Email List Signup Pages Checklist

Let’s review an early example of email list signup pages from one of our previous websites.

This could be a good checklist to start with but depending on your email service provider, your mileage may vary.

The idea behind this structure was to have the double opt-in act as a content funnel so subscribers can home in on what they want, whether it’s some content or all content to their email box.

We no longer run these pages on our previous website.

Base Page

No Content Here – This is a 404-style page with assistance to help the user find content. We mostly used this page as a parent slug. You’ll see what we mean below. If they stumble on this page or directly link to it, we don’t want them to see the thank you message.

• There’s no content to see here boss. What can I help you find?
• Have a search bar, link to the blog, and link to book reviews.
• DOMAINNAME.com/confirmed/
• Slug: confirmed

Thanks for Subscribing Page

You’re Awesome! – First thank you page for the initial signup. This is the first opt-in. They still need to confirm the subscription. After filling out the subscribe to newsletter form, it will automatically redirect them to this page.

• Thank you for subscribing. You’ll be getting a quick follow up email very shortly to customize your experience. Interacting with this follow up email will also confirm the subscription.
• DOMAINNAME.com/confirmed/sub
• Slug: sub

Subscription Confirmed: Blog Content

You’ve Successfully Signed Up for the Blog Feed – Signing up for blog post RSS feed only. Have a link to the blog. Archives and recent blog posts.

• Nice! You’re signed up for the blog feed. You’ll be updated with any new blog posts on Fridays.
• DOMAINNAME.com/confirmed/blog-list
• Slug: blog-list

Subscription Confirmed: Book Review Content

You’ve Successfully Signed Up for the Book Review Feed – Signing up for book reviews RSS feed only. Have a link to the book review page. Have a link to the Audible offer.

• Nice! You’re signed up for the book review feed. You’ll be updated with any new book reviews on Mondays.
• DOMAINNAME.com/confirmed/book-review-list
• Slug: book-review-list

Subscription Confirmed: All Content

You’ve Successfully Signed Up for the Blog and Book Review Feed – Signing up for blog post RSS and book review RSS feed. Have a link to blog, archives and recent blog posts, have a link to the book review page, and have a link to the Audible offer.

• Great! You’re signed up for the blog and book review feed. You’ll be updated with any new blog posts on Fridays and any new book reviews on Mondays.
• DOMAINNAME.com/confirmed/blog-and-book-review-list
• Slug: blog-and-book-review-list

First Email List Page Funnel Review

Basically, what we did was offer a nice opt-in message without incentive. One improvement we realize that would have been awesome was having the base page have a subscription signup form.

We can’t believe we didn’t think of this until after these pages went down.

Follow-up Confirmation

We didn’t have a follow-up email fire after confirming the type of content they wanted. If you choose to do this you can include a short, simple message that further explains the type of content and what’s available on your website.

• Thank them again for confirming their email subscription.
• Reveal whether they can reply to your sending address and the criteria for which you reply.
• Guide them to content that relates to the subscription they signed up for.
• Describe any services this subscription may offer.
• Go over the unsubscribe procedure.
• Link to Terms of Service or Privacy Policy if applicable.

Conclusion

We’ve learned quite a bit about this process since this first email list page funnel was created. Hopefully, this was a helpful exercise for you.