What Is Opt-In Rate? + How to Increase Opt-In Rate (5 Tips)

Are you struggling to get more people to sign up for your email list or newsletter? Increasing your opt-in rate can make all the difference in growing your audience and boosting engagement. But if you’re new to optimizing opt-in rates or unsure where to start, it can feel overwhelming.

Here at OptinMonster, we’ve spent over a decade helping businesses encourage their website visitors to opt in. For example, entrepreneur Nick Gray used OptinMonster popups to improve his opt-in rates by up to 1000% and increase his monthly subscribers by 600%.

In this guide, I’ll walk through the essentials of understanding and improving your opt-in rate. Whether you’re just starting with email marketing or looking to level up, these insights will set you on the path to better engagement and more signups.

• What Is Opt-In Rate?
• How to Calculate Your Opt-In Rate
• What Is a Good Opt-In Rate?
• How to Increase Your Opt-In Rate (5 Tips)

What Is Opt-In Rate?

The opt-in rate refers to the percentage of people who sign up for your email list or newsletter compared to the total number of visitors who see your opt-in form. This metric helps you understand how effective your email capture strategies are and serves as a key indicator of your audience’s interest in your content or offers.

In simple terms, a high opt-in rate means that your opt-in forms are compelling enough to convert visitors into subscribers. Whether it’s through pop-ups, embedded forms, or landing pages, increasing this rate is essential to building a loyal subscriber base.

How to Calculate Your Opt-In Rate

Calculating your opt-in rate is straightforward and essential for tracking your email marketing success. Use this simple formula to find your opt-in rate:

Opt-In Rate (%) = (Number of New Subscribers / Total Number of Visitors) x 100

Let’s break it down with an example: If you had 1,000 visitors to your site last month and 50 people signed up for your email list, your opt-in rate would be:

(50 / 1,000) x 100 = 5%

This metric allows you to monitor changes over time and see how effective different strategies or campaigns are in capturing new leads.

What Is a Good Opt-In Rate?

What qualifies as a “good” opt-in rate can vary by industry, audience, and the type of form you’re using. However, most marketers aim for an opt-in rate between 1-5% for standard opt-in forms, with pop-ups and dedicated landing pages often seeing higher rates of 5-10% or more. Keep in mind that factors like your brand’s reputation, the offer’s relevance, and the user experience play significant roles in achieving a high opt-in rate.

Remember, while industry averages provide a baseline, your goal should always be to improve your current rate through testing, adjustments, and personalization. With the right strategies, it’s possible to achieve opt-in rates well above the average.

How to Increase Your Opt-In Rate (5 Tips)

1. Boost Your Opt-In Rates with OptinMonster’s Powerful Popups

Popups often get a bad rap, but when designed thoughtfully, they can be one of the most effective tools for growing your email list. OptinMonster takes popups to the next level, transforming them into high-converting assets that engage your audience without disrupting their experience.

Here’s how OptinMonster stands out as a must-have tool for improving your opt-in rates:

• Customizable Designs and Templates: With over 70 beautiful, pre-made templates, OptinMonster allows you to create eye-catching popups in minutes, even if you’re a beginner. The drag-and-drop builder makes it simple to customize your designs so they match your brand and grab visitors’ attention.

• Advanced Targeting and Display Rules: OptinMonster’s powerful advanced targeting options let you tailor your campaigns to reach the right people at the right time. Whether it’s based on user location, device, referral source, or even the amount of time they’ve spent on your site, you have control over who sees your opt-in forms.
• Exit-Intent® Technology: OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent technology detects when visitors are about to leave your site and serves them a targeted offer, giving you a last chance to convert them into subscribers. This feature alone has helped many brands significantly reduce bounce rates and increase opt-ins. For example, Crossrope saw opt-in rates as high as 13.71% using OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent®.
• Personalized User Experiences: With OptinMonster, you can segment your audience right from the start. By creating personalized opt-in forms for different segments, you can ensure a relevant experience that resonates with each visitor. This level of personalization is key to building trust and improving conversions.
• Proven Success Stories: Brands like Libratone have used OptinMonster’s intelligent targeting to achieve remarkable results, such as increasing their email lists by over 400%. OptinMonster’s tools have been tested and proven to deliver results for businesses of all sizes.

If you’re ready to create popups that work seamlessly with your visitors’ experience, OptinMonster offers everything you need to boost your opt-in rates and grow your email list quickly. You can see results like Libratone, which increased their email list by 400% using OptinMonster! Sign up for your 100% risk-free OptinMonster account today, and see how powerful well-designed popups can be.

2. Host a Contest or Giveaway

Running a contest or giveaway is a win-win for your email list and your prospective leads.

Simply make signing up for your email list a condition of entry for your contest.

If you want a tool to make running your contest or giveaway simple, take a look at RafflePress:

RafflePress is the best online giveaway plugin to boost your email opt-in rates if you are using WordPress.

Here’s how it works:

You select your prize. Then, use RafflePress to create your giveaway. While in that creation process, you get to set what actions qualify as an entry to the contest.

This includes signing up for your email list, referring friends and family, and much more.

RafflePress’s drag and drop contest builder gets your contest looking great and on your website in just a matter of minutes.

Want to see it in action for yourself? Get started with RafflePress today!

3. Use Live Chat to Engage Visitors

People love instant connection and crave communication. Did you know that you can leverage that to encourage people to opt-in for your email list?

How? Though a live chat tool. Yes, that little chiming box in the bottom-right corner of websites can grow your email opt-in rate!

For more information on live chat, check out Live Chat Best Practices: How to Streamline Customer Service.

But, if you’re ready to add live chat to your site, check out our list of the 13 Best Live Chat Plugins for WordPress (Pros And Cons).

4. Build Credibility with Social Proof

One of the most powerful ways to improve your opt-in rates is by building trust through social proof. When potential subscribers see that others value your brand, they’re more likely to sign up for your newsletter and engage with your content.

Here are 2 powerful ways you can use social proof to boost your email opt-ins effectively:

1. Incorporate social proof into OptinMonster campaigns: With OptinMonster, you can easily integrate social proof elements into your popups, welcome mats, and other opt-in forms. Here’s an example of a popup we use here on our own site. As you can see, it includes a testimonial that shows that benefits of signing up for an OptinMonster account:

Similarly, our sidebar optin form includes social proof by mentioning the huge number of subscribers to our email list:

When you add testimonials, subscriber numbers, customer reviews, or star ratings to your opt-in campaigns, your conversion rates will skyrocket.

Sign up for OptinMonster today!

2. Use Real-Time Notifications with TrustPulse: TrustPulse is another powerful tool for building trust and increasing conversions. With TrustPulse, you can display real-time notifications of recent signups or other actions.

Here’s an example of a TrustPulse notification on OptinMonster’s site:

And here’s an example of one focused on email opt-ins:

TrustPulse creates a FOMO (fear of missing out) effect that encourages visitors to take action. Social proof statistics show that these notifications can boost site conversions by up to 15%, making it one of the most effective, low-effort tactics you can use.

Get started with TrustPulse today!

Using social proof within OptinMonster campaigns and TrustPulse notifications helps create a sense of community and reliability around your brand. When potential subscribers see proof that others trust and engage with your content, they’re more likely to opt in and become part of your audience.

5. Try A/B Testing to Change Up Your Message

Even with a solid email opt-in strategy, you probably won’t get the most optimal design or CTA on the first try. And what works in February may not work come August.

That’s why it’s so crucial to A/B test.

Tools like OptinMonster have A/B testing built into their platforms so you can test multiple designs and campaigns in real-time. Then, you can use the results to make data-driven decisions to improve your email opt-in campaigns.

For example, let’s look at how OptinMonster’s A/B testing technology works.

• It randomly shows each campaign variation to your visitors until you know there’s a clear winner
• It lets you know whether or not your campaign is performing above average
• Combined with our in-depth Conversion Analytics, you’ll get detailed A/B testing statistics

Best of all, you can start creating your split test with just a single click:

Many businesses already use OptinMonster’s A/B Testing tool to split test their email opt-in campaigns. This tells them which campaigns are most successful in driving newsletter signups.

You can use A/B Testing with all of OptinMonster’s templates. However, it works best when you also experiment with the campaign triggers and display rules. That way you can see how campaigns perform for different audience segments and different locations.

And that’s it for our guide on actionable tips to boost your email opt-in rates. As you can see, it can be pretty easy to grow your email subscription list once you have the right tools and strategy.

It takes a little work, but the rewards are absolutely worth it.

If you found this article helpful, you’ll definitely want to check out the following resources:

• Lead Generation 101: A Beginner’s Guide
• 7+ Conversion Rate Optimization Tools That Pros Can’t Ignore
• How to Add an Email Optin to WordPress in Under 5 Minutes

These articles will have even more information on improving your lead generation and conversion marketing strategy.

And if you’re ready to start increasing your opt-in rates, sign up for OptinMonster today!