{"id":632,"date":"2016-01-11T18:11:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T12:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.plugmatter.com\/?p=632"},"modified":"2016-01-11T18:11:18","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T12:41:18","slug":"7-list-building-case-studies-to-boost-your-subscribers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plugmatter.com\/spark\/7-list-building-case-studies-to-boost-your-subscribers\/","title":{"rendered":"7 List Building Case Studies By Experts To Grow Your Email List"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the primary goals of a large percentage of websites and blogs is to build their email list. Whether your website is geared toward selling your own products, or is an affiliate advertiser – a list of subscribers are part of your audience, potential customers, and loyal readers.<\/p>\n

In this article we’ll look at 7 list building case studies that can help grow your subscriber list. Scroll away!<\/p>\n

Case study #1 : More is better<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"More<\/a><\/p>\n

Stuart Walker and his team at nichehacks.com<\/a> performed a simple experiment, at the end of which their subscription rate increased by 147.5% in just 30 days.<\/p>\n

They started with only a 100-150 subscribers in early 2014. Then they began performing one small change at a time, the aim being to build their email list. By April they had 280 subscribers, so they continued doing so. In the next 2 months, the subscribers jumped to just under 700 per month.<\/p>\n

The website changes were simple. Adding 1 additional opt-in box brought in some additional subscribers. Adding even more optins, in various locations on the website, brought in a far more subscribers.<\/p>\n

Nichehacks.com shows how in the case of optins, more is better. You can view nichehacks case study here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Case study #2: Ask aggressively<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Ask<\/a><\/p>\n

Noah Kagan of AppSumo.com,<\/a> in his Copyblogger<\/a> blog post, explains an experiment he did in the early days of his website. Initially, Noah just did not want to bother people with emails. Lists were the furthest thing from his mind, until his subscribers started requesting more info.<\/p>\n

Noah realized building subscriber lists was an important part of owning and running a website. He decided to make an aggressive effort towards having a bigger list.<\/p>\n

It worked. Using several such techniques, Noah found his subscription rates skyrocketed. Here’s what he did:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Added a sign up form at the end of his articles, offering something for free.<\/li>\n
  2. Installed a home page lock-gate. To be able to view the content, the site visitor has to provide their email address.<\/li>\n
  3. Offering more within the content. An example may be an article that is a top 7 list, but you can receive another 7 just for signing up.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Noah found these to show substantial results. Here’s Noah’s article on Copyblogger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Case study #3: The 30 day list building challenge<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

    \"The<\/a><\/p>\n

    A simple list building challenge created by Nathalie Lussier. She challenged herself to do nothing but building her subscriber list, for 30 days. Selling products and other such tasks take a backseat.<\/p>\n

    What Nathalie didn’t plan for when posting this on her blog, was the number of bloggers who wanted to join in on the 30 day challenge. The case study turned into an \u201cIron Blogger Marathon.\u201d<\/p>\n

    In doing so, Nathalie did not reach the goal of 15,000 new subscribers, but she did get 3,000 new subscribers. Other bloggers also made big strides in their subscription rates.<\/p>\n

    From Nathalie’s experiment, it could indeed do what it set out to do. Read Nathalie’s words about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Case study #4: Exit pop-up list building case study<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

    \"Exit<\/a><\/p>\n

    Matthew Woodward notes how pop-ups on websites can<\/em> help build lists, if done properly. His case study consisted of finding out why some helped gain subscription sign-ups, while others just annoyed the visitor.<\/p>\n

    What Matthew found in this case study was – to develop creative touches. When a visitor is about to leave your website, the pop-up ought to provide something that is so tempting, that a majority of visitors should buckle and provide their email.<\/p>\n

    Matthew cites masterful pop-up technicians who use this technique on their websites. You can see for yourself by visiting Matthew’s blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Case study #5: The overlay case study<\/span>
    \n<\/b><\/h2>\n

    \"The<\/a><\/p>\n

    In the last case study, Matthew speaks about pop-ups, and in this one, Justin Rondeau performed another experiment on pop-ups. Justin wrote about these studies on econsultancy.com<\/a>‘s blog.<\/p>\n

    Studying different systems of overlay techniques, Justin shows the results from a series of tests. He studied A\/B testing on:<\/p>\n