Improve RSS and Email Followers
RSS and Email subscriptions are great ways to improve the traffic and brand recognition of your web site or blog. However, few site owners know of a simple UI tweak that can make a HUGE difference in your subscription rates.
Simply change “Subscribe” to “Get Updates“
Wordplay
So, Why should this one small change make a difference?
First, we need to look at the word “Subscribe” and how it traditionally relates to media.
When you use the word “subscribe” in terms of media consumption, most people will associate it with yearly paid subscriptions to a magazine or a newspaper. Even when coupled with the word “free”, people still are hesitant because they still associate it with a required commitment.
In addition, “Subscribe” doesn’t really describe the action being taken. People are not getting the full content delivered to them via RSS or Emails… they’re simply getting a notification that new content is on the site.
So, by simply changing the wording to something a little less threatening and a little more descriptive, like “Get Updates”, you’re able to break down the barriers that may be holding some of your visitors back.
A/B Testing
Of course, the phrase “Get Updates” may not work in every situation. This is why it’s important to track your traffic and subscription rates and find the best wording combo to use for your site.
Tracking is easily done through services like Google’s Feedburner or other Free RSS analytic and management services.
More advanced users can also track it through their analytics services, by tracking clicks on your subscription links over a period of time.
Improvements and changes can vary widely from site-to-site, so unfortunately, I can’t provide any estimates as to what your improvements will be. However, the effort this change takes is minimal and the benefits can be substantial.
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27. October 2009 at 19:45
I agree, and alongside making the wording more inviting, it’s also important to make signing up for updates as quick and easy as possible. I’m not sure how I’d go about subscribing for updates on your site (other than using a feedreader of some sort), but that’s why we developed our signup widget which allow non-technical web site owners to add a little email alerts signup form to pages on their website. Allowing non-technical (non-rss reader) visitors to enter their email address and track new content as it’s published. A great way to build up a subscriber list for newly published articles, and a great way for visitors to keep up to date with content they’re interested in.
28. October 2009 at 06:32
Hi again, I just used rssa.at to create a feed of your website, so I can now get email alerts everytime you update your site (hourly, daily, weekly or monthly).
As I said above, the system was developed to let web site owners place a widget sign up form on their site, but it works both ways! Visitors can use rssa.at even if the website owner hasn’t.
28. October 2009 at 10:08
Thanks Tom!
4. November 2009 at 20:37
[...] about how to get more subscribers by adding an email subscription box and within the comments, Troy Peterson left a great tip on how to optimise the copywriting to maximize subscription signups and I thought [...]