List Building Challenge #8 – Opt-in form placement

Alright, after talking about using paid traffic to magnify your list building for the last couple issues, let’s go ahead and bring this back “in house” and talk about some things we can do right on our blogs.

Today, let’s talk about placement of your opt-in forms. We’ve already talked about running split tests on your opt-in forms. But, one of the things you definitely should be testing is placement of your opt-in forms.

Most blogs have a primary lead magnet placed right in their sidebar. However, the sidebar is usually one of the worst performing locations for your opt-in.​ Typical conversion rates for this location are like 1%-2%. And frankly, that sucks. Most bloggers put that thing in the sidebar simply because they see everybody else doing it. So, it becomes a case of the blind leading the blind.

If you’re using Thrive Leads (my top recommended Wordpress plug-in for list building), then you’ve got the following options for opt-in form placement:

That in-content form type works pretty well. Your opt-in form will appear right inside your blog post. And if the lead magnet you’re showing there is tightly related to the post itself, those things can convert like gangbusters.

But, you’ve also got plenty of other form types there that you can test:

• Post footer.
• Ribbon (a bar across the top or bottom of your site that floats there)
• A full-screen takeover. Can’t miss these things and they can convert quite well.
• Scroll mat. Where you have a full-screen opt-in form, but as you scroll down it disappears and moves right into your website.
• Slide-in. Make your opt-in form slide in from the side. I like these since they are fairly unobtrusive if designed well.
• Widget. That’s for the sidebar. Use it is you have a sidebar, but like I said, it doesn’t usually convert too well if you cram your sidebar with crud.

Thrive Leads makes it easy to insert the opt-in form anywhere you please. You can try different placements easily, such as the post footer, an exit popup, a slide-in that triggers when they scroll a certain way down, etc. You can even automatically insert an opt-in after a certain number of paragraphs in your blog post and it will just appear there.

If you want fine-tuned control of placement inside your content, then I’d recommend you use the Lead Shortcodes. Set up the form as you want, then insert it anywhere you want using a shortcode.

But, definitely experiment with opt-in form placement. Don’t just fall back on your sidebar because that’s what everybody else does. To grow your list effectively, you can’t just do the bare minimum.

Your action item for today is…

Set up a different form of opt-in placement than you are running right now and test it out.

Interestingly, you’ll often find that an in-content content upgrade will out-perform even pop-ups and full-screen forms. Likely because they find those forms to be intrusive and in the way, whereas the content upgrades are in line with what they’re already doing.

I know a lot of people don’t like pop-ups… and I know many people have asked me whether they work. Answer is… yes, they do work. However, they’re also annoying. So, like all things, TEST IT. Then, use the conversion stats that Thrive Leads give you to let numbers drive your decision.

But, I have found (personally) that having contextual lead magnet offers within blog post content, and perhaps coupled with a slide-in on the bottom right side, works pretty well.

Give it a go and let me know what you find.

– David