We’ve been talking about all the various touch points you should cover when attempting to grow your list. In this episode, we start to talk about how timing factors into your list growth.

00:22 Andy Shore: Hey everybody, welcome back to Clues for the Clueless Email Marketer. We’re gonna continue talking about growing a list today and we’re gonna focus, for this episode, on the importance of timing, and what we mean by that is like, how long when someone’s encountering your website, social media, wherever else could they be, how long is it until they see that sign-up form.

00:45 Daniel Miller: Yeah, so I’m sure some of you have been to a website, you’re reading a blog and then you get that pop-up that shows up right in your face, that is part of timing. We’re gonna talk about timing specifically like that, and also timing in regards to, when should that sign-up form actually appear. Maybe instead of having the pop-up form be right then and there as they get to the site, maybe as they’re scrolling through, the timing is just right for you to ask for the subscription there.

01:12 AS: Yeah, and whatever the timing is, it’s just, with each individual user experience or path that they’re on, you need to think about when would be that perfect moment for them to encounter that sign-up form that’s gonna make it most likely that they subscribe right then and there, ’cause that’s what it’s all about, is you don’t wanna get a site visitor and have him go out the door. So you need to get that timing down so that you make sure you’re growing your list with the most site visitors and other customers, leads that you can by timing it well.

01:46 DM: Exactly, and to be honest, those pop-up forms that to me, are very annoying. I came to your site and I’m about to read a blog, and before I can even read two words, you’re already showing a pop-up for me to subscribe. To me, that’s annoying, but the stats and the numbers show differently. I believe websites like sumo.com, which offer a wide range of services for this, not to be an ad for them, but it is true. They share a lot of stats that show how those pop-ups really work. The bad news is, it may not work for you, and that’s the thing about testing. Whatever you wanna try to do, make sure to always test it, don’t just go with what we’re telling you or with what someone else tells you. If that pop-up that shows up right away works for a lot of people, test that first. But then also maybe test it where the pop-up shows up three seconds after they’ve been to the site, or maybe test it after they’ve scrolled down to the very bottom of the blog, or maybe when they’re about to exit your blog, right?

02:47 AS: Yeah. And then we’re gonna talk about a lot of that in greater detail in the next coming episodes, but I think what Daniel’s talking about whether or not pop-ups work and testing is, you can’t just test on one page either. You need to know what it’s like for each different customer touch point you have, whether it’s your home page, your blog, and all the other touch points we talked about in the previous nine, 10 episodes. It’s gonna vary in when that timing is. Sometimes, if it’s the landing page from an ad, yes, then those pop-ups are perfect; on the pricing page, you don’t wanna distract them from what you’re doing, so maybe you put it down on the footer, on the side. It’s different for each page and it’s important to test all that out, and like we said, it’s important to optimize it with testing so that you know it’s the right experience for each one of those touch points.

03:36 DM: Exactly, and as Andy has mentioned, if you wait too long, you may lose that subscriber entirely, so that’s why it’s all about that perfect timing. And unfortunately, there’s no blanket, here’s the strategy, go ahead and try it. There’s a lot of strategies that we’re gonna show you in the upcoming episodes. Try different ones, test it out and see what works best for you.

04:00 AS: Yeah. Thanks, everyone, for listening. We’ll catch you next time.