A-T, it can also include the authority of the content’s creator.

Moz has codified this into metrics called page authority and domain authority scores, both ranked from 0 to 100, which tell you how likely a particular page or domain is to rank in organic search results.

Related ContentDomain Authority: What It Is and How to Improve Yours

You can check domain authority or page authority with Open Site Explorer. Just plug your URL into the onsite search box, and you’ll get a report showing domain authority, page authority, established links, and new links.

We’ll look more at linking practices to improve SEO ranking in tip #8.

5. Optimized Content

We’ve discussed content in this guide to Google SEO ranking factors. That’s because it’s one of the most important search ranking factors (right up there with user experience, links, and RankBrain, which we’ll get to in a while).

Now let’s dig down and see what optimizing content for SEO really means.

As our keyword research guide said, Google’s search algorithm relies on keywords. These are the words and phrases searchers use when seeking information. They’re also the words and phrases describing your site’s topics.

Ideally, those will match up. That’s why it’s so important to use keywords in your content.

One negative SEO ranking factor to be aware of is duplicate content. For SEO, fresh, original content is always best. And if you have similar content, tell Google which one should be ranked as most authoritative using canonical URLs.

But one of the biggest questions we get at OptinMonster is about how to use LSI keywords to optimize content. So let’s start there.

Understanding LSI Keywords and SEO Ranking

SEO isn’t just about the main keyword. It’s also important to include terms related to the main terms people are searching for. These are called LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords. They provide a kind of online word association to help Google know which results to show.

For example, using the right LSI keywords will tell Google that when searchers type in “mini,” your page is relevant to the car rather than the skirt, and vice versa.

It’s worth noting that as more people search by voice, content optimization includes optimizing for questions and natural language searches. That means some LSI keywords will be longer because people speak differently than they type.

Think about it: Let’s say you own a restaurant. And half of your customers type the phrase “best restaurant near me.” But then people also search for “what’s the best restaurant in Montreal” when searching by voice.

Even though both questions are targeting the same thing, Google’s results may show up differently. Using LSI keywords would be one way of making sure your restaurant ranks for both sets of questions. The more help you can give to Google to understand your content, the more likely your page SEO rank will increase in your niche.

Here’s an important point, though: keyword stuffing is outlawed because it will result in poor-quality web pages and will hurt your SEO ranking.

So make sure that once you’ve targeted your keyword, you’re only including it (and your LSI keywords) in an organic and natural way.

Understanding Search Intent for Content Optimization

Search intent is also important when optimizing content. That means understanding what people are really looking for when they type in search keywords.

For example, let’s say you’ve identified “Florida real estate” as a keyword you want to rank for. You might think that writing content for people looking for real estate in Florida is a good idea. But if the people searching for that term also include realtors looking to sell in Florida, your content won’t meet their needs, and your page won’t rank.

Through a series of low click-through rates and high bounce rates (which we’ll discuss more in a moment), Google will pick up on the fact that your content isn’t matching their user’s search intent.

Sometimes, it’s clear what people are looking for. For example, if they use the word “compare,” they’re likely trying to decide between buying a product. And if they use the word “buy,” they want to make a purchase.

The keywords they use will change depending on whether they want to:

• Find a particular website (navigational)
• Get the answer to a question (informational)
• Research information before making a purchase (investigational)
• Make a purchase (transactional)

Well-optimized business sites will include content for each of those search types.

So how do you make sure your keyword matches user intent? Go straight to the source!

Open a Google search in your in-private browser and type in your keyword. See which results are currently ranking and determine whether or not your content would be a good fit. If not, you need to restart your keyword research. If so, take this opportunity to see why certain pages are ranking.

You can do a competitive analysis of the top 10 results in the SERP to see how you can make your content even better! Then you can fully optimize your content by making it an improvement over the current search results.

Do you still need clarification? Learn more about keyword ranking, LSI keywords, and keyword intent.

Is Content Length an SEO Ranking Factor?

In a word, yes. Google wants content to be quality and have some length to it. While writing more words to stretch out the size is never advisable, if a subject calls for depth, give it depth.

The research suggests that content over 2000 words gets more top ten positions in Google search engine rankings.

This isn’t a rule set in stone, and there are certainly some exceptions. But as a general rule of thumb, your content should be around the 2k word mark or more if you really want to be competitive on the SERP.

Longer content attracts more links and shares too, which are two other important SEO ranking signals we’ll cover shortly.

SEO Ranking Factors: Answer Boxes or the “Zero Position”

Google’s increasingly delivering answers via answer boxes is another aspect of optimizing for better search engine rankings. Here’s what an answer box looks like:

Our experience suggests that optimizing for answer boxes means:

• Answering questions
• Including the questions as headings with properly formatted title tags (more about that in the next tip)
• Ensuring that the answers are correct, relevant, and not too long
• Targeting content to keywords that already have answer boxes
• Adding lists or tables

There is one downside to the coveted “zero position” however:

It sometimes hinders people from clicking through to your site.

Since people get the answer to their questions directly, they may have no reason to continue to the content. That means you may have 100,000 people see your slot in the answer box, but only 10,000 actually click through to the article.

But let’s be honest: getting that zero position rocks because it means Google thinks highly of your content (which is always flattering), you’ll get way more brand recognition, and you’ll also end up with more traffic than you would have.

Plus, if you don’t get that spot, someone else will.

Using Video to Improve SEO Ranking

Our roundup of video marketing stats shows that:

• People are watching videos across all age groups
• Some 79% of people would rather watch a video than read a blog post
• People use video to help them make purchase decisions (remember those transactional searches?)

The bottom line? Start to include videos in your content strategy. Video gets read, shared, and linked, providing plenty of signals to amplify your search ranking.

6. Technical SEO

We said earlier that getting the code right is one aspect of optimizing content for better SEO rankings. This can be intimidating, especially if you’re more of a wordsmith and less of a “techie.”

Here are some of the aspects you can control even if you’re not a coder:

• Add keyword phrases in page titles, which is where Google first looks to determine which content is relevant to which search
• Use header tags to show content hierarchy starting with your title at h1 and then use h2 or h3 for subheads
• Create a meta description that both entices readers and includes your keyword phrase
• Keep those meta descriptions short and catchy at around 160 characters
• Use keyword phrases in image alt tags to show how those images are relevant to the main content
• Include alt tags also help visually impaired people enjoy your site with screenreaders
• Use schema markup to tell Google what kind of content you’re producing

You can easily set all of this up with a plugin like All in One SEO; it’s the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market.

With All in One SEO, you can set a focus key phrase and additional key phrases, and the TruSEO on-page analysis will score how well your pages and posts are optimized. Plus, it gives you an actionable checklist you can use to make improvements.

The on-page SEO checklist also includes a smart meta tag generator to easily set your metadata, such as SEO titles and meta descriptions with dynamic fields like current year, month, custom fields, author info, and more.

Other powerful All in One SEO features include schema markup, smart XML sitemaps, robots.txt editor, SEO health check, and more.

7. User Experience (RankBrain)

Google’s been using artificial intelligence to better rank web pages for a while. It calls that signal RankBrain. This includes other signals that affect your search engine ranking. These include:

• Click-through rate: the percentage of people who click to visit your site after an entry comes up in search results
• Bounce rate (especially pogo-sticking): the number of people who click on your page and quickly go back to the search results
• Dwell time: how long visitors stay on your site after they’ve arrived

If people land on your site, don’t like it, and bounce away, then Google will think it’s irrelevant to their needs. If enough people do this, you might find your site more difficult to rank higher in search results.

This indicates that your content needs to match the searcher’s intent. You should go back and target a more effective keyword.

In contrast, if people click through to your web page and stick around for a while, that tells Google your content is relevant to their search.

So when you optimize titles, descriptions, and content to get the clicks and deliver value on the other end, you can boost your search engine ranking.

8. Links (Backlinks, Outbound and Internal)

As we said at the start, the web is built on links. So, naturally, links are a crucial SEO ranking signal. There are three kinds of links to think about:

• Inbound links
• Outbound links
• Internal links

All three are typically tied to a descriptive anchor text.

Inbound Links

Google uses inbound links to help determine your content’s authority and relevance.

The best-case scenario is where an authoritative site includes a relevant link to yours in a piece of their content. So, if the Content Marketing Institute has a link to your content marketing resource, that’ll be perceived better than if a random person with a low-quality site links to it.

You’ve likely heard inbound links referred to as “backlinks.” You aim to get as many highly authoritative sites to link back to you. That also means you want to have very few inbound links from low-quality domains.

You can find your inbound links using a tool like Semrush.

Outbound Links

At the same time, you want to show that you’re creating quality content for your visitors. That involves using outbound links by linking to relevant, authoritative sites in your niche.

So does that mean you should give out tons of outbound links to boost your authority? Absolutely not.

All it means is that as you’re doing research, you should only pull from reliable sources with high domain authority. To be honest, for your users’ sake, you should probably be doing this anyway to ensure you provide the most value.

Internal Links

Finally, linking to your own content can tie pages together for both Google and your visitors, making each page more valuable. If you have an authoritative page with a link to another page on your site, that helps your visitors find the other page and pass on some authority.

This helps that second page boost its search engine ranking.

As you create new content, build a solid web of internal links so your pages can support one another. Also, don’t forget what we said at the start of this section:

All three types of links are tied to descriptive anchor text.

When you add a link to a piece of text in your content, that text should describe where the link is headed!

You can use All in One SEO’s Link Assistant addon to speed up the internal linking process. It will automatically generate a link report for your site that gives you insight into the following:

• Linking opportunities: Suggestions of relevant pages you can link to and anchor text you can use.
• Orphaned posts: All of the pages/posts on your site with no internal links.

You can apply AIOSEO’s internal linking recommendations in 1-click without manually editing each post.

Related ResourceSee The Ultimate Guide to SEO Link Building to learn the tricks & techniques the experts are using to build quality links.

9. Social Signals

When people share your content on social networks, that’s another sign that it’s valuable. Cognitive SEO’s study of 23 million shares found a definitive link between social shares and search engine ranking.

Google’s official word is that social shares are not a direct SEO ranking factors. Links from Twitter or Facebook aren’t counted the same as links from other authoritative websites.

Still, there’s no denying that the highest-ranking pages in Google search results usually have a lot of shares. Though this is probably due to a few related factors:

• More social shares generate more traffic to the page itself
• More shares also make your content more likely to build backlinks

Because of that, getting more social shares does help your search engine rankings, if only indirectly.

Not only do you need to have a social media presence yourself, but you need to make it easy to share your content and amplify those social signals. We have some great tips for doing this in our guest blogging guide and guide to growing your email list with social media.

We also highly recommend using a plugin like Smash Balloon:

Smash Balloon lets you easily display your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feed directly on your site. Or, if you want to be more aggressive, OptinMonster recently created a popup campaign that is designed to grow your social media following:

This little campaign packs quite the punch when it comes to growing your brand on social media.

10. Real Business Information

This last tip is important for businesses targeting particular local areas. The presence or absence of business information is one of the most crucial local SEO ranking factors.

So it’s important to look after areas like:

• NAP (name, address, phone number)
• Business listings on Google My Business and Facebook
• Reviews on both those sites and relevant directories like Yelp and others
• The right local search terms

That’s it! Now you know the essential SEO ranking factors. For more helpful information, check out our other SEO and content marketing guides:

• SEO tips and best practices from the experts
• How to use SEO for lead generation
• Impressive Content Marketing Examples

And you’ll want to check out these SEO statistics to help you boost traffic to your site.

Exclusive Bonus Download the SEO Ranking Factors Cheat Sheet to boost your search rankings quickly.

But let’s wrap up by discussing the question in every new SEO-er’s and webmaster’s mind.

Should You Strive To Please Your Audience or To Please Google?

This is really what the essence of SEO comes down to. Is the goal to make content that Google can easily read and rank, or is it to make content that your users will enjoy?

Unfortunately, the answer is much less climactic than you’d probably like: it’s both.

Asking which of these two aspects is more important is like asking which side of a pair of scissors is the sharpest. Both parts of SEO need to be perfectly in place to rank well.

You should never sacrifice your user’s experience (UX) to make Google happy. Doing so will only annoy your audience, which will, ironically, get you penalized by Google!

Besides, you should keep in mind that while ranking on Google can help launch your business to the next level, Google will never be your paying customer. Your readers, on the other hand, might put money in your pocket.

So if you want to get the best SEO advice ever, here it is:

Create awesome content that your users will love. Then, with equal energy, optimize that content to help Google understand why your audience loves it so much. But always, no matter what, begin with your user in mind.

The multi-billion-dollar SEO industry simply boils down to that.

Finally, as awesome as your SEO may be, it certainly isn’t the only Google ranking factor you should consider.

Once that organic traffic lands on your page, you need to convert them. OptinMonster is the world’s #1 conversion optimization kit that helps you drive more traffic, grow your email list, and boost revenue.

So what are you waiting for? Join thousands of clever digital marketers by joining OptinMonster today!

Unsubscribes are a fact of life for email marketers. They’re also a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, they give your email list a bit of self-cleaning, which is important for your deliverability, your open rates, and the overall strength of your list.

However, if your unsubscribe rate is too high, it makes it difficult to grow your email list so you can reach more leads, readers, or potential customers.

How can you know where your email unsubscribe rate stands? In this article, I’ll cover all the basics of unsubscribe rates, so you can understand how this metric affects your email marketing strategy.

• What Is an Email Unsubscribe Rate?
• How to Calculate Unsubscribe Rate
• What Is a Good Unsubscribe Rate?
• Reasons for a High Unsubscribe Rate
• How to Reduce Unsubscribe Rate

What Is an Email Unsubscribe Rate?

An email subscribe rate is the percentage of email campaign recipients who choose to opt out from receiving any more emails from that sender. Usually, the recipients opt out by clicking an unsubscribe link within the email campaign.

The unsubscribe rate is one of the most important email marketing metrics, alongside email open rates, deliverability rates, click rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates.

How to Calculate Unsubscribe Rate

Many marketing email service providers will provide your unsubscribe rate in each email campaign report. If not, most of them at least tell you the number of recipients who unsubscribed through that email’s unsubscribe button.

If you need to calculate your own metrics, here is the unsubscribe rate formula:

Number of subscribers who have opted out

divided by 

Number of messages delivered

Then, multiply that answer by 100

You can calculate an unsubscribe rate for any specific email campaign. Alternatively, you can calculate it for all campaigns sent over a specific period of time.

For example, let’s say you want to determine your email unsubscribe rate over a 3-month period.

You’ve sent out 13 email campaigns over the last 3 months. The total number of recipients for all 13 campaigns is 45,557.

During that same 3-month period, 273 subscribers have opted out of your email marketing list.

273 / 45,557 = 0.006

0.006 x 100 = 0.6%

Your average unsubscribe rate for those 3 months is therefore 0.6%.

What is a Good Unsubscribe Rate?

A good email unsubscribe rate is generally considered to be below 0.5%. Industry benchmarks suggest:

• Excellent: Below 0.2%
• Good: 0.2% – 0.5%
• Average: 0.5% – 1%
• Poor: Above 1%

These rates can vary by industry and audience type. For context, an unsubscribe rate of 0.5% means 5 out of every 1,000 email recipients opt out. 

Once you’ve figured out your email marketing’s unsubscribe rate, you’ll want to determine how it compares to the average unsubscribe rate in your industry and region.

Here are a few statistics and benchmarks to measure your unsubscriber rate against:

Data from Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

According to a 2023 report by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), the global unsubscribe rate across all industries is 0.15%.

Data from Benchmark

Benchmark’s unsubscribe data from 2023 is based on over 35,000 users across 21 global regions and 15 different industries.

These are their average unsubscribe rates for some of those regions:

• United States/Canada: 0.19%
• India: 0.13%
• Europe: 0.24%
• South America: 0.09%
• Middle East: 0.19%

And here are some of Benchmark’s findings on industry averages:

• Advertising/Marketing/PR/Media/Design: 0.17%
• Colleges/Universities/Continuing Ed: 0.12%
• Insurance: 0.09%
• Real Estate: 0.18%
• Wellness/Fitness: 0.20%

Data from Mailmodo

According to Mailmodo’s State of Email 2024, average unsubscribe rates vary between 0.0% and 0.3%, depending on the industry.

What Should You Strive For?

If you’re doing a deep dive on unsubscribe rates, you’ve probably seen sources state that anything under 0.5% is a good email unsubscribe rate. Given the most recent data, that is definitely a good starting point. If your rate is higher than 0.5%, you should look very closely at your email marketing strategy to determine why your subscribers are opting out.

If you truly want to be in line with most industry benchmarks, your ultimate goal is to bring your unsubscribe rate below 0.2%.

But here’s an important note:

If you’re a new small business with only a couple hundred email subscribers, your unsubscribe rate may vary widely. That’s because it only takes a few opt-outs to have a high average percentage. Therefore, it may not be possible to stay consistently under 0.5%, but you can still aim to minimize your number of unsubscriptions.

More Email Marketing Statistics40+ Email Marketing Statistics You Need to Know

Reasons for a High Unsubscribe Rate

Constant Contact asked 1400 consumers why they unsubscribe from email lists. These were their findings:

• 69% said they received too many emails from that sender
• 56% said the content was no longer relevant
• 51% said the content wasn’t what they expected

Let’s take a closer look at each of these reasons.

Too Many Emails

The top reason people unsubscribe is due to the number of emails they receive from your business. For instance, they might be ok with hearing from you in a weekly newsletter, but they might get frustrated at getting a sales pitch from you every day.

Emails That Are No Longer Relevant

Sometimes, subscribers just no longer need the information in your email campaigns. If you have physical locations, email subscribers are likely to opt out if they move to a city where you don’t have a location.

They also might have signed up to get a coupon for a specific order. If they don’t expect to make another purchase, they may unsubscribe.

Emails That Don’t Meet Subscribers’ Expectations

When someone signs up for your email list, they’re trusting you with a piece of personal information. They’re also giving you valuable real estate in their inboxes. In exchange, they have expectations about the types of emails they will receive.

For example, if they signed up because they wanted a newsletter of your recent blog content, they’ll be unhappy if they constantly get emails asking them to buy merch.

How to Reduce Your Unsubscribe Rate

In this section, I’ll walk you through 10 great ways to reduce unsubscribes and keep your email list thriving. Try to implement just 1 or 2 suggestions each week and have fun watching your number of unsubscribes drop.

1. Use a Combination of Double Optins and Single Optins

A good unsubscribe rate requires an email list full of leads who actively want to hear from you. That’s where double optins come in.

What’s the difference between a single optin and a double optin? It sounds a lot more complicated than it is.

A single optin just means the subscriber doesn’t have to confirm their subscription. With a double optin, the subscriber does have to confirm, usually by clicking a link emailed to them after the initial form sign-up was completed.

Single optins are easier for the user and the fastest way to build a list, but they’re also less respectful of your subscribers’ privacy. And when you don’t verify new signups, your email list could easily become cluttered with bad data, damaging your sender reputation and email deliverability.

A single optin might have a success message that looks like this:

There would be no follow-up email asking the subscriber to confirm their subscription.

Double optins offer better quality list protection and the opportunity to communicate with subscribers immediately via the confirmation email. On the downside, the double optin process results in slower list growth, and possibly in lost email addresses because some users may simply never complete the signup process.

The success message for a double optin would probably look a little different:

The subscriber would also receive an email shortly after submitting the optin form:

When you set up an email automation for a double opt-in, you’ll be able to validate every subscriber who signs up for emails on your website.

Learn MoreDouble Opt-In vs. Single Opt-in: Which Is Better for Conversions?

2. Segment Subscribers

The key to effective marketing is getting your message in front of the right people at the right time. Segmenting your email list can help you do that.

Email segmentation is when you divide your subscribers into categories, or segments, based on information you have about them. You can segment subscribers based on data such as:

• Demographics
• Geolocation
• Purchase history
• Email engagement level
• Which lead magnet they signed up for
• Sales funnel position

When you segment your list, you don’t simply blast every email campaign to all of your subscribers. Instead, you send different campaigns to each segment, so you can provide more relevant content.

The bottom line is that highly targeted campaigns work. According to segmentation data from Klaviyo, highly segmented emails perform better across the board. Klaviyo defines “highly segmented emails” as campaigns that are sent to less than 20% of your complete subscriber list.

Klaviyo found sending highly segmented emails can reduce your unsubscribe rate by 50%, compared to unsegmented lists

Additionally, highly segmented emails return 3x the average revenue per recipient than unsegmented campaigns.

To create actionable segments, define your segments by at least 2 conditions. The first condition should be related to a person’s behaviors like past purchase amounts, purchase frequency, or abandoned cart history. The second condition should be related to demographics.

There are so many ways to segment your email lists that it can become overwhelming. For some great ideas, have a look at this list of 50 ways to segment your list like a pro.

3. Create Useful and Relevant Content

Now that you have your segments, you need to send out emails that convert. To accomplish that, you’ll want to create the best email content possible. But, how do you begin?

Start with One Goal

Like most things in life, you start with a goal. What do you hope to achieve with this email? Are you trying to boost revenue? Do you want to increase social media shares?

Define Your Strategy

You know what your goal is, so what will get you there? If your goal is to boost revenue, do you have a specific sale or product in mind?

Decide Who Cares

You want to boost revenue and you have this awesome product to do it. Who cares? Perhaps a better question is this: What type of person cares? What else do they buy? How much do they spend? Where are they from?

Sounds an awful lot like segmenting, doesn’t it?

Craft Your Message

What’s your story? What’s your call to action?

There are so many marketing strategies out there, what will you choose? Will you use marketing for this product as a chance to push your brand, build a feeling of exclusivity or scarcity, offer free shipping? Have you already used this product with a test group and want to share their results using social proof?

Create your message around what will motivate your audience.

Deliver Your Message

Since we’re specifically talking email in this post, let’s assume you’re delivering your message through targeted emails. And, you’ll probably leverage other outlets like social media too.

Need more? Take a look at our step-by-step guide to running a successful email marketing campaign.

4. Craft Great Subject Lines

If you want to encourage users to stay subscribed, it’s important to use subject lines that entice subscribers to open your messages.

Here are a few quick tips to optimize your subject lines:

• Keep it the right length: The ideal subject line length is 4-7 words, with 30-50 characters
• Use urgency: Words like “Last Chance” and “Today Only” encourage subscribers to open your emails right away.
• Pique curiosity: Use your subject line to hint at your email’s content, but don’t give it all away. The inbox screenshot below shows examples of 2 subject lines that perfectly crafted to entice users to open.

Check out our list of 164 of the best email subject lines for more ideas and inspiration.

5. Personalize

To make your messages feel more personal, write them as though you’re writing to one person. How would the conversation feel if you were talking with your favorite customer?

You can use an optin campaign to get names and email addresses from your visitors to add to your email lists. These can then be used to personalize your email marketing efforts.

The email below includes the subscriber’s first name in both the subject line and the email body.

Bonus Tip: When you’ve collected your subscribers’ names, you can create subscriber targeted campaigns on your site as well.

Here’s how you use Smart Tags to personalize your optin popups with OptinMonster.

6. Email Frequency

There’s no hard, fast rule for email frequency. Too few and you may be forgotten, too many and you suddenly end up in users’ spam folders.

You can outright ask your subscribers how often they want to hear from you. You could even segment them based on their responses and set up your emails to go out at the requested frequencies.

Start with a frequency that you’ll be able to maintain, and be sure to set those expectations in your welcome email. When you’re able to produce more email marketing content, survey your subscribers to see if they’re interested in seeing increased content from you.

7. Optimize for Mobile

Exact statistics vary, but most studies show around half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. Those numbers are more likely to continue to skew in favor of mobile as time marches on.

Optimizing your emails for mobile is really easy:

Pay Attention to Preview Text

Your subject line is important on mobile, but you’ll also want to pay attention to the preview text that also appears in the inbox. You can use this text to highlight important information.

Keep Content Short

You only have a few seconds to grab the attention of a mobile user. That’s all it takes for them to decide whether or not they’re going to take you up on your call to action or delete your email.

Get to the point right away. Keep your call to action and important text “above the fold” so it’s all there for consumption. In other words, subscribers shouldn’t have to scroll to understand what your email is about. Make it easy for them to do what you want them to do.

Make Icons and Call to Action Buttons Touch-Friendly

Once again, we want to make it very easy for people to engage. This means that any call to action or clickable anything needs to be large enough to actually click without having to zoom in, including form fields. The standard minimum for touch-friendly buttons is 44×44 pixels.

Not sure how to create a call to action that makes readers want to click? Let us help you create the perfect call to action.

Keep Text Readable

You want your users to be able to read your emails without having to zoom in or out on their devices. Test out what your emails look like on mobile, and determine the minimum font sizes for your heading, subheading, and paragraph text.

8. Offer Discounts, Incentives, and Exclusive Content

Offer discounts just for your subscribers or create fun content just for them. Make them feel really special and like you appreciate them.

Email subscribers expect to receive value from your emails. If they don’t, they’re more likely to unsubscribe.

9. Ask for Feedback

Your subscribers have opinions, and they’d probably be pretty happy to tell you about them. If you ever have questions about whether subscribers like or don’t like something that you’re doing, don’t be afraid to ask them.

The same goes for those who unsubscribe. You can learn a lot by asking them why they’re leaving. You can also ask if anything would make them stay.

You can also set up a survey on your website to easily get the feedback you need.

Improve Your Email Marketing Today

Now that you have a better understanding of email unsubscribe rates, you can start optimizing multiple aspects of your email marketing strategy.

Here are a few resources to help:

• How to Increase Email Open Rate (With 10 Proven Tips!)
• 13 Ways to Boost Your Marketing Email Click-Through Rate
• How to Create a Winning Email Marketing Strategy
• Small Business Email Marketing: 7 Easy Tips for Growth

Would you like to build an email list full of highly-engaged leads? Subscribers who want to hear from you and are unlikely to unsubscribe?

That’s where OptinMonster comes in!

OptinMonster is the best lead generation software available.

With our software, you can collect email addresses through:

• Lightbox Popups
• Floating Bars
• Inline Forms
• Scroll Boxes
• Gamified Wheels

And you can show your email signup forms to the right people at the right time, using our robust triggering and targeting rules. These include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology
• Page-Level Targeting
• Geo-Location Targeting
• Referrer Detection
• and more!

Want to check out the amazing things that OptinMonster can do for your lead generation? Join us today!