Did you know that more than 70% of people leaving your website today will probably never come back again? It is not your fault, the internet is just so full of great content that users have a very short memory span. Email marketing is the easiest and most reliable way to make sure that your users keep coming back. Look around at all your favorite blogs or websites, and you will find that they all have an email list. In this article we will show you how to build your email list in WordPress with OptinMonster, so you can convert your website visitors into subscribers and customers.
What is OptinMonster?
OptinMonster is the best lead-generation plugin for WordPress that allows you to create and integrate highly effective email signup forms on your website. It works with most popular email service providers like MailChimp, Aweber, ConstantContact, Campaign Monitor, Mad Mimi, etc.
OptinMonster is created by WPBeginner in collaboration with Thomas Griffin Media, so you know that this is top-notch quality because we built it to use it on our own sites.
Why You Should Use OptinMonster?
OptinMonster not only allows you to create and design optin forms, it comes packed with many other features, which are guaranteed to boost your email list. We can say that with absolute confidence, because it helped us grow our email list by nearly 600%. Here are some of the features:
- Beautiful Optin Forms. OptinMonster allows you to create visually stunning and user-friendly optin forms for your newsletter. You can choose from one of our highly effective optin designs or create a custom one for yourself.
- Variety of Optin types You can choose from multiple optin types like lightbox popups, floating bars, sidebar slide-ins, full page takeovers (coming soon), etc.
- A/B Split Testing feature allows you to test different optin forms and see which one is bringing you the maximum conversion. Turn it on with one-click and eliminate the guess work.
- Page Level Targeting is a powerful feature that enables you to show targeted messages on specific posts, pages, categories, and/or custom post types on your site.
- Exit-Intent Technology detects users behavior and allow you present them with a targeted campaign at the precise moment they’re about to leave your site. Its pretty awesome, we will tell you more about it later in this article.
- Analytics and Reports allows you to see the stats that matter and take action accordingly.
Last but not least, we made sure that OptinMonster is beginner friendly, so folks from all skill level can use it and take advantage of it.
How to Build Your Email List With OptinMonster?
Now we will show you how to install and setup OptinMonster and then we will show you how to create your first optin. It is a very straight forward process, and the best part is that you don’t need to touch a single line of code.
Signing up and Installing OptinMonster in WordPress
OptinMonster is a commercial plugin by WPBeginner. It comes with a 30 days money back guarantee, so you can make your purchase in confidence. Go to OptinMonster website and signup for a plan that meets your need. After signing up, login to your OptinMonster account, and you will land on the Dashboard. Click on View Details and Downloads link and download the OptinMonster plugin files.
After downloading the files, go to your WordPress site’s admin area. Click on Plugins » Add New. On this page click on the upload tab and simply upload OptinMonster plugin files to install and activate the plugin. See our guide on how to install plugins in WordPress for more detailed instructions. Upon installation, you will notice a new menu item ‘OptinMonster’ in your WordPress admin menu. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s settings page.
Creating an Optin Form in WordPress Using OptinMonster
Now we will show you how to create your first optin form with OptinMonster. Click on Create New Optin button. This will take you to the OptinMonster builder. First step is to choose an optin type. Click on the type of optin form you want to create and then click on Next Step button.
The next step is to configure optin settings. First add a title for this optin which is used internally to identify the optin form in admin area. Next, enter the optin delay time in milliseconds. It is set to 0 by default, but you should change it. For example, if you want your optin to appear once the user has been on the page for 10 seconds, then you would enter 10000 in the field.
You can also change the cookie duration setting here, the default is 7 days. What this means is once the user closes the optin, then they will not be asked to subscribe for the next 7 days. We recommend that you increase this number to a higher setting perhaps something like 30 days or even 365 days. Mainly because this keeps your regular users from getting annoyed and have a pleasant experience.
The next option is an important one which is Require double optin. It is checked by default, and we highly recommend that you don’t change it.
Some of you might not want to show the optin on the first page view. That’s when the setting “load on second page view” comes in handy. Simply check that box, and you’re good to go. The theory behind that is if a user goes to visit a second page on your site, then they’re surely interested and are more likely to subscribe.
If you get the pro or ultimate plan, then you will see the Exit intent option which is what we’re using on our site right now. OptinMonster’s Exit-intent technology detects user’s behavior through their mouse gestures. It allows you to show them a targeted message at the precise moment they’re about to leave. Since the user was about to leave anyways, this gives you an extra real-estate to convert that user into a subscriber and customer. This has proven to extremely successful in boosting new signups for us.
The last option on the configure tab is to choose your email service provider. When you choose an email service provider, OptinMonster will show you required fields for that particular email service provider. It is usually an API Key, user name or account email address. You can obtain your API key from your email service provider.
For MailChimp, simply login to your MailChimp account go to Account Settings and click on API Keys under Extras menu. If you do not have an API key, then click on create new api key button to create one. When creating an API Key you can provide an account label. This will help you identify which application is connecting to MailChimp using your API key. You will need an account label to connect to MailChimp.
Enter your API key and account label under Email Provider settings. Once you do that, OptinMonster will connect to your email service provider in the background and will show you your email lists. Choose the email list where you want the users of this optin form to subscribe to. That’s all, you are done with the configuration step.
Design your Optins with OptinMonster in WordPress
The next step is to choose or create your optin form design. OptinMonster will show you a few themes available for your chosen optin type. Select one of the existing themes and then click on Open Design Customizer button to customize your optin form.
Now this is the most fun part. OptinMonster comes with a very WordPress like customizer. If you have used the WordPress theme customizer, then you would definitely like how easy it is to use. You can choose fonts, colors, add your own title, taglines, and content. You can even add images in the optin.
Displaying Optins on Your Site
The last tab on this optin wizard is to manage how this optin is displayed on your site. OptinMonster comes with page level targeting, so you can set it to display globally through out your site or choose to show it on specific pages, posts, post types, or categories. You must check the first option which is to enable the optin. Once you do that, select any of the other checkboxes according to your needs. The settings are fairly intuitive.
Once you are done, click on the save optin output settings button. That’s it. OptinMonster will start showing your optin form on the site.
Note: If you’re using a caching plugin, then it is important to empty your cache.
A/B Split Testing For Optins in WordPress
Slight changes in the appearance, text, and even colors can dramatically increase your email signups. But how do you know which optin will bring you the most conversions? OptinMonster comes with easy-to-use A/B split test feature that eliminates the guess work for you.
All you have to do is to enable optins you want to test, then on the optins list page click on the gear button and choose Split testing. OptinMonster will replicate your existing optin, and then you can modify it to your choosing. Perhaps show a different headline or even an entirely different offer. You’ll be surprised by the results.
Conclusion
After years of trying out various different products, we found that most of them would slow down your site and were extremely buggy. Some even had terrible support. After failed attempts of fixing the bugs, we decided to create our own solution, OptinMonster. Like any of our other products, it is top-notch quality, and it deliver results.
We’re seeing an optin increase of upto 600% on our sites. If you’re looking to build your email list or improve your optin rates, then you should use OptinMonster.
We hope that this article helped you build your email list in WordPress using OptinMonster. We would recommend you to try different optin types, fonts, colors, and layouts. Take advantage of split testing and let us know how you boosted your email signups by leaving a comment below.
To leave a comment please visit How to Build Your Email List in WordPress with OptinMonster on WPBeginner.
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