You don’t need 10 tips to build your list. 
Trust me, a simple, powerful and proven technique is all you need to implement on your blog and see results.
A lot of internet marketing strategies are not reliable, such as SEO, social media marketing, retargeting, PPC and so on.
But email still produces the best results on ROI, especially when you clean up your strategies and make it simpler.
I actually experimented the strategy I’m about to share with you here, on my client’s blog.
They were worried that their blog receives up to 200+ visitors per day, but not more than 10 people sign up to their email list.
The challenge with list building
The challenge is converting your visitors into subscribers. My client’s case may look familiar to yours.
However, you’ve to understand that the major challenge content marketers face when building list is not ‘traffic generation.’ We’ve been taught and certified on how to generate visitors to our blogs – and I believe you’ve been working hard.
So, getting enough visitors to our blog used to be a problem, but the burden is being lifted up these days – thanks to guest blogging and display ads.
I get a lot of questions from readers daily, and their concern is how they can easily persuade their blog readers to actually opt-in to their email list.
If you’ve this same question, I’ll show you the simple answer right now.
My client is in the financial training industry. That is, they sell training materials like videos, e-books and audio tips on how people can become financially free, and escape the cubicle once and for all.
How did they increase their email sign up by 264%?
Answer: They simply added social proofs.
Yes, they added social proof to their website. If you can just add social proof to your homepage or at a vantage position where your target audience/readers can see it, it’ll definitely inspire them to take action.
After all, trusted brands have dealt with you in the past and still do.
There is a science behind social proof. In the book, “Influence,” Robert Cialdini clearly defines social proof as “the tendency to perceive an action as appropriate when others are doing it.” Kevin Woodberry has also used social proof to increase the conversion rates of Voices.com by 400%.
Whether it’s expert social proof, or celebrity social proofs, you’re sure to increase conversion rate.
Marketing takeaway
No matter the industry you’re in, you can improve your brand, inspire potential customers to refer others to you, improve your social shares, acquire customers and make more sales when you consciously use social proofs.
Conversion rate experts from all the world agree that social proofs is a powerful marketing tool that would help you stand out from the crowd, and build a successful online business through blogging.
Have you been using social proofs to improve conversion rates?
It would be more in depth, how to increase email sign up rate.
Really social proof is a means often "lazy" people use to define what is reliable or not . Therefore, we should use this trigger with caution. Good tip .
Very powerful and effective tips, highly appreciated. Thanks for writing great piece of content.
This article is so interesting I am completely engrossed. Really I appreciate the efforts you take for making these posts. Thanks for sharing with us such useful information.
Hi Michael
Can you tell me? Why I sent email always in spam foder. or ads foder. It is very bad!
One of the major reasons why your emails end up in the spam folder is because you’re using some words that are deemed spammy, such as ‘free, amazing, awesome, free shippping, discount et al. If you can eliminate these words on your email subject lines, you’ll definitely get your emails on the main folder.
Ya, even I’ve gave some free digital ebooks, but I ended up with bad results. OK, I’ll try webinars, email courses as I read in the above comment and I’ll be back letting you know these experiences.
I have been using to give free digital ebook as an incentive to increase email signup but, in the last 2-3 years i noticed that the effectiveness of this method has decreased consistently. Probably people now don't even have time to read ebooks or, simply, it's just about having some very good content in it, to make it viral.
From years of experience, I think e-book and free reports are no longer as effective for list building as they used to. But video courses, email courses and webinars are still proven ways to collect leads.
Somehow you are right but you know that mostly today social proff is being used many fake companies. Companies doest not related to even small company they drop the social proff of Microsoft, CNN and etc. What is your views regarding these fake social proof companies?
Using fake social proofs is bad, it’s illegitimate. You should only use it when you’ve in one way dealt or worked with the top brands. That’s my humble advice.
Excellent Brief, Nice Article thanks for usefull writing.
Great info Thank you for writing
I am new buddies on Blogging. I don't know, what SEO and other stuff. But after reading this article. I got good information about the content written. Content is king, if you want to rank in google.
I have recetly came across this site of yours and the way you have linked the imporatnce of social media is truely fantastic and I will try to cover all the aspects in my blog
Currently i am using only feed burner, but i think content also king for power full or more email subcription.
You should use either Getresponse or Aweber for your email list marketing. I don’t buy the idea of Feed burner.
very Ueful info . thanks for sharing
Thanks for writing such a useful post. As you have said, these techniques are really simple and powerful at the same time! Thanks again! Keep on bloggingg 🙂
I never knew that adding a social proofs to one’s website or blog at a vantage position where readers can see em will definitely inspire them to take action.
And come to think of it, traffic has always been the problem. And waiting for search engine to bring in traffic takes a long time especially for blog that are still new and growing.
Hey michael, I’ve got a question for you! What about those who has not dealt with trusted brands in the past, what option do they have, or can they just form and create social proofs of brands they have not been featured on?
To answer your question michael, NO! I have not been using social proofs to improve conversion rates!, in fact, this is the first time I’ll be reading/hearing anything about social proofs.
So, michael, I don’t have anywhere else to go. Since you’re already in the game, I think learning and using social proofs won’t be a problem to me. I need help!!!
Seriously, using social proofs not only inspires your readers to know and recognize you as a go-to expert, but it also gives your blog a professional flavor. I’ll do everything possible to help you. I could make out time to audit your blog, if you want.
Nice of you taking your time to reply my comment. So, how do we get started ??
Hi Johnnie,
I'm sure Michael wouldn't mind me offering some useful advice here.
Firstly, don't get intimidated by the name "social proof." Just know social proof includes anything that can give you and/or your work some credibility, but from a 3rd party.
The most common social proofs are testimonials. And the best way of getting them is to simply ask from anyone you've worked with in the past, and is happy with your work. A simple positive comment on your blog can also be developed into a great testimonial. Just make sure you get the author's permission. Or create a space for "what people think" and include all positive comments and feedbacks there.
Another great social proof are case studies (or customer success stories). You get it same way you get a testimonial; asking. But this time, you ask more questions enough to get you the necessary elements of a case study; background (about the customer), problems/challenges, solution, and results. You can then use it as a post on your blog, or simply create a "case studies" page. You just need to be creative in using social proofs – there are no real rules here.
Other social proofs you might consider are endorsements, recommendations, expert oinion and quotes (Michael quoting from Robert Caldini in this post is social proof that strengthens the post), facts and figures (again, Michael's advice boosting his client's email list by 264% is great social proof of his authority on the subject), statistics, etc.
As you can see, it's all about being creative and finding social proofs from around you. They are everywhere. Just remember to make them very specific (names, figures, etc)
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Oludami'
Great comments Oludami. Social proof is exactly how you explained it. God bless you.
Hi Michael,
list building is surely a challenging thing to do, i am trying to do by banners techniques which i think can increase your email sign up rate bit fairly but social proof is a great idea delivered by you
Hi Michael,
First of all nice informational post, list building is surely a challenging thing to do, i am trying to do by banners techniques which i think can increase your email sign up rate bit fairly but social proof is a great idea delivered by you i will definitely try it
nice post
If I don't have anything to offer to readers like you, is there any way to increase the email subscribing rate ?
I'm running a tech and gadget news website and try to get more subscribe to our rss feed but it seems not get much success.
On our website also have the deals section.
Sure Alize, you definitely have something to offer your readers. It could even be your best articles packaged in a short report or e-book. You could give away free plugins you use for your blogging as well. Anything that can add value to your reader’s life is good to go.
I am impressed. For a person who is strugling for a traffic on her post this is an eye-opener. I will subscribe to your blog now, as i think there is some interesting information in there which can benifit by blogging business. Thanks for sharing this for free!
Nice Post, Currently i am using feed burner email subscription form for my website. can you tell me any free other service for wp website.?