12 email opt-in ideas for your e-commerce store
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Do you know how many of your website visitors buy the first time they land on your online store? It’s not 100% that’s for sure. So, how do you capture your visitors email address before they buy so you can use an effective email marketing strategy to convert them into happy customers? Here are 12 opt-in ideas for your e-commerce store.
How to capture email leads before they even buy
Not everyone buys the moment they land on your website.
Sure you can retarget them with ads and continue to market to them via your social media channels, but all that is so exhausting.
What better way to get into your potential customers' head so they know your products are the best solution for their needs, then to use an effective email marketing strategy.
But first you need to get them to opt-in to your email list before you can send them emails.
So, for an ecommerce company, how do you get your customers to opt-in AND be interested in opening your emails so you can use your powers of persuasion to convert your readers into customers who love your products?
Here are 12 opt-in ideas for your ecommerce store
1. Discount on first order
This is probably the most used opt-in for ecommerce. That’s because it works. If someone is considering buying your product, an initial discount may tip them over the fence to become a customer.
Use a pop-up on your site to offer the discount if they sign-up with their email. You then deliver a welcome email with their discount code ready to use.
Research has shown that once a customer buys, they’re more likely to buy again, so the idea is to get them to make their first purchase. If you can do it in a timely manner, soon after signing up then that’s even better because your brand is front of mind. Therefore, offering some form of authentic scarcity like a timeframe for using the code may just make the conversion to customer easier.
2. Free delivery
If you only offer free delivery on large purchases, perhaps offering free delivery on any first purchase would make the purchasing decision a little easier. Like the offer of a first purchase discount, you can offer your free delivery as a code through a pop-up form.
3. Free report
If your products have a special ingredient or a unique production process, you might want to offer a free report on the benefits of buying products (like yours) that have these particular unique features.
Most customers will not be aware of why they need to buy your products over your competitions, but if you offer a report that highlights the benefits of these in a subtle way, then you’re priming them to buy from you.
Of course, you need to make sure that it’s not just an advertisement for your products but a valuable piece of information that they can use whether they eventually buy or not.
An example:
If you sell hair growth serum, a free report might be about why caffeine helps hair growth or perhaps what natural or home-made methods can be used to help hair grow. You could even spin this subject matter to the other side of the coin by providing a detailed report on “things to avoid” to stop hair loss.
4. Insider news / Join the club
You should always have some sort of method for readers to sign up to get emails from you which doesn’t necessarily have a “free” thing delivered. Many websites and stores have a “sign up to our newsletter” form in the footer, but often these go unnoticed because they’re not very compelling. By repositioning the benefit of signing up you can entice potential customers to sign up to hear more from you.
This uses a method of persuasion that harnesses “inclusion”. People want to be part of something special, especially if it’s positioned as an “insiders club” or VIP access. By highlighting the fact that your reader will be a member of an exclusive club, they’ll feel more inclined to avoid social exclusion by getting insider knowledge. It’s a subtle tactic that can work well if you position your offer correctly.
So, instead of saying “sign-up to our newsletter” say “get insider access” or “VIP news and tutorials for club members”.
5. Free sample
If you’re in a position to provide a free sample, this can be the perfect way for people to properly experience the power of your products. This is most useful for products that are used consistently and are renewed on a regular basis (and perhaps is subscription based) rather than a product that’s used rarely, even if it gets great results.
You want your customer to have a quick experience that leaves them wanting more. A great example of this is smol (a direct in the post laundry detergent company). They have a trial pack that you sign up for through their subscription service that automatically has you signed up for the subscription. Of course, you can cancel any time but you get to see how great the product is before being charged for your next supply.
Things to bear in mind: only use this tactic if you have a robust follow up system to offer repeat purchases – either a subscription model like above or an automated sequence that follows up with your trial user to offer them to buy the full version of your product. Also be mindful of the costs involved to supply free samples – how much is delivery and packaging of said product? What conversion metrics do you need to make this a worthwhile investment?
6. Masterclass
If your product provides incredible transformational results for your customer, you might want to consider offering a free masterclass where you or a member of your team walk your customer through a process that’s a precursor for getting these results.
For example:
If you offer a robust green-energy system for residential customers, then perhaps a masterclass on how to make your home eco-friendly would be the perfect primer for your system.
Or, if you offer vegan skincare products, you might want to offer a masterclass tutorial on the best skincare routine to make the most of any skincare products.
With something like this, you’re not selling your product as the solution and yet you’re positioning your product as the next obvious step. You need to highlight why this matters to your customer to make the most of this strategy.
Offering “3 secrets” is using the power of three’s which is a typical copywriting device that establishes a pattern for the consumer, making the subject matter “stick” in their minds because of the use of three’s.
7. Open an account with points (loyalty scheme)
If you’re able to set up a loyalty rewards scheme, then offering your reader to set up an account to immediately get points allows you to leverage the rewards system. When rewards are used in any “habit routine” the user gets a dopamine hit for doing the thing, which solidifies their decision (to sign up for an account) as a good one.
There’s also the tactic that having reward points waiting to be spent is a method of enticing someone to use those points in a purchase. It’s a similar tactic to the first purchase discount, but offers more persuasion due to the nature of rewards systems.
8. Download inspirational message / manifesto
If your brand has a very inspirational message behind it’s mission then you can use this to your advantage. Many customers who love brands with a mission do so because they relate to that mission themselves and often “stand for” the same things.
By offering a downloadable print-out to frame as home decor that highlights this message as a manifesto or even as a humorous way of positioning the message, can be a clever way to real in your lead through message connection.
9. Screen saver
Similar to the printable download, but possibly even more enticing is a screensaver of your message, tagline or something similar that is recognisable for your brand. Everyone loves a quote and with today’s society obsessed with mobile devices and technology a screensaver is a great option as a free deliverable.
10. Giveaway to win (monthly draw)
Do you like to be generous? Why not offer a free monthly giveaway?
If you can manage the logistics on the backend of your business, then a monthly draw to receive one of your best selling products could be a perfect way of garnering interest in getting people to give you their email address. You could take this one step further and offer more entries into the giveaway if people share via social media using hashtags.
There is the danger of getting “freebie hunters” on your list, but if you have a robust follow up automation system for those who enter via this channel, you could be very strategic in how you execute the monthly giveaway to convert your subscribers to customers and also clean your list on a regular basis.
An opportunity with this tactic is to collaborate with other product creators who have a similar target market but may be in a different product niche. Cross collaboration giveaways are a great way to “piggy-back” on other peoples audiences.
11. Checklist
A checklist related to what your customers do with your products or a hobby that’s related to this could be a great way of offering a valuable download and get subscribers opening and reading your emails – especially if you have a great welcome sequence that follows on from your opt-in to offer you products.
For example if you sell an organic clothing range, perhaps your checklist could be “the perfect ethical capsule wardrobe”, or if you offer non-toxic home cleaning solutions your checklist could be “how to make sure your home is toxic free”.
12. Ebook
If you’re extremely skilled at writing then you might want to consider writing an ebook on your subject matter. It would have to be useful to the reader and allow them to get a result, or at least be entertained with a connection to what products you sell. You’ll want the intention of your products to be the next step in their journey or at least a no-brainer purchase after your book has set the stage for your products.
This is quite a labour intensive tactic, but if you have plenty of content on your website (blog posts) that you could compile into a cohesive narrative for a book then it’s a worthwhile investment.
The one thing you must do to make your opt-in effective
Whatever you choose as your opt-in idea there’s one thing that you must do to make it worthwhile creating the opt-in in the first place is to make a commitment to email your subscribers consistently.
There’s no point in capturing email leads for your ecommerce business if you’re not going to put it to good use. With email being the most effective marketing strategy and the one with the highest return on investment (according to online statistics there is a $38 return for every $1 spent).
So make sure you’re emailing your people to tell them how great your products are and why they are the solution to their problems or will get them the results they desire!
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