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[CASE STUDY] Build Your List Over 500% Faster!!

by SarahSalah
14 replies

I'm Sarah Khalil and this is technically my first post on this blog so, I wanted to add something special and valuable

This is a marketing case study showing how some simple changes can have a huge impact on your email opt in rate. If you'd like to build your list over 500% faster, take a couple minutes to read this post

The Neglected Landing Page [It Happens]:

One important thing that has made it easier to build my blog newsletter is the subscribe page, which we push people to from the signup form in the blog's sidebar or whatever its place is.

Below is a screenshot of what this page used to look like, before the test.



As you can see, it's not amazing, but it's an OK page. It encourages people to subscribe and gives them an idea of what they'll get for doing so.

It meets the basic requirements of a subscribe page.

This is probably why the page hadn't been updated!!?

Clearly it was time for some changes - or at least, to test them.

So, I looked at my subscribe page and a bunch of other ones to see what changes might be worth testing.

So, I started gathering data about these differences and how they could impact my page ... Finally I used a plug-in called WP CASH+ Because I was very tired doing it all my self... Changing the copy and testing it to write down the results and coming up with the best one and it was really helpful that you can imagine it all is going automated!!

One style that made a lot of sense to me was the "X Reasons to Subscribe" format that I found on a number of websites. (Career Realism and The 4 Hour Work Week are good examples; for a bunch more, just Google "reasons to subscribe" and you'll have a ton to work with.)

So I created a version of my subscribe page that followed this format, and added a few wrinkles of my own that I thought might improve the opt-in rate (I'll mention it later) with the results of the split-testing plug-in!

The New Version: 7 Reasons to Subscribe:

Here's the page that was created for the test.



This version is a complete change from what was there, so I was pretty confident that I'd get a large, statistically significant change fast... for better or worse.

Results: 321% Increase in Confirmed Opt-Ins!!



I ran the split test via WP CASH+, which is a brilliant to use spit testing plug-in.

In less than a week, the outcome was clear: the new "7 Reasons to Subscribe" page was outperforming the old version by over 321%.


It's not over YET!! I tried something else to make it better!!

WPSubscriber.

Have you ever seen these numbers before?

They are VERY revealing...

Here's the breakdown of 10,000 signups...and how they signed up...

Popup: 37.8% (Big pop, nice design, big eBook cover)
Sidebar: 20% (Text only, graphic subscribe / call to action button)
Footer: 19.7% (Text only, graphic subscribe / call to action button)
Signup Page: 3.2% (a single, UNLINKED TO squeeze page, similar to popup)
Get The Rest Of This: 10.4% (A Special post, with a sign up form in the post...more about this in a bit)
Source: Steve Warwick, used with permission
There's one very definite conclusion to draw from these numbers:

"Put Your Opt in Offer in Multiple Places"

In Fact - This sounds like a lot of work!

It's like ... you need one plug-in for a popup, another plug-in for footer, and another plug-in for exit redirection popups...just to make this all work!

Could You Just take a look at this brilliant PLUGIN that hugely blew my mind after using it!! WPSubscriber.

I couldn't believe these words before using it. I think I've used it all over the blog and it did like magic!!

It became 500% faster and bigger!!



So that page, which had just been plugging along, is now getting over 5 times as many people to subscribe as it used to. To put it another way: for every 1000 people to that page, I'm now getting 135 of them to sign up, instead of just 27 of them.

Why Did The New Page Do So Much Better?

Looking at the pages side by side, it seems obvious that the 2nd one would do better.

The "X Reasons to Subscribe" format and the new plug-in are so powerful stuff. And if that's all you need to take away from this to go test your own subscribe page, that's fine by me.

But for those of you who want to see the "why" behind these results, let's dig a little deeper.


A few points I want to underscore:

Testimonials: make this page really rock. For each reason, I had real testimonial from a reader so that visitors can see that the promises I'm making on this page are authentic. How'd I get those testimonials? I surveyed subscribers late last year and asked them this question: "Please share one way you've improved your email campaign results after reading this blog. What did you learn from the blog, what did you do, and how did it help your campaign?"


Focused copy: that addresses why people read our blog. At the end of the day, improving your email campaigns is about making more money with them. So I speak directly to the profit motive in the introduction and with my choice of testimonials.
It's easy to subscribe, with multiple chances to do so. I have a form at the end for people who need to read all 7 reasons before signing up. At the same time, I have an option to subscribe near the top for people who are sold after the first 1 or 2 reasons.


What does Testing Do for Your Business?

Think about how much traffic your subscribe page (or your about or contact page) gets in a month.

What if you could turn a tenth (or more!) of them into subscribers? How many more people on your email list would that be?

Now, multiply that number by 12.

That's how many people you're losing by not testing your subscribe page.

Time to Go Test for Yourself!!

I used this brilliant plug-in WP Cash + ... What would you use?

Now that you've seen what I did and how it has improved our results, I have 2 suggestions for you:

Test it!
When you do, come back and share your results!


Good Luck.
#500% #build #case #faster #free #list #study
  • Profile picture of the author Judge Groovyman
    Both plugins look very nice. Thanks for the case study!

    Thought of a question. How does WP Cash + compare to this Wordpress plugin?
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/abtest/
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  • Profile picture of the author Viramara
    Thanks for the nice case study. My landing page too has increased in optin rate from just the sidebar optin to a footer plugin that pops when visitors reading a blog (not pop-up, but pops in the footer when readers scroll down). You can do it by a free WP plugin named PLM Lite.

    Other is a free WP plugin "pinoy pop up on exit" that creates an Exit Splash page to direct people to opt-in whether they leave the page. It shoots my optin rate too!

    Groovyman, I never heard about the WP plugin for A/B Split test, thanks for the head's up!
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  • Profile picture of the author Kal Sallam
    Very helpful indeed, I really enjoyed it!
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  • Profile picture of the author IulianP
    ''I won't bite, I promise'' is a win!

    Nice, in a time when everyone is jealous about their landing pages and noone wanna show them you give a nice example to beginners.

    Good job!
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich Ray
    nice case study about squazee page. i learn something from this thread.
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  • Profile picture of the author amanchadda123
    Thanks for the share
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  • Profile picture of the author BetaMaster
    Thanks. I'm started a CPA program so building list is really what I need.
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  • Profile picture of the author barryjames
    Thank you, I learned an awful lot from this. I am currently building my first squeeze page to start building a list. I found this article very useful
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    good stuff

    split testing is def the way forward

    ive found that video squeeze pages work well for me but sometimes text only squeeze pages can perform much better in certain niches or in certain places

    well done though

    paul
    Signature
    FREE REPORT===>> 7 Reasons Why You Will probably Fail Online This year
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  • Profile picture of the author SarahSalah
    Thank you so much, I'm really glad it helped
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  • Profile picture of the author antac
    Banned
    Definitely informative thread.
    A big thanks to you. Best of luck dude.
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  • Profile picture of the author menlenswilmeizut
    Bookmarked. Thanks for the share
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  • Profile picture of the author TyChi
    Really helpful but not for me thanks for share!
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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Nguyen
    I've learned something........ good work! keep it up! Thanks!
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