Increasing Opt Ins for Ecommerce Sites

How to increase your opt ins and mailing list if you have an ecommerce site.

Retailers are constantly up against pricing pressures in the PPC arena, from their customers AND their suppliers. One of the great equalizers is if you have a big mailing list. When you have a big email list and you can keep your existing customers engaged, it gives you a real ROI boost. So how do you get there?

Here’s a couple ways to increase your opt ins:

1) Use the footer ad like we have here at

You can set it so that only new visitors see it and returning visitors don’t so that it doesn’t get annoying to your regular shoppers.

2) Put an opt in box on the top right hand corner of every page. You shouldn’t take up as much real estate as the free report at http://www.etycoon.net/ but it is the same idea. Bribe people for their email by offering something of value that your customers would want.

You do talk to your customers right? Ask them. Here’s a few

  1. Get access to unpublished sales. Sign up here.
  2. Vip club- Get access to special services and discounts. Sign up here
  3. How to keep your [whatever you sell} looking like new- Free Ebook. Download here.

If you look at the site at etycoon.net all he does is email them a pdf, but he made it look like a book cover/DVD case so it has a higher percieved value.

You know your customers better than us, and if you spend time on the phone with them, just ask them what would have gotten them to sign up for your email list on the site, and if they didn’t, exactly why not. You might be surprised what you  find out.

But basically, to get people to opt in you have to ask them to opt in, and you have to bribe them with something they would have a high percieved value. And after they are on the list, you have to treat them well with a steady stream of good content, not just ads and sale notices.

3) One last thing, you can check out http://www.blair.com/ for another simpler way to implement this in a more retail context. Look at the bar on the top right. Small amount of real estate used, probably works pretty good.

Hope this gives you some ideas,

And of course, call us at (800) 920-1985 if you want real no nonsense marketing help from us.

Best regards,

Steve