Sometimes the best, most profitable strategies are the ones that are the easiest to implement. Say it with me, marketing doesn’t have to be hard! If you’re an agency this is something you can charge your client for that will produce consistent results and create a very happy customer!
The footer optin form is one that is often overlooked, mostly because people think it doesn’t work. Well, we’ve tested it. While it may not be as popular as other lead generation methods, it certainly works! Numbers don’t lie.
Don’t have an optin form in your footer? You should!
There are a few reasons why having the optin form in your footer is just a good idea!
- Have a consistent CTA (Call to Action) on every page!
- Easy to find for deal hunters.
- Low barrier entry for leads on the fence.
It provides a consistent CTA across every page on your site. If you have a lot of offers on your site, a potential lead can get confused and simply walk away. But if you have a consistent CTA in your footer, it makes it easier for a visitor to provide an email address because there is less confusion.
Deal hunters/discount hunters look for them. It’s becoming the norm for businesses to “hide” easter eggs and special offers in the footer, so experienced internet shoppers and deal hunters scroll straight to the footer.
It provides a low barrier entry point for potential leads. If your service requires a lengthy signup process or credit card payment, a footer optin form is a low barrier entry point for someone to get more information without making a big commitment.
It basically prints free money!
One of the great things about it is that once it’s set up, it’s basically maintenance free and will be a consistent source of high quality leads from that point on.
We installed ours on Groundhogg.io in May of 2019 and it has generated almost 360 leads and produced a 16% purchase conversion rate since then.
These numbers are not earth shattering, sure, but for the investment in time I’m pretty sure it was worth it.
What you’ll need for this funnel:
To add this to your site you’ll obviously need Groundhogg and an SMTP Service installed on your WordPress site.
If you run an ecommerce store with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads you can install the relevant integrations to see sales figures right in the funnel report!
The last thing you’ll need is a call to action and promised benefit. Generally visitors need a reason to subscribe. A promised benefit could be…
- A discount code
- An in store coupon
- A PDF download
- Access to a free course
- Booking a discovery call
- And more…
In our footer you’ll find an offer for 15% off any plan!
Let’s implement this!
Once you have Groundhogg and your SMTP service installed, as well as your call to action and promised benefit, we’ll only need the next 15 minutes to set it all up.
Import the “Super Simple Footer Optin” funnel template!
Download the relevant template and import it into your WordPress site.
Tweak your emails and link your benefits!
You’ll find Groundhogg created a few new emails in your funnel. Add your own language and link to your promised benefit.
Choose a benchmark to end the funnel and track a conversion.
The ending benchmark may be different depending on your use case. If you have an ecommerce store then you would end the funnel with a purchase benchmark! If you have a service business it may end when an appointment is booked.
Fortunately, we have pre-selected a benchmark for you depending on which template you downloaded.
Configure it to meet your needs. For example if you want to track a conversion in WooCommerce but only for a specific product category then tweak the settings to match!
Add a text widget to your footer.
Copy the shortcode in the Web Form benchmark and paste it into a new Text Widget in your site’s footer.
Add some accompanying text like, “15% off your first purchase. 🔒 Secure, no spam.”
Activate the funnel!
Once your funnel is completely configured, toggle the status to ready and your funnel is now live!
When will you see results?
It really depends on the volume of your site traffic. Groundhogg gets a consistent 5,000 unique visitors per month and we get on average 50-60 new leads every month, which comes out to ~1% conversion rate.
So if you have no traffic then obviously this won’t go gangbusters for you instantly, but if you have more than 1,000+ visitors you’ll start to see results quickly!
The first month we had this active we got 12 leads in the door! Today it’s 5X!
Here’s your next steps.
You don’t need to limit this to your website’s footer either! Put it in your blog sidebar, in a popup, or as a call to action in your blog posts!
Creating a consistent call to action across your entire site will eventually convince those people on the edge to take the plunge and commit to signing up!
Don’t have Groundhogg yet? What are you waiting for!?
Choose your flat-rate plan, sign up, and you can have your own footer subscribe lead gen system deployed before the day is over!
Oh, and if you haven’t figured it out by now, scroll down to the footer opt-in to get 15% off.
