How I Increased My Email Subscriber Rate 573.08% By Just Asking Nicely
I don’t like internet marketing. It’s one big douche chill.
I don’t want to be a douche chill. In fact, I want to expose all DCs. I think online marketing should be brutally honest. I decided to start with a little bit of satire.
I created a page on my website where I just ask people for their email address. I don’t offer any content upgrades or free ebooks — I just ask.
Ok, it’s actually a very strong ASK. It’s a page where I ask people over and over again to give me their email address. I promise nothing in return.
I employ every know email capture tactic I know using a few third-party plugins, but mostly my own code. This includes:
- A welcome mat (that is known to work 51.7% of the time, every time).
- A bar to follow you so you remember (which is supposed to increase my subscribers by 25%).
- A friendly link at the start of the post.
- A subscribe box right in the middle of the post.
- A Slide-in box (which can have a better conversion rate than a pop-up).
- A 90-second delayed popup box (apparently this should double or triple my conversion rate).
- A retargeted Facebook ad (converting as high as 60%).
- A subscribe box at the bottom of the post
- An exit intent popup box (which apparently can increase my subscriber rate by 600%).
I promoted the page on a couple of popular Facebook groups I’m a part of and drove 1,874 sessions in less than 24 hours according to Google Analytics.
Then, shit hit the fan. It went viral!
This is my current screenshot of Google Analytics at 9am MST on Friday April 29th (a little over 24 hours since I launched the page):
I got 596 new subscribers since. Thus an increase of 573.08% to my list in MailChimp.
This was all because of an elaborate joke. Nothing could make me happier :-)
