7 Ways to Get More Email Subscribers for an Ecommerce Store

The only downside for this method you must analyze before using it is that focusing on discounts early on the shopper’s lifecycle may lead them to devalue your brand. They will see your products as cheaper than they are, and when they lack a discount, they may not be interested in purchasing again.

💡 To overcome this issue, focus on delivering a great post-purchase experience that explains your company’s mission, product’s quality, and what makes your products unique (and, therefore, valuable).

Use exit-intent offers to convert abandoning visitors

Every time a visitor tries to exit your site, there’s an opportunity for generating a new subscriber. How? By using exit-intent technology.

Exit-intent technology allows sites to target the users who have shown an intent to exit the site. Brands often use this technology to trigger a popup.

In your case, you want to use ext-intent popups to get more email subscribers.

At this point, you may be asking yourself, “why would anyone want to sign up for an email list if they are leaving the site?” There are multiple reasons:

• The visitor may have liked the site but hasn’t found a way to sign up
• The visitor may like the offer the site shows in its popup (more on this later)
• The visitor may not be on its first visit, so they may already like the site but haven’t thought about signing up

Whatever the case, exit-intent popups are a handy method to get more email subscribers. In fact, exit-intent popups for list building have shown to persuade between 4% to 7% of your site visitors to sign up.

Adding an exit-intent popup is straightforward as tools like Getsitecontrol help you install and set them up in less than an hour, regardless of the ecommerce/CMS platform you use.

To make exit-intent popups work, you want to:

Show the right offer

The simplest option is to add the same discount you should have defined using the previous strategy. Alternatively, you can ask them to sign up for your email newsletter or for any other offer you may have (like a lead magnet).

Use the right words

Acknowledge the fact the visitor is leaving the site. Use words like “Wait,” “Before you leave,” or any other similar wording that makes the user think before leaving the site.

Place site-wide signup forms

Persistence pays off. At least, it does in the marketing world. The more you remind the visitor about your offer — i.e., the discount or any other gift you have for them — the easier it will be for them to convert when they are ready to do so. That’s what site-wide signup forms are for 👇

Their goal isn’t to interrupt or annoy the visitor but to stay close to where they usually click around. Some suggestions include:

• Below your menu bar but above your product and/or collection page
• Between the rows of your product collections
• Above your footer

To make these signup forms work even better, consider A/B testing your offers to see which one converts better. For example, in one group you could offer a 20% discount and in the other a $40 coupon.

For example, GoMacro presents the following discount-focused signup form above their footer menu bar in every collection and product page 👆

Once you have defined your offer and placements, set them up on every collection and category page and even on every product page.

Promote your signup forms on social media

There’s a lot to say about making sales through social media, but one thing is sure: it’s much easier to convince a user to give you their email address than their credit card information from a social media post.

If you have a substantial following in your social media accounts, you have a list of subscribers waiting for signing up.

They already trust your brand, so why wouldn’t they sign up for your email list?

Since you are trying to get more email subscribers for your ecommerce store, you want to add a landing page created specifically for that purpose. You want to highlight your offer clearly in the headline and write the rest of the copy around it.

You can promote your landing pages in your social media content, including Facebook posts, tweets, and Instagram posts and stories 👇

Another way is to include your landing page URL in your bio URL, which every network offers. This is like an ad, so make sure to explain what the user can expect to get after clicking on the bio link.

To create your promotional landing page, you can use a Shopify app like Shogun and Zipify, or better yet, a tool like Getform, which works on any type of site (ecommerce store or not).

Provide an option to sign up after account creation

The moment a user opens an account in your store is often seen as irrelevant for an ecommerce brand. All ecommerce marketers care about is generating conversions, not account openings. However, if you think about it, creating an account is a critical part of a buyer's life cycle.

Many ecommerce stores require buyers to open an account before finishing a purchase. If that’s your case, wouldn’t an account opening represent a pre-checkout action?

Even if that’s not your case, there’s little value in opening an account without making a purchase. When a user does so, take advantage of the opportunity to get them into your list like Boohoo does in the example below.

All you need to do is add a new field to your account creation form that asks for the user’s permission to email them about promotions and connect the new user’s email address to your email list.

To add a form field, you may have to work with a developer to add the button to your account creation page. Here’s more information from Shopify.

Once that’s done, you can either use an API that connects your store with your email list or an automation tool like Zapier that does that for you. What's great about Zapier is that it connects your Shopify store with every major email marketing platform.

Provide an option to sign up after checkout

If account creation is an essential step in the customer’s lifecycle, a checkout is the culmination of all your hard work. With all we have said in the previous strategy, it would go without saying that adding a form field that asks the buyer to sign up for your email list when finishing a purchase is a no-brainer.

Fortunately, most platforms make this method much easier to execute than the previous one. For example, if you’re selling on Shopify, this is what you need to do:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout
2. In the Email marketing section, check Show a sign-up option at checkout, which will add a signup checkbox to your checkout
3. Click Save

You can have the email signup button pre-selected or not. If you decide to keep it pre-selected, you will see a much higher email list growth than if you don’t keep the button pre-selected.

However, many customers may realize you signed them up without their consent and unsubscribe. Make sure to think this option through before deciding on what’s best for you.

Run a giveaway

You love free stuff, don’t you? I know I do. And I’m sure your visitors as well. Giveaways are a method that allows you to leverage your visitors’ inherent love for free things in exchange for their email addresses.

The power of giveaways lies beyond the free nature of the product at stake but in its relevance. Aim for a product (or set thereof) that you know most visitors want—you can select the most widely sold product in your store or one that’s near the top. You can also give away multiple products simultaneously, coupon codes, and much more.

To run a giveaway, you can use a Shopify app like ViralSweep Giveaways Contests or Social Boost Giveaways Contest. Alternatively, you can add a form and popup around your site promoting your giveaway and then run the contests using a random name picker tool (like this one) to select the winner for you.

Communicate the giveaway winner to your email list and social media followers, and send the prize to the lucky winner.

Conclusion

Having an email list will help you diversify your traffic acquisition while growing your revenue. What’s not to love?

And if you’re still wondering how to get more email subscribers, with the seven email list building methods shown here, your ecommerce store will benefit from all the advantages email marketing has to offer. Try one of the methods and see it for yourself.