When Aweber first posed the question, “Can you get more readers by displaying your subscriber count,” on their blog, it got me to thinking about some of my niche businesses. I use email marketing extensively in my business, so anything that will increase my subscribers is a good thing.
The general idea here is that you may be able to turn more of your website visitors into subscribers if you can prove to them that many other website visitors have made the same choice. Marc Kline puts it like this:
Just because someone else does something, doesn’t mean you should, does it? Maybe not, but from infancy all the way through adulthood, we take cues from others on what is worth our attention.
To test the theory, Aweber makes it possible to display a chicklet that shows your website visitors how many others are benefiting from your email newsletter… in other words, the chicklet shows your current subscriber count under your subscription form.
It’s a nice little setup because all you have to do is insert the code and Aweber keeps track and maintains your subscriber count for you. No fuss, no hassle.
So I decided to test out the whole social proof theory with a couple of my niche websites that offer newsletters.
To my complete surprise, displaying the subscriber count under the subscription form appears to have increased my subscription rate by 33%!
In fairness, I’ve only been running the chicklet for a month and most of my niches are somewhat cyclical, so it just could be a coincidence… I haven’t suspended the test yet to make sure that the increases are due to the subscriber count display and not to some other factor such as the time of year or other promotions that may increase my subscription rate, but I don’t think this is the case because of the way I tested it.
My results are based on a split test (page A without chicklet and page B with chicklet) and appear to be sound. I don’t think the cyclical nature of the niches in the test really has anything to do with the results and I find the results encouraging so far. Encouraging enough that I’m expanding the test to include more of my niches.
So, why would displaying the subscriber count make more people subscribe themselves?
It really comes down to the whole idea that people prefer to commit to things that others have already committed to and found success. It’s kind of the same idea as putting testimonials on sales pages to show prospects that others have found success with the product and you will too.
Your newsletter or ezine is one of your products, so if you can essentially provide testimony or proof that others have subscribed, it makes sense that it would increase your subscription rate. I agree with Marc Kline when he says:
This social proof might not make everyone want to jump on the bandwagon, but when subscribers are considering why they would want to give up some more time and inbox space to get your email, things like links to a privacy policy and subscriber counts may prove to be the tipping point. Showing your subscriber can help you to boost conversions on your sign up forms.
Anyway you look at it, it’s something worth testing for your own business and it’s another reason why I love Aweber… they are always helping me to be more effective and successful in my email marketing!
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Tagged with: Email Marketing • Test Results
Filed under: Email Marketing • Testing & Tracking • Website Design
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