How I Got 9x As Many Email Signups from Hello Bar

If you’ve read my post The Surprising Way I Tripled My Email Signups, you already know that going for the emotions, and using a little bit of humor can help differentiate you and get you more email subscribers.

I’ve been playing with Hello Bar recently, which is another way to make sure you can contact your website visitors again and again, increasing your pageviews and website visits.

Hello Bar is a little horizontal bar at the top of your website that asks people to opt into your email list. It integrates with a ton of emarketing marketing services- in my case, Aweber.

It’s all about the copywriting. I agree with several people who’ve said learning persuasive copywriting is one of the most valuable skills you can develop to increase how much cash you make over your lifetime. That’s in part because the lessons of copywriting apply everywhere in life- not just in writing.

Copywriting skills are relevant anytime you’re trying to persuade people.

So here are three different types of copy I used:

By the way, I lost the original text while accidentally editing the old version instead of duplicating a new one first. But believe me, it was boring.

What’s shocking to me is that I wasn’t implementing some of what I knew. Execution and diligence are critical. Do things the right way- don’t skip over it, or if you do, put it on your to do list!

Lessons (re)learned:

Version #1: Don’t be lazy. Be Diligent.

I let that first Hello Bar run way too long without split-testing other copy. As a result, I missed out on more than 400 subscribers. Coulda woulda shoulda.

Version #2: Be funny.

From other sources, I grew my email list, and claiming 10,000 subscribers PLUS the jokey “I will honestly cry”  text came from what I learned in my Pippity email pop-up tests. That almost doubled my conversion rate, but wasn’t enough.

Version #3: Give something valuable away for free.

Don’t assume people care about your email newsletter. I added in the 3 free ebooks (which is also in my pippity pop-up), and more than quintupled my conversion rate, more than 9x the original text. By the way, an editor may tell you that numbers under 10 should be written out, like “three”. However, I find that numbers break up the text and are easier to process cognitively, so I ignore that rule on purpose.

What’s Next?

I’m a little surprised I got such an increase from just giving them ebooks (without any information about them).

I bet that if I added the benefits of those 3 free ebooks I’d get even higher conversion rate.

And that’ll be my next test!