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

10 Email Newsletter Signup Forms that Convert + How to Add Them to Your Website
Colin Newcomer Colin Newcomer Sep 8, 2022 —  12 min read

Looking to grow your email list but not sure where to begin? One of the best ways to start building your email list is to see what other successful websites are doing and use it as a jumping-off point for your site.

We've collected seven newsletter signup forms from websites across a range of niches. And beyond just showing you what each site is doing, we'll also explain what makes each example great and tell you how you can create something similar for your own site.

Keep reading to see them in action…


Here are the 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 telling people exactly what type of content you'll send and how often you'll send it.
  • Match your forms to your content – if possible, create signup forms that are personalized to the page a visitor is reading.
  • 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 use something generic like “Send”. “Subscribe” is ok, but it's even better to 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, you can actually add it to your website in a couple of clicks. Just use the preview button above and follow the instructions. You’ll be taken to an online 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:

Email newsletter signup form from the Aplos’ website has an 11% conversion rat

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 dismiss
  • 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 couple of templates 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.

Feel free to just click on the template you like and follow the instructions to adjust it to your needs. You’ll be able to add a form to your website within less than 20 minutes and try it for free, without having to commit or add your credit card number.

2. RemoteOK

RemoteOK is a popular job board for remote jobs. To grow their newsletter, RemoteOK uses an unobtrusive, dismissible opt-in bar at the bottom of every page:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

Here's what makes this newsletter signup form so great:

  • Simple design – with just two small fields, the form only takes a few seconds to fill out.
  • Unobtrusive, but still eye-catching – the usage of the notification bar instead of a popup makes the form fairly unobtrusive. But its sticky position at the bottom of the page also makes it impossible to miss.
  • Clear frequency – subscribers know exactly how often they'll receive emails, and can even customize the frequency with the drop-down.
  • Personalized – while the screenshot from above was from the homepage, each job category gets its own personalized form

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

Want to create a similar newsletter signup form?

Click on the email opt-in bar below to activate the preview mode and follow the step-by-step instructions to add it to your website.

Once you’re finished, you’ll be able to use the Getsitecontrol’s Targeting rules if you decide to create personalized forms for different pages.

3. Mad Fientist

Mad Fientist is a popular blog about personal finance and financial independence. Its newsletter signup form uses a great two-step approach:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

  • 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 “81,000 others” number to boost social proof.
  • Clear benefits – subscribers get “exclusive content and software”, which lets them know they're getting something special regular blog readers don't get.

Want to create a newsletter signup form like this?

You can use the minimalistic template below and adjust its copy and design if you need to. Just click on the See live preview button and follow the instructions that will appear on the right side of the window.

If you want the same two-step opt-in approach, you can use programmatic behavior targeting to only show the popup once a user clicks a button — here's how.

4. Kate Spade

Like many eCommerce stores, Kate Spade uses a newsletter signup popup that offers a coupon to new subscribers:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

While this approach is common, there are a few specific things that Kate Spade does great:

  • Impactful button CTA – instead of something boring like “Subscribe”, Kate Spade uses “Get My 15% Off” to remind subscribers what's in it for them.
  • Negative opt-out – beyond the positive button CTA, Kate Spade also has users close the popup with a negative “I Don't Want 15% Off” opt-out, which can further boost conversions.

Want a newsletter signup form like this?

You can add a popup exactly like this one to your website. Just click on the live preview widget below, then adjust the special deal wording and add a creative or your logo to make the form look more cohesive.

The best part? You can play around with how soon your popup displays on a webpage: at once, a few seconds after visitors open the page, or right before they close it.

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 collects email addresses using a link tree

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.

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 newsletter signup form you can get for yourself:

Feel free to click on it to see the form 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. 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:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

There are a few things this newsletter does well:

  • Incentive – in exchange for their emails, subscribers get “The Complete Nutrition Setup Guide book, macro calculator, and email course.” That's a lot of value for an email address!
  • Social proof – Ripped Body touts the fact that 60,000 other people subscribe, which adds some hefty social proof.
  • Highlights “Free” – it never hurts to remind people that they're getting the incentive for free!
  • Simple – just one easy field and a clear CTA button.

How to create a newsletter signup form like this

The form itself is fairly simple — you should be able to create it with your email marketing service's built-in form tool. For example, Ripped Body is just using the built-in ConvertKit form functionality.

7. 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:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

Here is what we love about this 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

  • 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.

8. Hustle Panda

Hustle Panda helps startups find brandable .com domains. You can also subscribe to receive new domains via the newsletter:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

Here's what we like about this simple form:

  • Clear content – subscribers know exactly what they'll get — “new .com domains”
  • Frequency – subscribers know they won't get their inboxes bombed because emails only come “every few weeks”.

How to create a newsletter signup form like this

Like Ripped Body, you don't need anything special to create this newsletter signup form. Your email marketing service's built-in tool should work fine — Hustle Panda is using MailChimp.

9. Copyhackers

Copyhackers is a popular blog about copywriting, so it's no surprise that the strong point of their newsletter signup page is the copy:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

There are a lot of things going on that makes this one great:

  • Clear frequency – subscribers can expect ~1 email per week.
  • Lots of benefits – Copyhackers lists out 9 clear benefits that subscribers get, including social proof in the form of both subscriber counts and a testimonial.
  • Examples – while you can't see this in the screenshot, Copyhackers has examples of past newsletters, which lets visitors see exactly what type of content they'll get.

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. Copyhackers is using a generic form embed from their email marketing service (ConvertKit).

10. Backlinko

Backlinko is a massively popular SEO blog from Brian Dean. Brian uses multiple newsletter signup forms, sometimes on the same page. But we're especially fond of this simple slide-in widget:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

Here's why we like it:

  • Social Proof – that “103,891 subscribers” number tells potential subscribers that a lot of other people find Brian's newsletter to be valuable.
  • Exclusivity – by telling people that newsletter subscribers get “exclusive SEO tips”, Brian shows how subscribers get even more value than blog readers.
  • Unobtrusive – the slide-on only appears once users start scrolling down the page, which makes it unobtrusive, while still attention-grabbing enough that people can't miss it.

If you scroll around the rest of Brian's site, you'll also see some other great newsletter signup form examples, like his sidebar widget which highlights the “exclusive tips” benefit even more:

7 Great Email Newsletter Signup Examples

Want a newsletter signup form like this?

To add a newsletter signup form like Brian's to your website, you can grab the slide-in popup below. Use the preview mode to see it in action and if you like it, follow the suggested steps to proceed.

Once ready, you’ll be able to optimize the Targeting controls to display this slide-in once a visitor starts scrolling or spends a few seconds on a webpage.

Bonus: how to create a pop-up 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 15 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.

Adjusting the copy on a newsletter signup form

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

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 creative.

Replacing an image on an email signup form in Getsitecontrol

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:

Popup targeting settings available in Getsitecontrol

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.

Step 4. Craft a subscription follow-up email

The last step before publishing the form on the website is to craft a follow-up email that will be automatically sent to your new subscribers. To avoid blank page paralysis, feel free to use the default follow-up template:

Follow-up email template available in Getsitecontrol

The template email includes everything you might need: an eye-catching GIF, a click-to-copy coupon code, and a button leading back to your website.

Built-in email editor in Getsitecontrol

Feel free to replace anything in the email and 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).

Email signup form activation in Getsitecontrol

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!

Colin Newcomer is a freelance writer with a background in SEO and affiliate marketing. He helps clients grow their web visibility by writing primarily about WordPress and digital marketing.

You're reading Getsitecontrol blog where marketing experts share proven tactics to grow your online business. This article is a part of Lead generation section.

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