How to Incentivize Website Visitors to Join Your Email List — Without Giving Away Your Own Products
Getting people to visit your website is difficult enough. Getting them to voluntarily hand over their email address can be even harder.
Most visitors don't wake up thinking, I'd really like to join another email list today.
They need a reason.
That's why websites have traditionally used incentives such as downloadable guides, exclusive content, coupon codes, giveaways and other "lead magnets" to encourage visitors to subscribe.
But there's another approach that can give visitors something of genuine monetary value without requiring the website owner to discount, manufacture or give away anything of their own.
Use an Affiliate Discount as a Subscriber Benefit
Instead of simply telling visitors:
"Sign up for our newsletter."
Give them a reason:
"Join our email list and receive 15% off ink and toner."
Through the PlanetGreenRecycle.com affiliate program, participating websites can provide their visitors with an affiliate discount code that saves them 15% on ink and toner purchases.
The visitor gets an immediate benefit. The website gets another incentive it can use to encourage email subscriptions.
And when that visitor uses the affiliate offer to make a qualifying purchase, the participating affiliate can earn 15% of the sale.
It's a subscriber incentive that can potentially generate revenue instead of becoming an expense.
Why Ink and Toner?
The most effective subscriber incentives are useful to a broad portion of an audience.
Ink and toner aren't niche products. Businesses buy them. Schools buy them. Home offices buy them. Nonprofits buy them. Families buy them. Professionals buy them.
And unlike many promotional offers, printer supplies are consumable products. Eventually, they have to be replaced. That makes an ink and toner discount something visitors can save today and use when they actually need it.
A visitor doesn't have to be shopping for printer cartridges when they encounter your signup offer.
The message can simply be:
Sign up and we'll send you a 15% ink and toner discount to keep for your next purchase.
You Don't Have to Give Away Your Own Product
Many traditional email signup incentives come with a cost.
An ecommerce business might offer 10% off its own products. A publisher might have to create a special ebook or guide. Another website might run a contest or purchase something to give away.
An affiliate-funded incentive works differently. You're giving subscribers access to a discount offered by another business.
That means you don't have to reduce the price of your own products or services to encourage the signup, and because the discount is connected to an affiliate program, the incentive can create an additional revenue stream when subscribers become customers.
Turn a Signup Form Into a Value Exchange
Consider the difference between these two messages:
Join Our Mailing List
and:
Save 15% on Ink & Toner
Join our email list and we'll send you a 15% discount you can use on your next ink and toner purchase.
The second version answers the question every visitor subconsciously asks before entering an email address:
What's in it for me?
Instead of asking visitors to subscribe simply because you want their email address, you're offering something useful in return.
Where Can You Use the Offer?
You don't necessarily need to redesign your website or build an elaborate marketing funnel. The incentive can be incorporated wherever you're already asking visitors to subscribe.
For example:
-
An existing newsletter signup form
-
A website popup or exit-intent message
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A sidebar signup
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The bottom of articles and blog posts
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A resource or downloads page
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A member-registration page
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A confirmation or thank-you page
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Social media promotions directing visitors to your signup page
The important part isn't the format. It's giving the visitor a clear reason to take action.
The Affiliate Revenue Creates a Second Benefit
Growing an email list is valuable on its own because it gives a website the ability to communicate with visitors again.
But an affiliate incentive can add another layer.
When subscribers use the participating website's affiliate offer and make qualifying purchases, the affiliate can earn 15% of those sales.
That means the same program can potentially serve two purposes:
Acquire a subscriber today.
Earn affiliate revenue when that subscriber purchases later.
And because ink and toner are replacement products, customers may have recurring purchasing needs. They buy once, they buy again later and you continue to earn when they use your discount code.
It Doesn't Have to Become the Focus of Your Website
This is important.
A website doesn't need to suddenly become an ink and toner website. The offer is simply another benefit you can provide your audience.
Your existing content, products and services remain the reason people visit your site.
The discount gives you another answer to: "Why should I give you my email address?"
For some websites, it may become the primary signup incentive. For others, it may simply be an additional subscriber benefit:
Subscribers receive updates, exclusive content and 15% off ink and toner.
A Simple Implementation
The concept can be remarkably straightforward. A website promotes the subscriber benefit:
Join our email list and receive 15% off ink and toner.
After signup, the subscriber receives the participating site's affiliate offer and a link to PlanetGreenRecycle.com.
When the subscriber needs printer supplies, they can use the offer to receive their discount. When a qualifying affiliate purchase is completed, the referring website earns a 15% commission on the sale.
No inventory.
No shipping.
No customer fulfillment.
The website owner simply provides another useful benefit to the audience they've already built.
Your Website Traffic Has Value
Every website visitor represents an opportunity. Some will purchase something. Some will read an article and leave. Some may never return.
Getting a visitor onto your email list creates the opportunity to continue that relationship after the original visit has ended. The challenge has always been convincing them to subscribe.
Giving visitors a practical discount on something millions of people and businesses already purchase can provide one more reason to say yes and unlike many traditional signup incentives, this one pays the website owner when the incentive is used.
Give Your Visitors 15% Off And Earn 15% When They Buy
If you operate a website, blog, organization, resource site or online community and you're looking for another way to encourage visitors to join your email list, the PlanetGreenRecycle.com affiliate program can provide a ready-made incentive.
Use the offer as a newsletter incentive, subscriber benefit, member perk or simply another reason for visitors to stay connected with your website.
Give visitors a reason to join with something they can use.
Join the Affiliate Program here.