10 Email Newsletter Signup Forms that Convert + How to Add Them to Your Website

Keep reading to see 10 inspiring examples in action…

5 techniques that make a great newsletter signup form

To set the stage for these examples, we're going to give you a quick crash course in creating high-converting email newsletter signup forms.

Great signup forms…

• Offer an incentive – give subscribers immediate value by offering an incentive for signup, like a coupon or content upgrade.
• Tell people what emails they'll get (and how often) – because of email spam, people are wary of giving away their email addresses. Remove these fears by explaining exactly what type of content you'll send and how often you'll send it.
• K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple) – for newsletter signup forms, shorter is better. Keep it to one or two fields max.
• Use social proof – by highlighting how many existing subscribers you have, you demonstrate the value of your newsletter to would-be subscribers.
• Make your CTA clear – don't put something generic like “Sign up” or “Subscribe”. Use your CTA to reinforce the incentive or benefit a subscriber is getting.

When you follow these tips, your newsletter signup form may end up looking something like this:

If you like this popup example – or any other example in this article – you can add them to your website within a few minutes. Just click on a template you like and follow the prompts. You’ll be taken to a form builder by Getsitecontrol where you can adjust the copy and the appearance of the popup before publishing it on your website.

Below, you'll see how other websites use the best practices to create highly-converting email newsletter signup forms.

10 Email newsletter signup examples that are built to convert

1. Aplos

Let’s start this roundup with a form that has an impressive 11% email signup rate. Aplos is a non-alcoholic spirit production company, and they’re using a pop-up signup form to greet first-time visitors in their online store:

This form helps Aplos achieve two things. First, it helps grow the company’s email list with subscribers who are interested in their products. Second, it encourages them to make that first purchase.

Here is what makes this particular email signup form so efficient:

• Clear incentive – with the free shipping offer spelled out right in the title, the value of joining the list is crystal-clear.
• Sense of urgency – knowing that this offer is valid on the first order only, those on fence will want to take advantage of it.
• Excellent popup design – not only did Aplos keep their brand consistent, but they also used contrasting colors to make the message impossible to miss.
• Just one field – by asking for an email address only, Aplos makes signing up quick and easy.

Want a similar newsletter signup form for your website?

If you’d like to try a similar approach on your website, we’ve prepared a template for you:

Whether you decide to provide a discount, a free shipping code, or anything else, your subscribers will be able to get the incentive right after filling out the form.

2. Backlinko

Backlinko is a massively popular SEO blog by Brian Dean. Brian uses multiple newsletter signup forms on his website. For example, the form greeting you on his home page is minimalist, yet incredibly powerful:

If you scroll around the rest of Brian's site, you'll see some other signup forms strategically placed on different pages and reinforced by even more social proof:

Here is what you can learn from this example:

• Social Proof – that “110,424” number on the second form tells potential subscribers that a lot of other people find Brian's newsletter to be valuable. The names of the companies his subscribers work for make the CTA nearly irresistible.
• Exclusivity – the testimonial on the homepage form shows that subscribers get even more value than blog readers.
• Unobtrusiveness – both forms are embedded into the pages which makes them unobtrusive, while still attention-grabbing enough that people can't miss it.
• Value-driven CTA — Brian knows that people on his website are probably learning SEO to grow their business. That’s why the title of the signup form isn’t about the content of his newsletter – it’s all about his subscribers’ objectives.

Want a newsletter signup form like this?

To add a newsletter signup form like Brian's to your website, you can grab the inline template below. Use the preview mode to see it in action and if you like it, follow the prompts to adjust its copy and design.

Once ready, follow these steps to embed it into your website, whether you’re using WordPress, Shopify, or any other platform.

3. Marrow Fine

Marrow Fine is a jewelry brand specializing in rings. Like many ecommerce stores, it uses a popup that promotes the benefits of being a subscriber:

While this approach is common, there are a few specific things that Marrow Fine does exceptionally well:

• Segmentation — the form allows visitors to specify what they are most interested in. This segmentation approach enables Marrow Fine to tag their subscribers and send highly personalized emails, which will likely result into higher engagement rates.
• Thoughtful visuals – the high-quality image visualizes both the target audience of the brand and its products.
• Negative opt-out – beyond the “SUBMIT” button, Marrow Fine lets visitors close the popup with a negative “No, Thanks” opt-out, which can further boost conversions.

Want a newsletter signup form like this?

If you want to segment your subscribers based on their interests or shopping preferences, you can use radio buttons, dropdown menus, or checkboxes, like in the template below:

If you choose to go this route, you can use field mapping to tag new subscribers automatically, as they join your list. Although this may take you a bit more time during the setup, it’s definitely worth the effort given the plethora of email personalization opportunities you’ll get.

4. Mad Fientist

Mad Fientist is a popular blog about personal finance and financial independence. This wesite uses a two-step signup approach. This means that the signup form isn’t displayed right away. At first, blog readers only see a sticky bar with a CTA button:

Once they click on the button, up pops a fullscreen newsletter signup form designed in the same color scheme as the website:

Here is why we like this example:

• Two-step opt-in – with a two-step opt-in, users first need to click the ”Subscribe Now!” button. Then, a modal popup appears with the form. This technique harnesses the Zeigarnik effect to boost conversions.
• Social proof – Mad Fientist touts the impressive “100,000 others” number to boost social proof.
• Incentive (a.k.a. lead magnet) – subscribers get a PDF with financial independence advice from the guests of the Mad Fientist podcast.

Want to create a newsletter signup form like this?

You can use the same two-step approach on your website by displaying a floating button or a sticky bar that will programmatically launch another form:

The way it works is straightforward – your website visitors will only see the pop-up form if they deliberately click the button. As a rule, this means two things. First, your email list is likely to grow slower than in the case of a more proactive approach, like a welcome or a time-delayed popup. At the same time, you can expect higher email engagement rates because every subscriber joining your list will do it very intentionally.

5. New York Bucket List

If you have a strong presence on social media, you can turn followers into email subscribers, too. One way to do that is by creating a so-called “link tree” like New York Bucket List does:

New York Bucket List links to this tree from their Instagram bio, but you can have a similar landing page for any social media account. The very first button is an email capture form that allows you to subscribe to their newsletter. The rest of the buttons lead to the most relevant articles or products.

Here is why this approach is worth your attention:

• It’s easily customizable without coding. If you need to replace buttons to feature more recent content, you can do it within minutes without any technical knowledge by just copying and pasting URLs.

• It’s the only direct way to convert social media followers into subscribers. Most social media platforms provide no way to invite people to join your mailing list. Such a landing page is your best and most convenient option.

Want to link to an email signup form from your Instagram bio, too?

You can create something similar or even something more personalized using Getform. It’s a no-code app that allows you to build custom online forms and link to them directly.

Here is an example of a link tree featuring a signup form you can get for yourself:

Feel free to click on it to see the template in action. You’ll be able to change it the way you want, add new fields, extra buttons, and even more pages. Once you finish, simply copy the link to the form and paste it to your Instagram bio, your email signature, or anywhere else.

6. Bleame

Bleame is a personal hygiene brand selling crystal hair erasers. While choosing a modal pop-up form, common for ecommerce, Bleame spices things up by adding a timer and creating a sense of urgency.

Having a countdown timer on a newsletter signup form is an unusual move that might help you grow your list, regardless of your industry. In this case, it implies that the 10% discount is a time-limited offer, so if a visitor is considering a purchase, the chances that they will sign up are high.

Here is what else you can learn from this example:

• Work with subscribers’ objections – apart from a well-phrased title, notice the promise of “0% spam” in the description.
• Value-driven CTA – instead of a bland “Sign up” or “Subscribe”, Bleame uses “Sign up for 10% OFF” reinforcing the intention.
• Smart trigger – this particular offer pops up soon after you arrive at Bleame’s website, so technically, it’s a welcome offer. However, if you decline or close it by mistake, it’s still available as a floating button giving you a chance to reopen the form and get the discount.

7. Ripped Body

Ripped Body is a popular fitness website run by Andy Morgan. The homepage greets all new visitors with this large newsletter signup form:

There are a few things this form does well:

• Incentive – in exchange for their emails, subscribers get “Nutrition Setup guide and 7-day email course.” That's a lot of value for an email address!
• Social proof – Ripped Body touts the fact that 100,000 other people already subscribed, which adds some hefty social proof.
• Minimalist – just one easy field and a clear CTA button.

How to create a newsletter signup form like this

This is an embedded form, and it’s fairly simple, compared to other examples in the article. If you want to have something similar on your website, you can either choose an inline form option when creating a new form, or create a fullscreen overlay.

8. Rover Pet Products

Rover Pet Products is an Australian pet supply store. They display their email signup form when visitors are heading to exit the website:

Here's what we like about this simple form:

• Exit-intent trigger – unlike most examples on the list, this form is targeting visitors who are leaving. This means the Rover Pet Products marketing team can reach their potential customers via email later instead of losing them.
• Invitation to participate in a giveaway – even though participation doesn’t mean a win, the company did a great job at invoking the right emotion: anticipation of a gift.
• Excellent choice of image – cuteness aside, this photo doesn’t just resonate with the brand’s audience, it also demonstrates the product featured in the giveaway. Essentially, it’s a well-designed pop-up ad for the KLOUD9 dog bed!

Want to use an exit-intent email signup form on your website?

Inviting people to join your email list right before they leave is a powerful lead generation tactic. Here is a pre-designed template to help you out:

Once you add it to the Getsitecontrol dashboard, adjust the copy and proceed to the targeting settings to select the “exit-intent” trigger. You can also decide whether you want to show this form sitewide or on selected pages only.

9. Marketing Millennials

Marketing Millennials is a newsletter about marketing, so it's no surprise that the strong point of their signup page is the copy:

There are a lot of things going on that make this form great:

• Author intro – future subscribers get to see the person who writes the newsletter.
• Clear value – the newsletter description is straightforward and excludes marketing speak, giving you the taste of the content you’re subscribing for.
• Testimonials – nothing serves as a better social proof than the real words from happy readers. The Marketing Millennials team does an excellent job displaying them via a compact carousel.

How to create a newsletter signup form like this

There's nothing fancy about the actual design or targeting on this one — it's the surrounding copy that makes it unique. Note that this signup form is actually a separate page, but you can recreate it by choosing a full screen overlay or an inline form for your website.

10. CXL

CXL is a conversion optimization blog. Their weekly newsletter delivers “fast marketing” tactics that are proven to work.

Here is why this newsletter signup form is so brilliant:

• Problem-solution approach – most times, when it comes to the copy for a signup form, less is more. Not in this case. The CXL team gives full context by describing a problem every marketer will surely recognize and explaining why their newsletter is a solution.
• Newsletter example – the image creates an immersive experience and shows how a CXL newsletter will look on a mobile screen. On your mobile screen, once you sign up.
• Frequency – subscribers know exactly what they’re going to receive and how often.

Bonus: how to create an email signup form without coding

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use tool to create a pop-up email signup form, Getsitecontrol will help you do that within 20 minutes – without any coding knowledge.

Step 1. Select a template

The fastest way to get started is to pick one of the premade templates from the gallery. Just sign up, click Create widget button and select Premade widgets. Then look through the templates and pick the format you like:

Each template has a list of pre-set features. For example, some of them are designed to pop up at once and display a discount code upon submission; others are triggered by exit intent and send a discount code via email.

Your goal is to select the template that fits within your email list building strategy, so all you need to adjust is the copy and image.

Step 2. Adjust the copy and image

The editor lets you quickly swap the default image with your own and change the copy. As a rule, you want to keep the copy concise and make it clear why people should join your list.

You can adjust the title, description, text on the button, and the number of fields too.

If you want to collect subscriber’s preferences, you can add radio buttons to the form and tag people based on what they’ve selected.

To replace the image, click on it and continue to Change image. Then either pick an image from the built-in stock photo gallery or upload your own.

Step 3. Check targeting settings

When you finish stylizing your popup, click Next → in the top right corner to move to the following step: Targeting.

Premade templates come with default targeting settings. For example, the template we’ve picked is designed to pop up 3 seconds after a visitor lands on the website, regardless of the page:

If you want to change that, feel free to click around and choose different settings. For instance, you can display your newsletter signup form to visitors from certain locations, create different forms for different pages on your website, or use a more complex approach and trigger the form with a button click.

At this point, your signup form is ready, so you can save it and publish it on your website. However, when you’re building an email list, it’s a good practice to send an automatic signup confirmation to new subscribers, and we’ll show you how to do it at the next step.

Step 4. Craft a subscription follow-up email

After you’ve designed the form, find it in your dashboard under the Widgets section, and click Follow-up to create an automated follow-up email.

On the next screen, open the Actions menu and select ‘Send email’.

From there, you can create an email from scratch or choose one of the premade email templates. Use them to communicate a sense of urgency and encourage a subscriber to take advantage of a discount, introduce your brand, showcase your bestselling collection, or just thank people for joining your list.

Use the built-in toolset to add a countdown timer, insert images or GIFs, create product cards, and stylize the email to make it truly yours.

Finally, make sure to go through the menu on the right-hand side to adjust the sender’s name, email subject and preview. When finished, send a test email to yourself to see how it looks.

Activate your newsletter signup form

After these four easy steps, the form is ready to start collecting emails on your website. Proceed to save it and follow the activation prompts (including quick installation of the app to your website).

If you have a decent traffic volume, you’ll see the first results soon after activating the form. The number of views and clicks will be visible right in the main dashboard, with a more detailed performance overview in a Statistics report.

Don't assume these examples will be the best for you — you should still test!

While all of these email newsletter sign up forms are great for their respective sites, don't assume that they'll always be the best option for your specific site.

Instead, use them as a jumping-off point and then run your own tests to see which option works the best. Creating tests like this doesn't have to be time-consuming or complicated — Getsitecontrol's built-in A/B testing makes it easy to run experiments with just a few button clicks.

Now get out there and create your own newsletter signup forms! Hopefully, we'll be able to add your form to this list of successful email newsletter signup examples soon!