Strategies to Drive More E-Mail Sign-Ups

When visitors land on your website, what do you envision them doing? This fundamental question should guide the creation of your digital goals. While your website may pursue multiple objectives, a key goal should always be encouraging listeners to join your e-mail database. Why? Well, in one of our previous podcasts, we gave you seven reasons why you should start an e-mail newsletter. Go check that out.

Strategic Placement of Calls to Action

Calls to action, especially those prompting email signups, should be prominently displayed on your site. Unfortunately, many radio station websites tend to obscure their signup forms amidst other elements, diminishing their visibility. Usability testing often reveals how challenging it can be for users to locate and use these forms.

Clarify and Fulfill Expectations

Clarity is crucial when requesting e-mail addresses. Inform potential subscribers about the type of content they’ll receive (e.g., blog posts, concert updates, or contest details) and the frequency of e-mails. Setting accurate expectations and consistently meeting them is essential for maintaining subscriber satisfaction.  We’ve seen where some websites will give subscribers the option of how often they want to receive a newsletter – from daily news updates to the once-a-month check-in.

Innovative Methods to Capture E-mail Addresses

Let’s get to the list of ways you can capture e-mail addresses.  Remember that you won’t want to do all these simultaneously because your signup forms will overwhelm your content.  But they are strategies that you can swap in and out occasionally to ensure different audiences don’t overlook them.  Here is a list of opportunities to capture e-mail addresses.

1. Intelligent Pop-Ups: Utilize pop-ups wisely to ask visitors if they’d like regular updates directly in their inbox. Pop-ups can come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and positions. Some appear in the middle of the page, while others may slide in from the side.
2. Streaming Gateway: Offer streaming registration to collect e-mail addresses, capitalizing on the high percentage of listeners who prefer accessing your online stream.
3. Sidebar: This is the most common placement for newsletter signup forms, but the calls to action seldom entice visitors to engage. Ensure your call to action here warrants someone giving you their contact information. A simple “Subscribe to Our Newsletter” will not convert like you want it to.
4. Within Your Content: Place a prompt at the end of articles or blog posts to convert interested readers into subscribers. A good call to action might be, “Want great news like this delivered to you every day/week/month? Sign up here for our newsletter.”
5. Contest Integration: Include an option inside each contest form that allows the entrant to subscribe to your station newsletter. Some marketers may advise you to automatically include all entrants in your newsletter database. We strongly disagree.  Consent is important.  It only takes one person to get angry at this and submit a spam complaint to your newsletter provider.
6. Events Pages: If you include events in your newsletter, ensure people coming to your website for events know this. For example, if your website includes every concert and live music event. Getting the information in your newsletter rather than the person checking your site weekly is valuable to the subscriber.
7. Comments Section: If your website has enabled comments so visitors can react to your content, include an opt-in checkbox within that form. This will allow engaged readers to subscribe as they interact with your content.
8. 404 Page: Your 404 page is the page someone sees when they click a link that no longer exists or type in the wrong address. Turn these lost visitors into subscribers by adding an email signup option. This will ensure they leave with value even when they don’t find what they want.
9. Live Chat Engagements: Integrate a live chat feature that offers email signup as part of the interaction process, especially effective during live broadcasts.
10. Live Events: If you still take registration sign-ups at local events, include an option to join the station newsletter and ask for an e-mail address.

Wrapping Up

These strategies can transform your radio station’s website into a dynamic tool that effectively grows your listener base through strategic email capture. As I mentioned at the beginning, you won’t want to do all of these at once.  Use A/B testing to see which performs better and occasionally switch it up.

It’s also crucial to have exceptional calls to action. Highlight the value and frequency so visitors know what they get before signing up.  Once you have these e-mail addresses, follow up with engaging newsletters that repeatedly drive them back to your website.