TL;DR of the 10 Tips to Get More Reviews

1. Make it Easy to Leave a Review: Simplify the review process by listing your business on relevant review sites (e.g., Google, Yelp) and adding clear calls-to-action (CTAs) on your website to encourage customers to leave feedback.
2. Display Reviews on Your Website: Showcase existing customer reviews on your site to provide social proof, enhance SEO with fresh content, and encourage others to share their experiences.
3. Send Purchase Follow-Up Emails: After a purchase, send timely follow-up emails requesting a review while the customer’s experience is still fresh, maximizing response rates.
4. Use Incentives to Increase Customer Reviews: Offer incentives like discounts, coupons, or entry into contests to motivate customers to write reviews, fostering repeat business.
5. Use Product Review Tools to Manage Reviews: Implement review management tools (e.g., Yotpo, Kudobuzz) to collect, manage, and display reviews efficiently across different platforms.
6. Make Reviews Count: Demonstrate to customers how their reviews benefit them, such as through personalized recommendations or improved services, making them feel valued.
7. Include a Call-to-Action on Physical Materials: Add QR codes or review prompts on physical items like receipts, packaging, or inserts in orders to encourage customers to leave reviews.
8. Post to Social Media: Share positive reviews on your social media channels to highlight customer satisfaction, engage your audience, and encourage others to share their feedback.
9. Pay Attention to Negative Reviews: Address negative reviews promptly and professionally, apologizing and offering solutions to resolve issues, which can turn dissatisfied customers into loyal ones.
10. Ask for Reviews Directly: Simply ask customers for reviews in person, via email, or on social media, focusing on the timing when they are most satisfied to increase the likelihood of positive feedback.

Do you want to learn how to get more reviews?

Whether you run a local business or have customers around the world, the power of a review cannot be overstated. Reviews have the unique ability to shape perceptions and influence decisions.

Given how much shoppers rely on reviews, you’d think they would put more value on writing their own, but on average, they don’t. 92% of consumers read online reviews, but only 6% write them.

In this guide, I will share tips on how to get more reviews and not just that but also how to increase the quality of your reviews, transforming your online presence.

Let’s get started.

Related ContentSocial Proof Statistics: Powerful Facts That Will Help You Boost Your Brand

Understanding the Value of Reviews

Let’s go over a couple of benefits of obtaining business reviews:

The SEO and Visibility Boost

Reviews do more than just reassure potential customers; they’re a cornerstone of your online visibility. Your review quantity and quality are SEO ranking factors for search engines like Google.

More reviews, especially positive ones, signal to search engines that your business is trustworthy and relevant, potentially boosting your visibility in search results.

Building Trust and Credibility

Imagine you’re choosing between two local cafes you’ve never visited. One has numerous positive reviews detailing the cozy ambiance and exquisite coffee, while the other has few or no reviews. Which would you choose?

If you’re like most consumers, you’d opt for the former. Reviews are a form of social proof, offering reassurance to potential customers that they’re making the right choice.

How To Get More Reviews

1. Make it Easy to Leave a Review
2. Display Your Reviews on Your Website
3. Send Purchase Follow Up Emails
4. Use Incentives to Increase Customer Reviews
5. Use Product Review Tools to Manage Reviews
6. Make Reviews Count
7. Include a Call-to-Action on Physical Materials in Each Order
8. Post to Social Media
9. Pay Attention to Negative Reviews
10. Ask for Reviews Directly

1. Make it Easy to Leave a Review

As a business owner, you should make sure your business is listed on all relevant review sites. Different platforms cater to different audiences and industries, so it’s crucial to identify where your customers are most active.

Google My Business, Google Business Profile, Yelp, and TripAdvisor are key. Make sure your profiles are complete and appealing, with up-to-date information and high-quality images that invite engagement.

Your website should also encourage reviews. Add clear CTAs such as “Leave Us a Review” on your homepage and post-purchase pages.

The easier you make it for customers to leave a review on your products, the more likely you are to actually get reviews. People aren’t going to go 4 levels deep on your site and then search for their product in a database in order to leave a review.

Take a cue from Beardbrand and make your reviews easy to find and easy to leave. Every product page has a section for reviews:

You can do this with an app like Yotpo Social Reviews. See a couple more review management tools in #5.

Alternately, if you’re using WordPress, you can make a user review form with WPForms. This option may be more cost-effective, plus you can use the plugin to build contact and other forms on your website.

2. Display Your Reviews on Your Website

As you can see from the Beardbrand image above, they include their reviews on their website too. This serves a few purposes.

• Lots of social proof. Other shoppers can see that people are enjoying this product.
• More original content is great for SEO and rankings.
• Shoppers can share reviews, ask questions, and mark other reviews and helpful or unhelpful.

If you’re asking for reviews, share them on your site. What else were you going to do with them, anyway?

Embedding a plugin like TrustPulse to showcase existing reviews can be a game-changer, as it not only displays social proof but also makes leaving a review seem like joining an esteemed group of satisfied customers.

If the reviews are particularly glowing or entertaining, share them on social media platforms or highlight them in some way. And, definitely give a shout out to the customer.

Don’t forget, there are probably some awesome testimonials about your company on social media already.

You can easily pull reviews from Twitter and display them on your site with a plugin like Smash Balloon.

Smash Balloon’s Custom Twitter Feeds Pro lets you seamlessly integrate a Twitter feed into your website. The best part is that it gives you the ability to create a feed of tweets that mention your account or use your branded hashtag.

This is the perfect way to show off the love your customers have for your business and encourage your website visitors to tweet about you too.

Similarly, you can also embed Google reviews on your websites and have review sites have your product or service reviewed.

3. Send Purchase Follow Up Emails

Post-purchase email requests for reviews have an 8% response rate, making them the best way to get reviews.

To get the best response, try to send your review request email within a week of the purchase to take advantage of those good feelings that shopping releases. ? Also, according to research done by Yotpo, you’re likely to get your best response on Saturday, so keep that in mind.

New to email marketing? Here’s our step-by-step guide to running an email campaign.

4. Use Incentives to Increase Customer Reviews

Coupons, discounts, and other rewards are great ways to encourage your customers to leave reviews. Incentives also have the added bonus of encouraging repeat sales.

Loyalty programs are a great way to track and distribute your incentives. If you have a loyalty program, you can incorporate points for reviews and share reviews on social media.

Contest entries are another great incentive you can offer in exchange for a review.

And remember that social mentions can be pretty cool rewards too. Just don’t forget to tag the customer.

A quick aside: incentives are a great tool to increase customer feedback and a fine eCommerce marketing strategy overall, but make sure that you’re not just rewarding the positive reviews. Nobody wants negative reviews, but we’ll talk about how to deal with them in a minute.

5. Use Product Review Tools to Manage Reviews

Several product review tools are available to help you manage your reviews. You can find one that works for you, whichever eCommerce platform you use.

Let’s talk about a few of them.

Kudobuzz

Kudobuzz helps you collect reviews from customers in a few different ways:

1. Sending out post-purchase email requests
2. Collating posts and reviews from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and Yelp
3. Creating broadcast links that you can send to request reviews

The content is then displayed on the Kudobuzz dashboard, and you can decide what you want to use and where.

Yotpo

Yotpo is a review management solution that shines in its analytics and reporting. You can use the reporting to make data-driven decisions to improve marketing strategy, generate reviews, and get quality traffic.

Product Reviews by Shopify

Product Reviews by Shopify is perfect for those of us who don’t have coding knowledge but still want a great-looking product reviews feature on our eCommerce sites.

Customers can engage with you and with each other within the product reviews, making it possible for you to respond to reviews. Your customers can even ask each other questions about the fit and feel of the product, which can result in increased social proof.

6. Make Reviews Count

We’ve already talked about incentives; people like getting something for giving something. One of the things that people get from Amazon for their reviews is recommendations. Amazon uses your reviews to show you other products you may like later.

Basically, you’re reviewing things to help the future find more things to buy.

7. Include a Call-to-Action on Physical Materials in Each Order

If you include paper invoices or other marketing materials in your shipments, you can create and include a call-to-action with a QR code. Then, use WPForms to create a mobile review form to capture reviews. When the customer uses the QR code from their phone, they’re taken to the form and can submit a review.

Not sure how to get them to scan the QR code? Learn how to create the perfect call to action here.

8. Post to Social Media

Sharing positive reviews on social media has sparked conversations and encouraged others to leave their feedback. It’s a way of showing appreciation for happy customers and subtly inviting others to share their experiences.

Engaging with your audience through polls or questions about their customer experiences can also prompt reviews.

9. Pay Attention to Negative Reviews

You may think the best thing to do with negative reviews is ignore them, but it definitely isn’t. Here’s a good process to follow for negative reviews:

1. Apologize.
2. Tell the upset customer how to contact you.
3. Explain how you’ll make it right.

If you get everything solved and everyone’s happy, ask the customer to write a new review. If you’ve handled everything professionally and compassionately, you may have gained a lifelong customer from a formerly bad review.

10. Ask for Reviews Directly

One of the most effective strategies is simply asking customers for reviews. Whether in person, via email, or social media, making a direct request can significantly increase your review volume.

The key is timing; ask when the customer’s positive experience is fresh in their mind. For instance, after hosting a successful event, send follow-up emails thanking attendees and gently asking for feedback on Google.

You can even utilize your email signature to obtain a review or have CTAs placed on your website, redirecting to your Google business profile.

Automation tools have been a lifesaver in managing review requests. Platforms like Trustpilot or Yotpo automate the process of sending review requests after a purchase. This not only saves time but also ensures that no customer is overlooked.

That’s it! Now, you have 10 great ways to get more product reviews on your website and increase social proof.

Actively seeking and managing reviews is an ongoing process that can dramatically impact your business. It’s about more than just increasing numbers; it’s about building relationships, trust, and an online reputation for excellence.

By implementing the tips outlined in this guide, you can create a robust review ecosystem that fuels business growth and customer loyalty.

Remember, every review is a chance to learn, improve, and celebrate your successes. So, start today, and watch as your collection of reviews transforms your business.

How To Get More Reviews – FAQs

1. How to Get More Google Reviews?

1. Ask Customers Directly: After a transaction or service, directly ask your satisfied customers to leave a review. Make it easy by sending them a link directly to your review page.
2. Email Follow-ups: Incorporate requests for reviews in your follow-up emails. This can be effective especially after a customer has confirmed satisfaction with your product or service.
3. Utilize Your Website: Add a call-to-action on your website that directs customers to your Google review page.
4. Incentives: While Google discourages offering incentives for reviews, ensuring excellent service and experience can naturally encourage customers to leave positive feedback.
5. Respond to Existing Reviews: Show that you value feedback by responding to current reviews, which can encourage others to leave their own.

2. How to Get More Reviews on Amazon?

1. Automated Email Campaigns: Use Amazon’s “Request a Review” button or automated email services to ask customers for feedback about 5-30 days post-purchase, which is the optimal time when the experience is still fresh in their minds.
2. Amazon Vine Program: If eligible, enroll in Amazon’s Vine program, where trusted reviewers are provided with your product for honest reviews.
3. Provide Excellent Customer Service: Quick responses to customer inquiries and resolving issues can lead to higher rates of positive reviews.
4. High-Quality Product Listings: Ensure your product descriptions, images, and information are clear and high-quality, reducing negative reviews due to misunderstandings.

3. How to Get More Yelp Reviews?

1. Yelp Signs and Stickers: Display Yelp branding in your place of business to remind customers that they can rate their experience on Yelp.
2. Personalized Requests: After a service, personally encourage customers to share their experience on Yelp without offering incentives, as this is against Yelp’s policies.
3. Social Media Integration: Share your Yelp page on your social media platforms to increase visibility.
4. Respond to Reviews: Just like with Google, responding to reviews on Yelp can also encourage others to leave feedback, showing that you value customer input.
5. Optimize Your Yelp Business Page: Make sure your business information is accurate, and consider posting updates or using features like Yelp Check-In Offers to engage with customers.

Also check out:

• Social Proof Software Tools
• Beginner’s Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization
• Increase Your Conversion Rate

TL;DR of Cross-Promotion Strategies:

1. Co-Host Webinars or Podcasts: Team up with complementary businesses to present joint webinars or podcast series, sharing expertise and engaging both audiences.
2. Collaborate on Ebooks: Write an ebook together on a topic relevant to both brands, providing valuable content and leveraging each other’s reach.
3. Offer Partner Discounts: Create special discounts or promo codes for each other’s products or services, encouraging customers to explore what your partner offers.
4. Leverage Social Media Collaborations: Use social media to promote each other’s brands—share content, host joint giveaways or contests, and engage with a wider audience.
5. Create Bundle Deals: Combine your products or services with those of your partner into attractive bundle offers, providing greater value to customers.
6. Start a Referral Program: Implement a referral system where you and your partner refer customers to each other, rewarding those who bring in new business.
7. Expand Presence on Other Platforms: Collaborate to establish a presence on additional platforms—guest blog on each other’s sites, contribute to forums, or create content on platforms like Medium.
8. Email Marketing Partnerships: Feature each other’s products or services in your email newsletters or send co-branded emails to your subscriber lists to cross-promote offerings.

Cross-promotion definition:

Cross-promotion is a marketing strategy where two or more brands collaborate to promote each other’s products or services. This strategy aims to reach a broader audience and leverage the strengths and customer bases of the partnering brands.

Have you ever noticed how some brands magically appear alongside others, creating a buzz that’s hard to miss? That’s the art of cross-promotion – a strategy as old as marketing itself, yet constantly evolving.

Cross-promotion marketing happens around us all the time. You can see it everywhere. It’s that McDonald’s Happy Meal promoting the latest blockbuster hit. It’s that box of cereal sponsoring an Olympic athlete.

As you can see, there are a lot of businesses that cross-promote. Monster, Skittles, Toyota, and NASCAR are all cross-promoting themselves simultaneously.

But if cross-promotion isn’t anything new, why are we talking about it?

Glad you asked! Traditionally, large-scale cross-promotion was something that big business did. Aside from the occasional event sponsorship, local businesses usually focus on advertising. Collaborating with other brands was an afterthought.

But the industry has changed. Running a successful eCommerce store is easier than ever.

Anyone can build a virtual store with a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce. All you need is a good idea and a good product. And with marketing tools and social media management tools, connecting with similar companies is much easier.

This means that anyone can lay the groundwork for a successful cross-promotion campaign by

• Establishing a well-known brand.
• Building relationships with other businesses.

But first, you have to start. That’s where we come in. Because we’re about to give you the inside scoop of cross-promotion, free of charge. So, don’t go anywhere until you read these cross-promotion ideas. That way, you’re prepared to launch the perfect marketing campaign.

• What is Cross-Promotion?
• Benefits of Cross-Promotion
• Getting Started With Cross Promotion
• How to Cross-Promote

What is Cross-Promotion?

At its core, cross-promotion is about partnership and mutual benefit. It’s when two or more businesses promote each other’s products or services to their respective target audiences. Think of it as a marketing tag team where each partner brings their strengths to the table.

Unlike traditional advertising, cross-promotion is inherently collaborative. It’s not just about brand awareness; it’s about creating value for both the businesses involved and their customers.

This collaborative nature often leads to more authentic and engaging marketing efforts.

Remember the Spotify and Uber partnership? When you could control the music in your Uber ride through Spotify? That’s cross-promotion at its finest – seamless, innovative, and enhancing the user experience for both sets of customers.

Benefits of Cross-Promotion

The following are the reasons why cross-promotion is important for your business:

1. Cost-Effectiveness

One of the biggest draws of cross-promotion is how cost-effective it is. This fall MonsterInsights did a webinar with OptinMonster. The result? Increased foot traffic for both of us, with minimal marketing spend.

2. Reaching New Audiences

Cross-promotion opens doors to new audiences. OptinMonster collaborates with partner brands to co-create a series of posts, and our combined audiences doubled our usual reach, bringing fresh eyes to both our content.

3. Building Partnerships and Networks

It’s not just about the immediate marketing win; it’s also about building lasting relationships. These partnerships can evolve into a supportive network, crucial for long-term business growth.

4. Enhanced Credibility

When a well-respected brand vouches for you, it lends credibility to your business. The endorsement is worth more than any ad could pay.

Getting Started With Cross Promotion

You should follow the key steps below to effectively integrate cross-promotion into your business strategy and reap its benefits.

1. Conduct Your Own Research

Know a brand that really complements your product?

Are they a competitor? If not, see if they’re interested in working together. There are many influencers, non-profits, and businesses out there. And many would jump at an opportunity to collaborate with another brand.

If you’re not someone that networks, reaching out to brands probably sounds tough. The good news is that the days of cold-calling are gone. You can use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to connect with businesses in your industry.

In fact, you don’t even have to stick to your industry. As long as you see an opportunity for you and another brand to work together, go for it. Just steer clear of competitors.

If you need some help conducting research, we’ve got a great article on competitor research tools you’ll find interesting. Don’t let the name fool you. Many of those tools can be used to research collaborators as well. One platform you may find especially helpful is SEO PowerSuite.

You can use their LinkAssistant tool to research and build connections with companies. It’s really helpful, so go check it out.

2. Build Relationships With Other Brands

By now, you probably understand the importance of researching potential partners. So, it’s time to actually start making those connections.

Don’t go messaging everyone under the sun just yet. You want to keep these cross-promotion tips in mind as you scout prospects:

• Don’t venture too far away from your brand. First, make sure that prospective companies share similar customers to your own. Otherwise, your cross-promotion efforts will likely fall short.
• Be cautious when building relationships. Don’t jump into a partnership with just anyone. First, do a bit of research on the company and see how they fit into your brand image. Do they share the same core values? Are they well-liked? These are important things to consider before associating with another company.
• Start with a plan. Every successful marketing campaign needs a plan. Your cross-promotion efforts aren’t any different. Before diving into your partnership, decide how long this cross-promotion campaign will last. Determine what products will be marketed, and how.

Need some help building cross-promotional marketing connections? Don’t worry, there’s an app for that. It’s called Madneto

Madneto markets itself as the first-ever cross-promotional tool for businesses. While we can’t verify that, one thing’s for certain. It’s great for finding business partners and managing cross-promotion campaigns. Plus, it offers a free 3-month trial. So, give it a try and see how you find it.

How to Cross-Promote

1. Co-Host a Webinar or Podcast Series

2. Write an Ebook Together

3. Offer Discounts for Partners

4. Take Your Cross-Promotion Strategy to Social Media

5. Create Bundle Deals

6. Start a Referral Program

7. Build a Presence on Other Platforms

8. Email Marketing Partnerships

Once you’ve got the relationship building out of the way, it’s time to put in the work. This is where things can get a little tricky. Just having your name mentioned by another company isn’t enough. Customers need to believe your collaboration is more than just a marketing opportunity. Otherwise, you’re not getting the cross-promotion benefits you hoped for.

In short, your collaboration needs to be meaningful. It’s more than a shout out. It’s an opportunity to team up with another brand and create something bigger and better.

Here are eight cross-promotion strategies:

1. Co-Host a Webinar or Podcast Series

Share expertise in a joint webinar or workshop, providing value to both customer bases. For example, an interior designer and furniture store could partner up to discuss home remodeling.

2. Write an Ebook Together

Ebooks are actually a really great way to share more information in your area of expertise. Who doesn’t love an informative ebook, after all? Just ask LiveChat.

After creating an ebook with a marketing company, The Chat Shop, they experienced an uptick in customer engagement.

3. Offer Discounts for Partners

Discounts and promo codes are great for driving sales. Everyone loves a deal!

So, why not use discounts to promote your partners (and give them a chance to promote you)? Create a lead generation campaign that advertises your partner’s discounts and deals upon conversion. And have them run the same campaign for you. That way, everyone’s products get promoted.

Best of all, you and your partner companies can create these campaigns in a few short minutes. All you need is OptinMonster. That’s because OptinMonster’s drag and drop feature makes it easy to make beautifully crafted optins.

You can use it to:

• Grow your mailing list.
• Target cart abandoners.
• Create coupons.

For your cross-promotion strategy, you’d be creating coupons for your partners. And you’d give those coupons to visitors that complete your optin. You grow your mailing list, your partner receives buzz around their product. Everyone wins.

You can even go the extra mile and make your discounts reciprocal. That means that you and your partners honor each other’s coupons. Your coupon works with participating companies and vice versa.

4. Take Your Cross-Promotion Strategy to Social Media

One of the easiest cross-promotion tips we can give you is to use social media to the fullest. Don’t create a social media presence on one site. Establish yourself on all popular social media platforms.

But the trick to cross-promoting on social media is to be different on each platform. For example, you could

• Use your Twitter account for engaging with customers.
• Post articles and in-depth content on Facebook.
• Share downloadable material on Pinterest.
• Partner with a complementary business to host a giveaway or contest on social media. Each partner can contribute to the prize pool, attracting a wider audience.
• Swap guest posts or share each other’s content on social media platforms to reach new audiences.

The idea is to create a niche on each platform so that people have a reason to visit all your accounts.

Oh, and don’t forget to share images of your partners’ brands as well. Share their content. Write meaningful reviews of their products.  Give them a shout out from time to time.

This is a great way to share your network with your business partners. And if they return the favor, which they should, then you should see an influx of social media traffic as well.

5. Create Bundle Deals

This cross-promotion tip only works if you and your partner are in a similar industry.

A good way to drive sales and create awareness around you and your partner’s brands is through bundle deals. Here’s a picture of a bundle from Amazon taken from The Dot Store.

The main product is the headphones, but the other 2 items actually enhance the headphones. That’s why they’re all sold together. You can apply this concept to your cross-promotion campaign by creating bundles using your partners’ products. For example, if you’re an online florist and your business partner owns a bakery, the two of you could sell gift baskets to customers. You provide the flowers, they provide the treats that go in the basket.

You could even offer discounts to improve sales. When the customer buys your item, they can buy your partners’ items at a discount.

6. Start a Referral Program

According to Neilsen research, 92% of people trust product recommendations from people in their peer group.

In other words, referrals coming from friends, family members, and co-workers are incredibly effective. In fact, they’re arguably one of the best ways to promote your company.

This makes sense when you think about it. Customers want authentic reviews coming from unbiased, third-party people. This is similar to the reason influencer marketing became popular—we value authenticity above everything else.

And with a rewards program, you can take advantage of this and overhaul your cross-promotion strategy. Start tracking the people who share your product with their friends and family, and reward those who sign up new members.

With OptinMonster, you can create discount coupons and give them to people who bring in referrals.

You can also use OptinMonster’s Referrer Detection feature to automate your referral program. That’ll help you target visitors that come through your site on a specific traffic source, like a landing page linked to your referral program.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how you run your referral program. Just make sure you’re rewarding loyal customers. Turning customers into brand advocates is one of the best cross-marketing strategies around.

7. Build a Presence on Other Platforms

If you want to maximize your cross-promotion benefits, you need to step out of your comfort zone. And by that, we mean exploring new platforms.

One obvious way to do this is to strengthen your social media presence, which we covered earlier. But that’s not the only way you can market your brand. Here are some other cross-promotion ideas to establish yourself on other platforms:

• Offer to write guest posts for sites like Huffington Post and Inc.com.
• Create content and engage in discussions on blogging platforms like Medium and Tumblr.
• Promote your brand on messaging services.

This will help you adopt a multichannel marketing approach. That’s when you use multiple platforms to engage with followers and customers.

Use OptinMonster as your go-to lead generating solution. You’ll have no problem going multichannel.

That’s because OptinMonster lets you connect your optins to Facebook Messenger. This lets you engage with customers on a new marketing channel that’s just starting to show its full potential. And we’re being serious when we say potential. On average, marketing through Facebook Messenger gives you 60-70% open rates within your first hour.

Check out our Chatbot feature. You could easily have it up and running by the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee.

8. Email Marketing Partnerships

Promote each other’s products, services, or events in your email newsletters. Send out emails specifically designed to highlight the partnership and its benefits to customers.

Remember, the key to successful cross-promotion is finding a partner whose business complements yours and whose audience aligns with your target market. The collaboration should feel natural and beneficial to both parties, as well as to the customers.

Exploit the Power of Cross-Promotion With OptinMonster

To truly capitalize on the potential of cross-promotion, having the right tools at your disposal is essential. This is where OptinMonster comes into play.

OptinMonster is a leading conversion optimization toolkit that can supercharge your cross-promotional efforts. Whether you’re looking to grow your email list, improve website conversions, or create targeted campaigns, OptinMonster provides a suite of tools to help you easily achieve these goals.

With its user-friendly interface, you can create stunning opt-in forms, floating bars, and full-screen welcome mats that capture your audience’s attention. These tools are handy when promoting joint ventures, special offers, or co-created content with your cross-promotion partners.

OptinMonster’s advanced targeting features allow you to display these campaigns to specific audience segments, ensuring the right people see the right message at the right time.

Moreover, OptinMonster’s analytics capabilities enable you to track the success of your cross-promotional campaigns, giving you valuable insights into what’s working and what can be improved. This data-driven approach ensures that your cross-promotion strategies are creative, collaborative, and grounded in real results.

So, as you embark on your next cross-promotional adventure, consider how OptinMonster can help you turn your collaborative visions into tangible successes.

Create High Converting Optin Campaigns Today!

Good lead magnets are one of the most effective strategies for businesses to attract potential customers and convert them into loyal clients.

But what exactly is a lead magnet, and how can you create one that resonates with your target audience?

Let’s dive in!

• What Is a Lead Magnet?
• Lead Magnet Ideas You Can Try Today
• How To Create a Lead Magnet
• 63 Irresistible Lead Magnet Examples
• 7 Key Takeaways To Create Irresistible Lead Magnets
• How To Distribute Your Lead Magnet

What Is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free resource or incentive offered to potential customers in exchange for their contact information, typically an email address. Commonly used to generate leads and grow email lists, lead magnets can include ebooks, webinars, white papers, e-newsletters, or free consultations.

The primary goal of a lead magnet is to entice visitors to engage with your brand, thereby increasing the chances of converting them into paying customers.

Consider it a win-win situation: your audience gets something valuable, and you can nurture and communicate with them.

This makes lead magnets one of the most important parts of your content marketing strategy.

Here’s an example of an OptinMonster campaign offering a lead magnet:

Right away, users can see they can get 12 proven strategies for converting abandoning visitors. All they need to do is enter their email address.

Lead Magnet Ideas You Can Try Today

In this section, we’ll learn about several different types of lead magnet content you can create. You can deliver these lead magnets in a variety of formats: PDF download, video, Notion template or other digital file, or even as a gated content page on your website.

1. Checklist

Let’s start with our favorite lead magnet example: the checklist.

Checklists convert the best out of all the lead magnets because they’re so easily consumed. They condense the user’s knowledge into one actionable list.

They’re also super quick to create. For example, you can summarize your popular blog posts as a checklist and turn them into a content upgrade. Then combine that content upgrade with a 2-step optin form, and you’ll see a big conversion boost.

Here are two examples of checklists we’ve created for users like you:

Ultimate Optin Form Checklist: This checklist contains a list of all 63 elements that you need to create the ultimate optin form.

On-Page SEO Checklist: How to Fully Optimize Your Posts: You can print this out and consult it whenever you want to optimize a page for SEO.

2. eBook

For it to work, what you need is a solid benefit. Why should someone take the time to read your eBook?

Derek Halpern’s free eBook Get 5,000 Subscribers features an irresistible benefit to their target market.

Still, if someone can achieve the same result from a simple checklist, then, by all means, give them a checklist instead. It’s not worth spending weeks writing an entire eBook when you can get better conversions from a PDF that took you 20 minutes to create.

You may also want to check out this post on how to make an ebook popup to get even more leads from your ebook.

3. Webinar

Like video and audio lead magnets, webinars also have high perceived value. They’re even more irresistible because they have another component: urgency.

Since live webinars only occur at specific times and may have a limited run, they play on the “fear of missing out.”

Heck, webinars work so well for lead generation that Neil Patel turned their entire homepage into a webinar registration page!

If you use WordPress and are looking for an LMS plugin for WordPress to launch a webinar easily or an online course, check out our top picks!

4. Template

A template can provide an outline, or some starting point, so all the user has to do is fill in the blanks.

The Magic Email Template is a great lead magnet template example– it’s something entrepreneurs and small business owners can copy and paste, customize a few words, and then send off to connect with influencers and VIPs in your industry instantly.

To take your lead magnet game one step further, create a collection of lead magnet templates, like Digital Marketer’s Ultimate Facebook Ad Template Library.

5. Product Demos

If you’ve ever shopped for an app or a software tool, you’ve probably seen many of these lead magnet examples without realizing it.

Most software companies will have a big call to action to sign up for a free trial or demo on their homepage. Why? Because that’s how they get your email address.

But you don’t have to be a software company to benefit from a free trial lead magnet.

SnackNation offers a free sample box of their product. They ask for your work email address (no credit card required). Now that’s an irresistible offer!

6. Case Studies

Prospects at the bottom of the funnel love to read case studies. This lead magnet idea could give them the last push they need to buy your product.

Back when Upwork was still oDesk, they had a lead magnet called “Make It Work: Smart Advice From Real-Life Clients Who Found Success Using Online Work.” This was a compilation of case studies from people who used their service, packaged in PDF format.

7. Exclusive Discount Codes

It would be best to offer an early bird discount to sweeten the deal of getting on your waitlist. This is a great way to reward your most enthusiastic prospects at the bottom of your funnel.

8. Email Course

Email courses are easy to assemble because they don’t require creating anything fancy or downloadable. It’s a simple email autoresponder series that teaches users to accomplish something specific.

The best part about email courses is that they can be used to turn prospects into customers.

Rick Mulready uses their email course called 4 Facebook Ad Mistakes That Are Losing You Money to convert leads into customers for their FB Ads for Newbies course.

9. Podcasts

Podcasts have surged in popularity and can be an excellent lead magnet, especially for audiences who prefer auditory content.

By offering exclusive podcast episodes or a unique series as a lead magnet, businesses can attract subscribers keen on absorbing content on the go.

Whether it’s an interview with an industry expert, deep dives into specific topics, or behind-the-scenes content, a podcast can provide valuable insights and knowledge. Plus, with the added benefit of voice and tone, it can help in building a deeper connection with the audience.

Like other content forms, it’s crucial to ensure the podcast offers genuine value, is well-produced, and resonates with the target demographic.

How To Create a Lead Magnet

Step 1. Define the Buyer

Step 2. Identify the Problem You’re Solving

Step 3. Position Your Lead Magnet

Step 4. Create Your Lead Magnet

Creating a lead magnet that resonates with your audience requires a strategic approach. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Step 1. Define the Buyer

Thinking strategically about your lead magnet before pulling up your graphic design software or building a signup form would be best.

First, you need to decide what kind of buyer persona you hope to pull in with this lead magnet.

Ask yourself:

• What product or service are you hoping to sell?
• Who wants this offer?
• Why do they need it?
• What pain points are they experiencing?

It would help if you also considered the customer’s level of awareness. They may be:

• Unaware: They need to learn or describe what their problem is.
• Problem Aware: They know there’s a problem but need to know if there’s a solution.
• Solution Aware: They know of ways to solve their problem but need the specific tools or processes to do it.
• Product Aware: They know your company, product, or service exists but need to be made aware of everything you can do for them or aren’t convinced it will work for them.
• Most Aware: They know all about your offer and how it can help them but are yet to buy.

New leads typically come in unaware, problem-aware, or solution-aware. The next step will be defining the problem your lead magnet will solve for them and how much awareness it will build.

Step 2. Identify the Problem You’re Solving

As I mentioned earlier, effective lead magnets will solve specific problems. These may be incomplete solutions, but they will give the subscriber a quick win to build trust in your brand.

It may be easier to start by thinking about the problem your paid product solves. Then, work backward to define a problem your lead magnet can solve.

For example, a company may be selling an SEO plugin for WordPress. That paid product solves the problem of creating SEO-friendly content more easily. Before a customer is ready for that product, they need to know how well their site is performing on search in the first place.

Their lead magnet could be a quick SEO audit checklist, which would solve the problem of understanding their current SEO performance.

Your goal is to build awareness with your lead magnet and throughout your sales and marketing funnel. Most steps in the funnel will make just 1-2 awareness levels at a time.

Taking someone from unaware to most aware with a single download can be a stretch, but it would be relatively easy to take them from problem-aware to solution-aware.

Going back to our SEO plugin example, prospects may be completely unaware they have any SEO issues that need to be solved before using the lead magnet.

After completing the audit checklist, they become aware of the SEO problems on their site. They are then ready to receive more marketing material about the plugin.

Step 3. Position Your Lead Magnet

The last bit of strategic planning you should do is to position your lead magnet appropriately in your sales process. In other words, think through what should happen before and after new subscribers download the lead magnet.

First, consider how they’ll find your lead magnet. Will you send Facebook ad traffic to it? Will it be on a landing page or blog post that comes up in search results? Will you link to the lead magnet from other sites or your own email signature?

Check out our list of places to add signup forms for higher conversions to get some ideas.

Next, figure out where their contact information goes.

You might send those email addresses to an email service provider (ESP) like Constant Contact or a customer relationship management (CRM) software like HubSpot. There’s no point in offering a lead magnet if you leave those email addresses in the Internet void!

Finally, think about what happens after the new subscriber gets their lead magnet. Do you follow up with a welcome email sequence or SMS message? Do you reach out personally by email to schedule a 1:1 consultation? Do they start receiving your weekly email newsletter right away?

It can help your lead magnet to give a hint about what will happen next. You can include this in the lead magnet itself, on the signup form, in the email delivering the lead magnet, or all of the above.

Step 4. Create Your Lead Magnet

Now, it’s time actually to create your lead magnet.

First, pick a format. This can affect the type of content you write. For example, an interactive quiz differs significantly from a PDF report.

Also, consider your target audience when creating your lead magnet. Would they have time to watch a 10-minute video or prefer a PDF download they can look through at their leisure?

Next, write the content. Start by reviewing the benefits of the lead magnet. What will your checklist help them do? What will they know after reading your report? How will your template make their lives easier?

Then, lay out your process or insights step by step. Finish with a call to action (CTA) describing the next step they can take to work with you or purchase your products.

Once you have your content ready, pick a title. With the title, you can be as clever as you want as long as it clearly explains the lead magnet’s value proposition. One simple formula to use is [Solution] for [Buyer]:

• 12-Step Website Audit for Creative Business Owners
• Meal Planning Template for Busy Parents
• Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing: A Report for Agency Owners
• Beginner’s Guide to Website Design for Authors

Let’s also read about a lead magnet platform called Beacon.

Beacon.by

Beacon.by is a comprehensive platform designed to help users create and manage lead magnets. It offers a range of features that simplify the process of creating, capturing, and managing lead magnets.

Key features of Beacon.by include:

• Lead Magnet Creator: Allows users to create professional-looking lead magnets using a drag-and-drop builder. Users can start from scratch or use one of the many templates available, tailored to various industries.
• Lead Capture Forms: This tool helps users design engaging forms to gather customer information, enhancing the website’s lead generation capabilities.
• Resource Library Builder: Users can compile and manage a collection of valuable resources such as documents, videos, and links, making it easier for their audience to access and interact with content.

Beacon also provides a “Lead Magnet Academy” that offers lessons on creating effective lead magnets, promoting them, and nurturing leads once they have engaged with your content.

Pricing options cater to different needs, from a free plan suitable for new businesses and hobbyists, to more advanced plans that offer additional features like custom domains and increased lead management capabilities.

For more information and a deeper dive into what Beacon.by can offer, you can visit their official site: Beacon.by.

Now, you can design your lead magnet! A complete design or technical tutorial is too much to include in this article, but here are some helpful links you can use to get started:

• What Is Lead Quality? And How to Measure It (+8 Bonus Tips!)
• How to Create a Lead Magnet In Canva
• How to Create a Quiz Lead Magnet
• How to Create an Email Course Lead Magnet

63 Irresistible Lead Magnet Examples

Ready to create your lead magnet? Let’s dive into the 63 highly effective lead magnet examples to increase your subscribers.

1. Cheatsheet

Cheatsheets are essentially the same as checklists, but they give users a list of guidelines or processes they can repeatedly follow to achieve a specific benefit.

They’re irresistible to people because they remove the need to think.

Here’s an example of a cheat sheet created for bloggers: 52 Headline Hacks: A Cheat Sheet for Writing Blog Posts That Go Viral.

Bloggers want their blog posts to go viral, so this is a benefit-driven lead magnet for them.

It also removes the need to think: no more racking your brain about how to get your blog posts to go viral when you have this cheat sheet!

2. Template

A template can provide an outline, or some starting point, so all the user has to do is fill in the blanks.

The Magic Email Template is a great lead magnet template example– it’s something entrepreneurs and small business owners can copy and paste, customize a few words, and then send off to connect with influencers and VIPs in your industry instantly.

To take your lead magnet game one step further, create a collection of lead magnet templates, like Digital Marketer’s Ultimate Facebook Ad Template Library.

3. Swipe File

Swipe files are arguably even more irresistible than templates because all you have to do is copy them in their entirety.

For example, The Ultimate Social Media Swipe File includes 72 headlines for social media posts that you can simply, well, swipe!

4. Examples

Examples work well as lead magnets because people are searching for examples all the time in all different industries.

For instance, Bidsketch (a proposal software) uses a Sample Client Proposal as a lead magnet.

You could turn one of your popular posts into a lead-generating machine by optimizing it for “[your keyword] + examples” and then adding an example lead magnet as a content upgrade.

5. Script

Scripts are great lead magnet examples if your buyer persona needs something to help them speak or write.

For instance, if they need help prepping for a job interview, you could offer a script for pitching themselves to a potential employer.

Another great lead magnet example is this popular lead magnet created by Marcus Krieg: 3 Persuasive Video Scripts You Can Steal.

6. Toolkit

A trendy type of lead magnet idea is the toolkit. Why? Because everyone wants to know what tools the pros use!

Syed’s Toolkit for Growing Your Online Business is no exception. It’s a huge hit!

The best part about toolkits is that you can usually become an affiliate for those products. Not only does the toolkit provide a handy resource to your visitors, but it can also generate additional revenue for your business.

7. Web App

A web app is a free tool that lives on your site and requires a login. Of course, users have to sign up by email to get the login.

For example, Bryan Harris created a web app called ListGoal, which is free to use. However, Bryan gets your permission to email you when you sign up for it.

8. Resource List

Lists of free resources are valuable because they’re huge time savers. Whenever you pull all of the best stuff together, you save your users a lot of research time.

My Giant Guest Blogging Index has been a massive hit for that reason. All the research has been done for someone looking to write guest posts.

9. Calendar

Calendars can also be helpful in a variety of industries.

For example, if you’re in the fitness industry, like Blogilates, you could offer a workout calendar. That way, your users don’t have to think about what exercises to do daily because you’ve already mapped it out for them.

10. Plan/Planner

Similar to a calendar is a daily, weekly, or monthly plan you’ve mapped out for someone.

For example, 5 Free Meal Plans is a great lead magnet for a busy mom who is struggling to find the time to figure out what’s for dinner every night.

Your lead magnet could be a blank planner the user fills in with their plan. These blank planners are also useful because they make organizing easier for people.

Mayi Carles sells these attractive planners, but they could just as easily give away a digital sample as a lead magnet to whet your appetite for more.

11. Worksheet/Workbook

A worksheet (or workbook) is similar to a planner, except that it usually helps people to complete a specific exercise or figure something out.

A perfect medium for this is an editable workbook that someone can download and fill out on their computer. Teachable has a great, in-depth tutorial on using Adobe InDesign to create a workbook lead magnet.

12. Printable

A printable is especially great if you’re in a creative field and your users want something attractive that they can print out.

Or, your user needs to print something out to be handy when they need it, such as a shopping list or a grocery list, like this one from Rustic Redhead.

13. Inspiration File

Does your user need inspiration? People always search the internet for inspiration, so why not give it to them as a neatly packaged lead magnet?

This Logo Design Inspiration eBook, for example, is perfect for designers seeking inspiration for their next logo.

14. Prompts

While inspiration files generally offer visual inspiration, prompts help to inspire by giving you ideas to think about.

60 Journal Prompts is a self-help lead magnet that helps users with “self-love, self-discovery + a spot of self-coaching.”

15. Calculator

If your users need to deal with numbers, why not create a calculator and gate it as a lead magnet?

VWO has some great calculators on their site which could also be a great lead magnet idea. For example, this A/B Split Test Significance Calculator is handy for any marketer looking to see whether they have enough traffic to collect important data.

16. Generator

People often search for generators to create something quickly without thinking. If a generator is useful for your audience, consider gating it.

HubSpot has a useful blog topic generator on its site. They aren’t using it as a lead magnet, but they certainly could if they wanted to.

17. Spreadsheet

Spreadsheets can be used to create all kinds of valuable resources. They’re a programming tool right at your fingertips!

DebtHelper uses a free budget spreadsheet to collect email subscribers. They even include a bonus video guide on how to use the spreadsheet.

18. Recipes

Many recipes are freely available on the internet, so you might consider this a bad lead magnet idea. However, you’d be surprised how many people will optin for your curated recipes.

EatingWell knows this, and that’s why they use an exit-intent popup to offer their best healthy recipes and nutrition tips delivered straight to your inbox.

19. Gated Content

Gated content is simply a blog post or part of a blog post that is hidden behind your lightbox popup. This is one of the easiest lead magnets to create because it uses your existing content!

One thing you can do is to gate the second half of a long blog post. You can do this easily with OptinMonster by using one of our inline optin lead magnet templates + our Content Lock feature.

If you go with gated content, you may also want to learn how to create a paywall. That will reserve premium content for paying subscribers and generate more passive income for your site.

20. Tutorial

A tutorial is any content that teaches how to do one specific thing. It could be a video or a PDF download with a numbered list of steps.

David Siteman Garland’s 7 Proven Steps to Creating, Promoting & Profiting from Online Courses seems to work well for him– he’s been using it for quite some time now, although it was probably quick to create.

21. Guide

A guide is similar to an eBook because iit’s a lengthier lead magnet to create. However, guides can work well when you use them as the nurturing part of your sales funnel to educate prospects on why they should buy from you.

Here’s an example of a guide from HubSpot: The Definitive Blueprint for Lead Management.

This works because it educates their users on why they need a lead management product like HubSpot.

That said, I’d encourage you to create some un-gated guides on your site. At OptinMonster, we like to call these “mega guides.”

We’ve used mega guides on OptinMonster and our other web properties with great success because they generate a ton of organic search traffic. Check out our Definitive Guide to Email Marketing as an example; it’s freely available with no email optin required.

22. Whitepaper

Whitepaper or reports are perfect lead magnets for B2B businesses, but they can also work in any industry that relies on data, statistics, or research.

You can either research and collect the data yourself or pull together data from various sources into one comprehensive report.

Here are a couple of whitepaper lead magnet examples:

2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management: the great thing about this report is that it has been “updated for 2016”, so at the time of this writing, it’s fresh and new.

The YouTube Traffic Report: this report pulls together the statistics on YouTube traffic, so it didn’t require any in-house data collection to create.

23. Infographic

Infographics are the content you’d likely use to drive website visitors since they do so well on social media. However, they also work well as educational lead magnets.

Think about it: many people need to visualize a concept before fully understanding it. Instead of giving users a bunch of boring text to sift through, why not illustrate your point with an infographic? This extra detail will make your lead magnet stand out so much more.

Here’s an example of an infographic explaining successful and unsuccessful people’s habits.

Does this infographic make the concept more memorable and easy to digest than a plain text PDF?

24. Educational Video

Create a video to take your lead magnet further than an infographic!

Videos not only include a visual component, but they have an audio component as well. Plus, you can put real people in front of the camera (or come on camera yourself) to boost your brand.

But the best part is videos have a higher perceived value, making them more irresistible.

QuickSprout has a video course on Double Your Traffic in 30 Days. In their sidebar optin form, they’ve included a DVD mockup to drive home the high value of their lead magnet.

25. Educational Audio

Downloadable audio might make the perfect lead magnet example depending on your target audience.

For example, if your ideal customer rarely has time for reading or watching videos, they might prefer to have something to listen to in the car on their commute to and from work.

Remember: you can always repurpose a video by stripping out the audio and turning it into a lead magnet!

Here’s an example from Marie Forleo: a motivational, free audio training to learn “how to get anything you want.” I especially love the rose gold iPhone mockup with earbuds, which perfectly depicts how one of Marie’s users would listen to their audio (e.g., they may download it to their phone and take it to the gym).

26. Webinar

Like video and audio lead magnets, webinars also have high perceived value. They’re even more irresistible because they have another component: urgency.

Since live webinars only occur at specific times and may have only a limited run, they play on the “fear of missing out.”

Heck, webinars work so well for lead generation that Neil Patel turned their entire homepage into a webinar registration page!

If you use WordPress and are looking for an LMS plugin for WordPress to launch a webinar easily or an online course, check out our top picks!

27. Event Tickets

Like a webinar, you can offer free tickets to a live event in exchange for an email address.

The best way to do this is by using social media ads to push targeted traffic to your optin form. Your target audience would be people who are interested in your offer and live near your in-person event.

I highly recommend using Facebook ads for this because Facebook has the most powerful targeting features out of any other social media advertising channel. Make sure you follow these 7 steps to optimize your Facebook ads for conversions.

28. Free Book + Shipping

If you have a bunch of physical books you’ve written lying around, consider giving them away as a lead magnet. All you have to do is collect a small fee to cover your shipping costs.

Want to know why this offer works so well? Well, physical books generally have higher perceived value than eBooks do. When you offer a physical book for free, it’s an irresistible deal.

However, because the user has to pull out their credit card to pay for the shipping, this lead magnet idea pre-qualifies the best leads.

In other words, you’ve not only acquired a new lead, but you’ve also effectively acquired a new customer—and existing customers are so much easier to convert to a higher offer than people who’ve never bought anything from you.

Here’s an example of a free book plus shipping from Russell Brunson.

29. Sample Chapter

If you want to avoid going the free book route, you could pull out one chapter and offer it as a free sample.

Make sure the sample is digital and instantly downloadable so your users can get instant gratification.

30. Sample Video/Clip

If your product takes the form of a video or video, pull out a sample video or a sample clip and exchange that for an email address.

In the case of an information product called The Copy Cure, you can access their Copywriting Class Free Sample by entering your email address.

31. Sample Audio Clip

A sample audio clip works well as a lead magnet, too (even if your product is a video).

Erin Stutland’s product includes workout videos, and their lead magnet offer is a free audio workout.

32. Free Coaching Session

If you’re a coach or offer a service, you could provide a free coaching session in exchange for an email address.

The great thing about coaching sessions is that they get your prospects on the phone with you, and those people usually expect to hear your pitch at the end. This can be an effective way of acquiring high-end clients.

Chris Lema charges per minute for their coaching sessions, but he could offer them for free for a limited time if he wanted to push more signups.

33. PDF Version

This is one of those lead magnets that is so underutilized yet straightforward to create.

All you have to do is find your most popular blog posts, save a PDF version of the blog post, and then offer it as a content upgrade.

You’d be surprised how many people will optin to receive the same thing they just read in PDF form! The value-add here is that they get to own your blog post.

For example, our 12 Proven Ways to Convert Abandoning Visitors into Subscribers download could just as easily have been a blog post that we turned into a lead magnet.

34. Transcript

While we’re on the subject of repurposing content, why not repurpose a video by offering a transcript?

Although many people prefer video for learning, many others prefer reading. Making sure you have both learners covered is a great way to provide more value with the content you’ve already created.

35. Audio Version

Similarly, you could offer an audio version of a written piece of content.

UX designer Paul Boag regularly records an audio version of their blog posts. However, he could just as easily gate the audio version behind an optin form and generate more leads!

36. Summary/”Cliff Notes” Version

Do you have a long, in-depth guide that your users love? Package a summarized version of that into a lead magnet.

You can also share what you’re learning from other influencers in your industry by offering your “cliff notes” version of their presentation or book.

37. State of the Industry

This is another great lead magnet idea for B2B businesses. It’s the same as a report, except that it focuses on new industry trends.

Just keep in mind that you’ll need to come out with new or updated versions of your state of the industry report regularly (usually annual).

38. Predictions

To become a leader in your industry, make some predictions about your industry and publish them as a downloadable lead magnet.

People love to hear predictions about what to expect so they can jump on upcoming trends.

For example, if you’re in the fashion industry, you could come up with a list of fashion predictions for the following year. Or, if you’re a marketer, you could predict what the state of email marketing will look like next year.

39. Mind Map

Mind maps explain a complex subject in a digestible way. And because they are essentially an outline and don’t require too much detail, these lead magnet examples are really quick to put together.

When creating mind maps, we like using a free MindMeister tool. Their drag-and-drop builder makes mind maps super easy to create, and they always look clean and professional.

Delivering one of these lead magnets with OptinMonster is simple. You must paste the mind map URL into your optin form’s success theme.

40. Recording/Replay

Are you presenting any live webinars? You can repurpose those webinars by saving the recording and using that as a lead magnet.

Kissmetrics offers a library of recorded webinars you can choose from in exchange for your email address.

41. Audio Book

Have an eBook that your audience loves? Repurpose it by recording an audiobook and gating it behind an email optin form.

Remember how I said that un-gated mega guides are powerful assets you can create to drive traffic to your site?

Well, here’s an idea for you:

1. Turn your eBook into a traffic-generating mega guide by transferring it to one big long page on your site.
2. Generate leads by adding a call to action (CTA) to download your audiobook version.
3. Win and win!

42. SlideShare

Did you know that you can turn one of your SlideShare presentations into a lead magnet?

SlideShare has a built-in lead generation tool that allows you to convert your SlideShare audience into email subscribers. All you have to do is follow our step-by-step tutorial here (see #7).

43. Roundup

If you’ve ever written a roundup blog post, you’ll know that these are popular and easy to put together. Plus, you can create a lead magnet from it.

A roundup post is a list of tips or techniques from other experts in your industry. To write one, you need to interview people and pull all quotes into one big post.

For example, we wrote a popular roundup post asking eight seasoned SEO experts for their best advice. Now, we could have interviewed a lot more than eight people. It’s easier than you think to get influencers to respond to a request like this because you’re offering them exposure, which is what they want! So, we could have interviewed even more experts and then offered the complete roundup as a “freebie” download.

Or, we could have summarized all the expert responses into actionable takeaways and packaged that as a lead magnet.

Either way, it would make for a great content upgrade to an already high-performing post.

44. Newsletter

Sometimes your email newsletter is so irresistible that it’s the lead magnet.

A great example is a business called The Hustle. The Hustle sends you a funny, entertaining email each morning with all the day’s top tech and business news.

The best part about this lead magnet example is that the subscriber already expects the emails.

Although we need to find out how low their unsubscribe rates are, we would assume that The Hustle is doing pretty well in that department.

45. Vault/Library

Do you have lots of different educational lead magnets? Give your users the option to access them all at once by putting them together into a “vault” or a virtual library on your site.

All you need is one big page on your site with the links to download each of your lead magnets and put that page behind an optin form. It’s a simple way to give more value to your users with the lead magnets you’ve already created.

46. Quiz

A quiz is the most entertaining lead magnet idea on this list, and that’s why it converts so well!

A quiz has the user answer a series of questions and then spits a result. But to get the result, you’ll have to enter your email address.

Rachel Ray had a quiz on what type of clutterer you’re.

Hostel Bookers created a quiz about what type of traveler you’re.

Forbes had a quiz that helped prospective college students find the perfect college.

To create a quiz like this, you can use a tool like Qzzr. Qzzr also allows you to drive social traffic to your quiz and generate leads.

47. Survey

A survey is mainly for your benefit/market research. However, a survey can be used as a lead magnet with a compelling call to action.

For example, you could ask users browsing your site for a while to give you feedback on their experience and help you improve your website. You’d be surprised how many people enjoy taking the time to provide you with their feedback!

Make sure you use a tool like OptinMonster to present the survey only to users who have visited at least four pages on your site. It would be weird (and annoying) to ask a brand new visitor to rate their “experience” on the first pageview.

48. Giveaway

One of the most effective lead magnet idea is the giveaway. Who doesn’t love the opportunity to win free stuff?

If you want your giveaway to be effective, however, make sure it does two things:

1. Qualify your leads by offering a relevant prize (something that only your ideal customer would want– not something like an iPad or a laptop that anyone and their brother would want)
2. Incentivize participants to share (you can do this by offering additional entries for each social share)

49. Manifesto

A manifesto is a simple declaration of your values. Its a great lead magnet idea because your ideal audience will naturally be drawn to it.

Jeff Goins wrote The Writer’s Manifesto: Stop Writing to Be Read & Adored, resonating with their audience and becoming an effective lead magnet.

50. Comic Strip

Ever thought of using a comic strip as a lead magnet?

When CopyMonk released its first comic strip, it went viral in the copywriting community.

And when something is that popular, it’s easy to see how people would sign up to get more.

51. Quotes

People love quotes from influential people or quotes that inspire.

Mastin Kipp created an entire business by delivering inspirational quotes via their “daily love” email newsletter.

Their business has evolved a lot since then, but they still offers daily inspiration/tips as their lead magnet.

52. Desktop Wallpaper

Are you an artist, designer, or photographer? If you’re in a visual/creative field of business, consider giving away some of your work as a desktop wallpaper download.

The best thing about desktop wallpaper is that it constantly reminds you of your brand. This can be a great way to make sure a lead thinks of you when thinking about who to hire for their next photoshoot or design project.

53. Mobile App/Game

A free mobile app or game offers the perfect excuse to ask for an email address.

Ask users to create an account with you to use your app. Then, you can send them emails to help increase their engagement and encourage them to buy your premium product.

54. Challenge

One of my favorite lead magnet examples is this 30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge from Simple Green Smoothies.

There are several reasons why this lead magnet idea is so genius and you should consider doing a challenge as a lead magnet too.

• Anyone who takes them up on this offer will be a highly qualified lead. They raise their hands and say, “I want green smoothies!”.
• Challenges with a start and an end date have urgency. This makes the offer that much more compelling.
• Challenges build brand awareness by fostering a sense of community– everyone is doing the challenge together at the same time.
• Challenges make it much easier to elicit desired behavior through peer pressure. Most people wouldn’t have the discipline to drink one green smoothie a day for 30 days, but they’re much more likely to jump on the bandwagon when challenged to do so.

55. Membership Site

Are you thinking about creating your membership site? Consider offering free registration.

My Copyblogger Membership is an excellent example of using a membership site as a lead magnet.

I especially love their use of social proof and their fear of missing out. This community contains “over 334,000 smart online marketers”, and all those people “have a head start” on you. Better sign up now, so you can stay caught up!

Plugins can make it super easy if you’re a WordPress user interested in setting up your membership site. Check out our top picks for WordPress membership site plugins!

56. Facebook Group

I’ve personally used Facebook groups as lead magnets with great success. It just goes to show that people do value communities.

For example, we used to offer a private Facebook group + a free fitness challenge for pregnant women who wanted to stay healthy and fit throughout their pregnancy.

I tested a few offers instead, such as a checklist of exercises every pregnant woman should avoid. However, the Facebook group/challenge offer outperformed the other lead magnets, resulting in 43-cent leads on average!

57. Slack Group

Depending on your target market and where they hang out online, there may be other options than a Facebook group. However, you could offer a Slack group instead.

If you’ve never heard of it before, Slack is an app that allows you to send instant messages to groups of people. This can be a fun and powerful way to build a community around your brand.

58. Coupon

A coupon works well at the bottom of your funnel because most people who make online purchases like to shop around for deals. Your brand should be there to give those people what they’re looking for (in exchange for their email addresses, of course).

59. Waiting List

Do you have an upcoming product launch? You can use a waitlist to collect the emails of prospects at the bottom of your funnel.

For example, an online course called “B-School” is only available once per year. If you want to buy it right now, you can’t! Instead of a “buy” button on the product page, you’ll find a “tell me more” button next to an email optin form.

This way, they can collect the email addresses of bottom-of-funnel prospects throughout the year and build anticipation for the program.

60. Free Shipping

Free shipping is one of those things that everyone wants when it comes to shopping online. If someone is close to making a purchase, free shipping might be the offer that seals the deal.

61. Free Consultation

Many lawyers offer free consultations as lead magnets. This could also be a great bottom-of-funnel offer for you if you offer a service.

The best thing about a free consult is that it gives you a natural excuse to ask for the email address, phone number, and other relevant information. If you need to close someone over the phone, this is a natural opportunity.

62. Free Quote

Instead of a free consultation, you could offer a free quote. Here’s how Liberty Mutual does it.

First, you’ll be asked to enter your zip code and click on the “Get a Quote” button.

Then, you’ll be directed to another page where you’ll be asked to enter the rest of your information.

With most lead magnets examples, you would only be able to ask for a little information upfront. However, because a free quote is at the bottom of your funnel, these prospects are more willing to give out their detailed information.

63. Catalog

Finally, if you have a product catalog, remember to offer it as a lead magnet at the bottom of your funnel! Just remember to ask for their email address on the order form.

7 Key Takeaways To Create Irresistible Lead Magnets

There are seven things that your lead magnet should do if you want it to be irresistible.

The best lead magnets:

1. Solves a real problem – if your lead magnet doesn’t solve a real problem that your customer avatar has, or if it doesn’t give them something they want, it won’t work at all.
2. Promises one quick win – your lead magnet should promise (and deliver) one quick win for your avatar. In other words, it should help them to achieve something quickly.
3. Super specific – don’t create a lead magnet about something general. The clearer you’re about the benefit of your lead magnet, the better it will convert potential customers (and if you can personalize this lead magnet to a specific landing page, that’s even better!).
4. Quick to digest – PDF checklists tend to convert well because they’re so quick and easy to digest. eBooks or lengthy reports may make your prospects feel overwhelmed.
5. High value – your lead magnet should have both, high perceived value and high actual value.
6. Instantly accessible – your lead magnet will work best if it can be delivered immediately. People love instant gratification.
7. Demonstrates your expertise or UVP – when someone consumes your lead magnet, it should show your expertise or unique value proposition. This helps turn leads into customers down the road.

If you can nail these qualities, conversions will dramatically rise across your website.

How To Distribute Your Lead Magnet

Creating the right lead magnet template for your audience is only half the battle. The other half is getting it to the right people, in the right places, and at the right time in their customer journey.

That’s where a tool like OptinMonster comes in:

OptinMonster is the world’s #1 lead generation toolkit. It allows anyone to quickly and easily create “optin campaigns” to distribute their lead magnets in a highly targeted way.

“Optin campaigns” are things you’re already familiar with, like popups, floating bars, gamified wheels, and much more.

With these campaigns, you can narrow in on your target audience, improve their customer journey, and increase your conversion rates simultaneously.

Here’s how it works:

Everything starts with selecting one of OptinMonster’s 50+ pre-made lead magnet templates:

These designs are ready to use out of the box and will save you time, money, and headaches in the campaign creation process.

From there, you’ll likely want to make a few modifications to showcase your lead magnet.

OptinMonster has an inline text editor that allows you to customize your unique message, so you can better resonate with your target audience:

And if you want to add new features, you don’t need coding or tech skills.

Everything can be done with a drag and a drop:

This lets you add new features like:

• Images
• Video
• HTML
• Chatbots
• Icons
• Buttons

And much more

And since all the features are made up of “blocks,” everything falls neatly into place every time.

But once the campaign is ready and your lead magnet looks good, you still need to target these messages to the right people.

You’d use one of OptinMonster’s many targeting rules. Some examples include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology: Recover abandoning users as they’re actively leaving your site for good.
• OnSite Follow Ups®: Avoid ‘popup fatigue’ by showing new messages to returning users.
• Geolocation: Target people based on their physical location.

Though many others exist, these are just a few examples of OptinMonster’s targeting rules. And these are the same ways that companies like Crossrope exploded their list by 900%.

Or how Shotkit adds 40+ NEW leads to their site every single day.

From there, you can leverage the full power of automation! By that, I mean OptinMonster integrates with 50+ 3rd-party tools like email service providers, Zapier, webhooks, and more.

That means you can create a lead generation system that works on autopilot.

Ready to get your lead magnet in front of your audience? Click below to start your 100% risk-free OptinMonster account today:

Create High Converting Optin Campaigns Today!

If you’re curious about how many of your subscribers download your lead magnets, here’s how to track downloads in Google Analytics and WordPress.

And that’s all for today! Now it’s your turn.

Go ahead and pick one of these high-converting lead magnet ideas, and then tweak it to create your own. This will drastically improve your digital marketing efforts.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you did, you’d want to check out the following resources:

• How to Track a Lead Source in WordPress
• How to Ask a Customer Why They Cancelled (to Win Them Back)
• Create and Track Popup Events in Google Analytics
• Content Marketing Examples

These posts will give you more information on tracking the success of your lead magnet campaigns and retaining customers once they’ve converted.

Marketers have long used FOMO to influence consumer behavior and drive results. However, many still lack a clear understanding of FOMO marketing and how it can effectively boost eCommerce sales.

But there’s nothing to worry about because in this FOMO marketing guide, we will explain what FOMO means, what FOMO marketing is, and why it is so effective.

In the end, we will share FOMO marketing strategies and FOMO marketing examples so you can apply FOMO tactics in your marketing campaigns and enjoy the results yourself!

Here’s a table of contents for easy navigation:

1. What is FOMO?
2. What is FOMO Marketing?
3. Why Use FOMO Marketing?
4. FOMO Marketing Strategies
5. Best FOMO Marketing Examples

What is FOMO?

FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, is a psychological phenomenon that drives individuals to seek information, experiences, and social connections to avoid feeling left behind or excluded. This fear can influence decisions, behaviors, and emotional well-being.

According to a study published in Computers in Human Behavior, FOMO is

“a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.“

It is a psychological phenomenon characterized by the fear or anxiety of being left out of exciting or rewarding experiences. It stems from the innate desire to participate in social activities, events, or opportunities others enjoy.

Now let’s read about fear of missing out marketing.

What is FOMO Marketing?

FOMO marketing capitalizes on people’s fear of missing out to drive consumer engagement, urgency, and action. It typically includes messaging that triggers your target audience’s innate fear of missing out to make them more likely to convert.

By creating a sense of exclusivity, scarcity, and time-limited opportunities, FOMO marketing taps into the emotional response triggered by the potential loss of a valuable experience.

This marketing technique has proven highly effective because it captures attention, creates a sense of urgency, and compels consumers to take immediate action.

Why Use FOMO Marketing?

Let’s look at some FOMO statistics, as that’ll help you understand why FOMO marketing campaigns are so effective, especially with certain demographics.

A lot of data suggests that FOMO is most prevalent among millennials. Around 69% of millennials experience the phenomenon, and according to Strategy Online, 60% of millennials make impulsive purchases because of FOMO. In other words, they’ll buy something just because they feel they might miss out.

However, it’s not just millennials who suffer from FOMO. According to other data, more than half of people using social networks suffer from FOMO.

With more than 3 billion active social media users worldwide, according to We are Social, that’s a huge potential audience.

The bottom line: FOMO marketing is essential, no matter what age group or location you’re targeting.

FOMO Marketing Strategies

Let’s learn how to create FOMO in marketing by looking at the following FOMO marketing strategies.

A. Limited-Time Offers and Flash Sales

By offering time-limited discounts, promotions, or deals, businesses create a sense of urgency and encourage immediate purchase decisions.

• Countdown timers: Visually represent the urgency of the offer.
• Tiered discounts: Offer increasing discounts as the time limit approaches.
• Product bundles: Create additional value by bundling products for a limited time

Recommended Reading: 23 Stunning Sales Promotion Examples To Crush Your Sales

B. Exclusive Access and VIP Memberships

Providing exclusive access to special events, products, or content for loyal customers or members builds a sense of exclusivity and fosters customer loyalty.

• Loyalty programs: Reward repeat customers with exclusive perks and early access.
• Referral programs: Encourage customers to share products with friends for exclusive benefits.
• Tiered memberships: Offer varying levels of exclusivity based on membership tier.

Recommended Reading: What is a Membership Website? (7 Examples of Successful Membership Websites)

C. User-Generated Content and Social Proof

Showcasing real customer experiences and testimonials through user-generated content creates social proof and increases trust, thereby fueling FOMO.

• Live feeds: Display real-time purchases or interactions to demonstrate popularity.
• Influencer takeovers: Collaborate with influencers to showcase product usage and endorsements.
• Customer testimonials: Highlight positive experiences to build trust and credibility.

Recommended Reading: 30+ Proven Ways to Use Social Proof to Increase Your Conversions (Updated)

Recommended Reading: 18 Best Social Proof Software Tools to Boost Sales

D. Influencer Partnerships and Collaborations

Collaborating with influencers or industry experts to promote products or events can amplify FOMO by leveraging their authority and reach.

• Micro-influencer collaborations: Target niche audiences for more authentic engagement.
• Gifted products: Provide influencers with products to encourage organic promotion.
• Exclusive influencer codes: Offer unique discounts to drive sales and track performance.

Recommended Reading: Win Big at Influencer Marketing: An Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Best FOMO Marketing Examples

Now that we have gone through the FOMO meaning, FOMO marketing meaning, and strategies, it’s time to look at some FOMO marketing examples to see FOMO in action.

1. Show That People Are Buying

Some of the most effective FOMO marketing techniques trigger the feeling without even making a sales pitch.

These days, it’s not unusual to see live information on sales when you visit a website, as in this FOMO marketing example from SeedProd:

This shows a recent purchaser’s first name and location, so it’s clear it’s a real person. If visitors to your site know other people are buying, they’ll also want to buy.

SeedProd is using TrustPulse social proof notifications to create these popups.

Be sure to check out our guides on the best WooCommerce plugins and best Shopify apps for more useful tools like this.

Related ContentHow to Use a Recent Sales Popup to Boost Your Revenue

2. Display Best Selling or Top Rated Items

When website visitors are able to see what your best-selling or top-rated products are, it will give them a healthy dose of FOMO too. After all, when you see a cool product that other people are buying, you’ll want it for yourself.

So, be sure to display the best-selling or top-rated items prominently on your website. Here’s how the cosmetics company ColorPop does it:

You can easily display your best-selling or top-rated products in the same way with SeedProd.

SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress, and it comes with custom WooCommerce blocks. You can choose from a standard products grid, best-selling products, top-rated products, sale products, and more. Simply drag the product block and drop it onto your page.

You can even create a custom WooCommerce checkout page with a showcase of best-selling products. This is a great way to increase your average order value.

3. Highlight Missed Opportunities in Your Messaging

One site that’s great at using these FOMO tactics is Booking.com, which has multiple examples of FOMO on every page. In this tip, we’re focusing on ramping up FOMO by showing that visitors have actually missed out on a great deal.

Booking.com shows this with messaging showing when the property you’re looking at is sold out in big red letters:

As we move forward, you will see more FOMO marketing examples from Booking.com.

4. Show Stock Levels

Scarcity is a big component of FOMO marketing because if something’s about to run out, there’s a huge incentive to get it now. There are many ways to highlight scarcity.

For example, if you’re running an online store, you can show stock levels, as Amazon does:

Or, if you’re in the travel business, you could show the number of spaces left, as Booking.com does:

And you can ramp up the FOMO advertising with “while stocks last” messaging, that suggests that your product or service is about to run out or disappear:

For more inspiration, check out our article on scarcity examples.

5. Make Your Visitors Watch the Clock

When thinking about how to create FOMO, you can also look into urgency in marketing. It’s another tactic that triggers loss aversion, a fancy term for FOMO. If your visitors think they’ll miss out by running out of time, they’re more likely to reach for their virtual wallets and commit to a purchase.

You can do this by showing a countdown timer or even with messaging about when deals end, like in this FOMO marketing example on Amazon:

Or by offering different discount levels on different days, like the Chemical Guys:

Or by creating a countdown popup like this one:

Read How to Create Urgency in Marketing for more help implementing this tactic.

6. Stir Their Competitive Spirit

Not only do we not like missing out, but we hate the thought that others might get something great before we do. That’s why good FOMO marketing campaigns play on this feeling to inspire action. Here are a couple of examples.

Booking.com shows how many people are viewing a property. The underlying message is that if you don’t move fast, you’ll end up missing out:

Or you could show the number of people who’ve already taken a deal, as Amazon does:

If you’re in the software business, you could even show the number of users. Software companies often use FOMO with beta trials, where accepting limited numbers makes those few spaces seem very desirable.

7. Offer a One-Shot Deal With Exit-Intent®

OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent Technology® is a great way to deliver FOMO marketing campaigns. This powerful feature detects when people are about to leave your site and triggers a campaign just before they do.

It’s proven to work:

• Rich Page used exit-intent to boost conversions by 316%
• Ryan Robinson engineered a 500% increase in subscribers with exit-intent
• Podcast Insights combined exit-intent with our onsite retargeting feature to get a 1099% boost in conversions

To use exit-intent for FOMO marketing, follow our instructions for creating your first campaign, and create your discount offer. Enable exit-intent in the display rules section of the OptinMonster campaign builder:

Enable an additional display rule to specify which visitors should see the campaign. For example, you can show the campaign only to visitors on certain pages with page-level targeting.

8. Limit Free Shipping

Did you know that around 90% of shoppers list free shipping as their prime incentive for buying online? That’s one reason why FOMO marketing campaigns that limit free shipping can be really effective.

C’mon, we’ve all bought something extra on Amazon to get free delivery, haven’t we? If people feel they’ll miss out on free shipping by not making a purchase, they’ll likely make it, especially if the additional expenditure is relatively small.

Let your customers know how much more they have to spend to get free shipping, or simply place a banner at the top of your page, showing the threshold for obtaining that benefit. You can easily do this with one of OptinMonster’s floating bar campaigns.

Pro TipDid you know you can use the same floating bar campaigns to create custom alerts for your customers? Learn why you to create a website alert banner to keep your customers well-informed.

9. Be Explicit about FOMO

You don’t have to hide the fact that you’re using FOMO marketing. You can come right out and say it, as Rue La La does in this campaign:

Image Source

You don’t have to hide the fact that you’re using FOMO marketing. You can come right out and say it, as Rue La La does in this FOMO marketing example:

10. Let Your Content Expire

As a business, a lot of your content marketing strategy is about creating content that’ll stick around so you can use it to build authority, get inbound links, improve your search ranking, and win customers.

But there’s another way to pique visitors’ interest by using a FOMO marketing tactic: expiring content. Expiring content mixes urgency, scarcity, and exclusivity to ramp up that FOMO vibe.

Snapchat is the ultimate example of expiring content. One of the reasons Snapchat is so successful, and why teenagers can never leave their phones, is because if you don’t see the content while it’s there, you’ll lose your chance forever.

And here’s a thought: those early Snapchat users (the site launched in 2011) will soon be in their 20s, and they’ve grown up with this FOMO mindset.

Software companies use this same principle when they’re about to change their pricing plans, giving users an option to lock in the old price before it’s too late. Here’s an example from Iconica:

11. Use a Content Upgrade

While we’re on the subject of content, an opt-in content upgrade is a great FOMO marketing technique. That’s because gating content means there’s scarcity in our minds at least, and scarcity triggers FOMO.

You can use OptinMonster to gate content with our Content Lock feature to make visitors want your content upgrades.

OptinMonster customers have used content upgrades to boost conversions by 150% and increase customer retention by 72%.

To implement this, use your blog posts as content upgrades or try one of these ideas.

12. Trigger FOMO with Images

People respond to visuals, so when creating FOMO marketing campaigns, it’s essential to get the images right. An excellent FOMO marketing example comes from Express, which offers a rewards program.

As Stephan Brady points out, along with the “don’t miss out” messaging, the background image suggests that opting in will ensure you have a great time, which means you’re missing the party if you don’t opt-in.

To find the right images for your FOMO marketing campaigns, check out our guide to finding free images online.

13. Make Your Offer Exclusive

There’s nothing to trigger FOMO like exclusivity. As human beings, we love the thought of getting our hands on an opportunity very few people have. Don’t believe us? Check out any airport boarding gate and see how happy the people with priority access are.

Or think about how many people have signed up for Amazon Prime (more than 100 million!) to get deals other Amazon shoppers can’t get.

While those are great FOMO marketing examples, you can also use exclusivity by creating a limited-edition product or service. In the example below, Heinz combines this with time-based scarcity to make a compelling FOMO marketing offer:

14. Show Social Proof

Social proof is a highly effective marketing tactic, and not just for FOMO marketing campaigns. That’s because, besides the FOMO factor, social proof ties into our need to be part of a group.

If other people like us are sharing, engaging, or buying, we want to do it too, so we’ll feel a sense of belonging and won’t miss out.

The best way to leverage the power of social proof is by using TrustPulse. TrustPulse is a social proof software that can instantly increase site conversion rate by up to 15% by showing off real-time, verified customer activity right on your page in a little popup bubble:

TrustPulse also lets you show “On Fire” notifications that are great for leveraging FOMO on landing pages and checkouts:

Get Started for FREEYou can get started with TrustPulse for free!

You can also use social proof by showing the number of customer reviews a product has:

Or by showing huge numbers of people you’ve helped, as we do on our own site:

To use social proof as a FOMO marketing tactic, check out these social proof tips and examples.

15. Promote Experiences

Another way to use FOMO tactics is to let your users help. Using user-generated content (UGC) lets visitors and potential customers vicariously share in the experience of using your products and services, so they want to do it too. After all, real proof from real people is going to be much more compelling than any of your FOMO advertising campaigns.

Here’s an example of UGC from Wayfair, under the #wayfairathome social media hashtag:

And instead of leaving all of your UGC on social media, you can seamlessly integrate it into your website using a plugin like Smash Balloon.

With Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feed Pro, you can easily embed an Instagram hashtag feed anywhere on your site to showcase UGC.

It’s super simple to set up and you can completely customize your feed. You can choose from different layouts, design the feed to match your brand, hide or show likes and comments, highlight specific posts, and more.

Check out this guide on how to add an Instagram hashtag feed to WordPress for more details.

16. Offer Rewards for Early Decisions

Giving a freebie is a good way to attract customers. However, you can make it even more effective by limiting that freebie. Offline, you see this tactic when stores offer a gift or special discount to the first 100 customers, and that usually makes hundreds of people line up.

Online, you can follow the example of Huawei, and offer a gift for the first 100 purchasers:

Image Source

17. Boost FOMO Marketing with Email

Email marketing remains a great way to reach your customers. Our email marketing statistics roundup shows around 90% of people use it. So it’s an excellent tool for FOMO marketing campaigns.

You can effectively use email marketing with any other FOMO marketing examples we’ve listed. For example, you can send emails to:

• Let subscribers know about exclusive deals or rewards
• Tell them when items they’ve saved are about to run out
• Remind them about items in their shopping cart with cart abandonment messages

You can also combine FOMO email messaging with onsite retargeting to offer subscribers who follow a link a special deal via a popup marketing campaign.

Here’s how you can enable onsite behavioral retargeting with OptinMonster.

Recommended Reading: How to Grow Your Email List: 23 Proven and Simple Ways

That’s it! Now you can use these easy-to-implement FOMO marketing examples to get more FOMO sales from visitors and customers. Next, see how to boost sales on Shopify, and to increase average order value with upselling examples.

And follow us on YouTube,Facebook, and Twitter for more marketing tips and tricks and in-depth guides.

FOMO Marketing FAQs

1. What is FOMO in marketing?

FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, in marketing refers to a strategy designed to evoke anxiety in consumers that others are enjoying experiences or possessing products that they are not, potentially leading to a feeling of missing out. This tactic encourages consumers to make quicker decisions to purchase, subscribe, or engage with a product or service to avoid the feeling of being left out.

2. How to create FOMO in marketing?

To create FOMO in marketing, you can:

1. Limited Time Offers: Promote products or services as time-sensitive to create urgency.
2. Exclusive Content or Products: Offer special editions or early access to products for a select group of customers.
3. Social Proof: Use testimonials, user reviews, and social media shares to show how others are benefiting from your offerings.
4. Countdown Timers: Include these in your promotions to remind customers of dwindling time to act.
5. Highlight Popularity: Show how popular an item is, indicating high demand and potential sell-out risk.

3. How to use FOMO in marketing?

To effectively use FOMO in marketing:

• Segment Your Audience: Tailor your messages to different segments to make them more personal and relevant.
• Leverage Social Media: Use platforms where your audience is active to share user-generated content, testimonials, and live events.
• Email Campaigns: Send targeted emails highlighting limited offers, exclusive deals, and last chances.
• Remarketing: Remind visitors who left your site without purchasing about what they’re potentially missing out on.

4. Is FOMO marketing ethical?

FOMO marketing, or Fear of Missing Out marketing walks a fine line ethically. When used responsibly, it can be a powerful and legitimate marketing strategy. However, it becomes unethical if it deliberately misleads consumers, creates unnecessary anxiety, or exploits vulnerable individuals. Marketers need to ensure their FOMO tactics are truthful and not manipulative, maintaining transparency and integrity in their campaigns.

What does FOMO stand for in business?

In business, FOMO stands for “Fear of Missing Out.” It refers to the strategy of leveraging consumers’ fears of missing out on benefits, experiences, or products that others have. This concept is used to drive decisions and actions like purchases, subscriptions, and participation in events.

5.  What is FOMO in retail?

In retail, FOMO is used to drive immediate sales by creating a sense of urgency and scarcity around products. Retailers may implement FOMO through flash sales, limited-edition products, or exclusive offers that are only available for a short period. This strategy helps to increase foot traffic in stores or clicks online by encouraging consumers to act quickly to avoid missing out.

6. What are FOMO ads?

FOMO ads are a marketing strategy that exploits the human fear of missing out by creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity to encourage immediate action from consumers.

Running online contests and giveaways can be one of your company’s best marketing assets. If you select the right prize, an online giveaway is a great way of attracting qualified leads to your site.

The only problem? Hosting an online contest can be difficult to manage and become more trouble than it’s worth.

But if you have the right giveaway tool, app, or plugin, things become infinitely easier.

That’s why, today, we’re going to look at the best giveaway tools you can start using right now. First, though, let’s get clear on why you should use giveaway marketing tools to boost engagement.

Why Use a Giveaway Tool on Your Site?

There are tons of benefits to using a giveaway tool on your site. Here are just a few:

• Increase Website Traffic. Online giveaways and contests are easy ways to increase traffic to your website through referrals and social shares.
• Grow Your Email List. Require users to sign up for your email newsletter to get contest entries.
• Boost Your Social Media Followers. Online giveaways and contests can quickly boost your social media followers when you offer additional entries to your giveaway in exchange for follows.
• Generate Targeted Leads. Viral online giveaways will increase brand awareness and bring more people in contact with your business.

Still not sure that giveaways are effective? Check out this post on how KnivesShipFree.com increased revenue by more than $10,000 using giveaways.

Now, let’s turn our attention to finding the best online giveaway tool for your site.

Giveaway Tool: 11 of the Best

Here are the best online giveaway tools we’ve found to grow your traffic, followers, and sales!:

1. RafflePress
2. OptinMonster
3. ShortStack
4. Woorise
5. Agorapulse
6. Wishpond
7. Gleam
8. Woobox
9. KingSumo
10. Easypromos
11. Rafflecopter

1. RafflePress

RafflePress is a WordPress contest and giveaway plugin designed to simplify the process of creating and managing online giveaways and contests on your website. To do that, it includes gorgeous pre-built templates and a drag and drop builder so you can have your online giveaway up and running in minutes.

Just wait, it gets even better…

RafflePress offers a FREE version of its plugin that you can use to create a killer online giveaway without paying a dime!

Free RafflePress Features:

• Drag and drop builder with access to all the tools you need to create a successful online giveaway
• 100% responsive so your online giveaways and contests will look great everywhere
• Fraud protection to eliminate the cheaters and keep your giveaway honest
• Rule generator template to make it extremely easy to create contest entry rules
• Lightning-fast operation from highly-optimized giveaway widgets to help with site speed, SEO, and conversion rates
• Automated start and end times
• A free template to create simple giveaways
• Basic entry methods including Facebook page clicks, Twitter follows, visit a specific web page, and more

Pro RafflePress Key Features:

• Email marketing and CRM integrations to easily connect your email list and get more email subscribers
• Image submission entries (great for getting user-generated content)
• Polls and surveys tool
• Custom design options and backgrounds
• Landing pages for your online giveaway competition
• Goal-based giveaway templates
• Viral sharing features (refer-a-friend) to generate even more traffic by rewarding users with bonus entries for referring friends to your giveaway or sharing it on their social media
• Verified bonus actions let users earn more entries by following you on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, and more (plus, “verified” means that you can rest easy that these are real entries)

RafflePress is the best online giveaway plugin for WordPress, free or paid. Its advanced contest tools and marketing automation features are unmatched.

By getting website visitors to bring in more website visitors, they get more chances to win and you get more leads. Everyone’s a winner!

RafflePress Pricing:

RafflePress has an amazing FREE version. Paid plans start at $39.50/year.

For more information, check out this helpful review of RafflePress.

2. OptinMonster

You probably know OptinMonster as the best lead generation tool on the market. So what does that have to do with running an online contest?

OptinMonster is one of the best ways to share your contest with your site’s visitors and increase registration.

This is important because running a successful online contest has 2 components:

• Creating an organized system to allow people to join and win prizes
• Getting people to actually enter the contest

That second part is harder than you might think, and it’s often why so many giveaways don’t work.

But with OptinMonster, you can quickly and easily boost engagement with your contest. You can do this by showing targeted campaigns like popups, floating bars, slide-in scroll boxes, and more to let your users know about any contests you’re running:

Plus, building these campaigns is easy and doesn’t require any coding skills.

In fact, with over 50 pre-built templates and our drag and drop editor, you can build professional campaigns in minutes.

You can also use our inline text editor to personalize the messaging to your audience and target people who would be most interested in your contest’s prize:

Added to that, OptinMonster has lets you create gamified wheel campaigns where visitors can spin a wheel to win a prize. These instant wins keep visitors engaged and can boost conversions and sales exponentially.

Finally, you’ll be able to target your campaigns to the right people, in the right places, and at just the right time in their customer journey.

This ensures that you’ll only get the most quality leads joining your contest. Some popular ways targeting rules OptinMonster customers have used include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology: Target users as they’re actively leaving your website.
• Onsite Retargeting®: Retarget returning users with new campaigns based on how they’ve interacted with the ones they’ve seen.
• Page-Level Targeting: Display campaigns on specific URLs of your website.
• Geo-Targeting: Show campaigns to users who come from specific regions.

But you may be wondering, do these targeting rules really help boost conversions? Check out a few of these success stories that our customers have shared based on their results:

• Crossrope EXPLODES Its Mailing List by 900%
• Adam Enfroy Gains Over 11,000 Subscribers in One Year
• Shotkit Attracts 40+ New Leads Every Day

OptinMonster is perfect for any website including small businesses, eCommerce, and blog sites.

Ready to try it for yourself? Click below and use OptinMonster to boost engagement with your online giveaway today:

3. ShortStack

ShortStack is a popular online giveaway tool and WordPress giveaway plugin that makes it easy to create a giveaway campaign in minutes. Plus, no coding!

ShortStack Features:

• Drag and drop builder including 20+ widgets like form, poll, newsletter, social media, gallery and voting
• Customize colors, fonts, boxes, size, text and every other element in your campaign
• Email notifications let you contact your campaign participants as soon as they enter a competition, after a number of days, or at a scheduled date and time
• Leads are saved in a searchable, exportable database
• Limit entries and verify entry authenticity to reduce cheating
• Random Entry Selector lets you choose a contest winner on social networks
• Get user-generated content from photo contests, including hashtag contests
• Built-in analytics data lets you see how your campaigns are performing, in real-time

ShortStack Pricing:

Free plan available; premium plans start at $79/month.

4. Woorise

Woorise lets you create an online giveaway for free, and has a WordPress giveaway plugin. However, if you want all the best features of Woorise you’ll need to signup for one of the paid plans.

Woorise Features:

• Campaigns and Woorise App interface are fully mobile-friendly
• Drag and drop builder includes social widgets for your Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and more
• Customize your online contest colors from a variety of options, show or hide elements, and use your own images
• Multi-language support
• Geotargeting lets you create campaigns targeted to users based on their location
• Conditional logic so you can show or hide form fields, entire sections, social actions, or send email notifications
• Tracking data is easy to understand
• Choose random winners with a single click
• Fraud detection tools keep your contest fair

Woorise Pricing:

Free plan available with Woorise branding. You can find a free version of the Woorise WordPress giveaway plugin in the free repository. Paid Grow plan starts at $23/month.

5. Agorapulse

If you’re in the market for a complete social media management tool, Agorapulse may be exactly what you need. We included it here for the free Facebook Timeline Contest app that they have available for the software.

Facebook contests are a great way for marketers and site owners to grow their social media following and boost engagement.

Agorapulse Features:

• Randomly pick sweepstakes winners from the people who’ve liked or commented on a post
• Pick winners from people who commented with the correct answer for a quiz question
• Get great user-generated content by asking people to comment with photo submissions, then pick winners from the submissions with the most likes

Agorapulse Pricing:

Pricing starts at $54/month when billed annually.

6. Wishpond

Wishpond is a marketing platform that includes options for social media contests and competitions. However, if you already have your marketing needs covered (by an awesome tool like OptinMonster, perhaps?) this option is going to have tools that you don’t need.

Wishpond Features:

• Simple interface
• 10 social media contests including Instagram hashtag contests, photo caption contests, video contests, and more
• 300+ integrations so you can connect email, analytics, sales, and payments

Wishpond Pricing:

Wishpond’s giveaway app starts at $49/month when billed annually.

7. Gleam

Gleam is the most expensive of the online giveaway tools we’re covering, but its Competitions app makes it really easy to create and manage contests. However, it does not have a WordPress giveaway plugin.

Gleam Features:

• Verified Actions reduce the number of steps it takes to enter contests and checks the entries to make sure they’ve gone through
• Reach more potential entrants by letting users refer their friends
• Responsive down to 320px to support a mobile-friendly experience
• Google Analytics integration
• Pick winners randomly or award manual entries
• Multi-language support

Gleam Pricing:

Free plan available; paid plans start at $10/month (billed annually) for a pretty limited Hobby plan; business plans start at $149/month.

8. Woobox

Woobox is a free online giveaway tool and WordPress giveaway plugin that you can use to set up a contest on your WordPress site quickly and easily. It uses shortcodes that make embedding on WordPress a breeze.

Woobox Features:

• Customizable templates to get you started
• Choose winners randomly, easily approve submissions for your photo contests, and push media submissions to your galleries
• Integrate your campaigns with Zapier, Mailchimp, and more than 500 other tools
• Collect entries from hashtags, likes, or comments on social media platforms
• Use landing pages to drive traffic from emails, social media posts, and ads to a dedicated contest page

Woobox Pricing:

Free plan available; paid plans start at $37/month when billed annually.

9. KingSumo

KingSumo is a WordPress giveaway plugin created by AppSumo. You can use it to grow your email list through online contests.

KingSumo Features:

• Set up your giveaway on your WordPress site in just a few clicks
• Schedule start and end dates
• Easy image uploads to show off pictures of the prize next to its description

KingSumo Pricing:

Free option available; paid plan is for $49 (one-time).

10. Easypromos

If you’re looking for a way to easily create and manage online giveaways across all social networks, Easypromos might be for you.

Easypromos Features:

• Create complex giveaways combining Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
• Create giveaways with collaborators like influencers, sponsors, and brands
• 100% responsive and mobile-friendly
• Can be added to WordPress with a widget

Easypromos Pricing:

Create 1 free online giveaway; paid plans start around $29/month.

11. Rafflecopter

Rafflecopter makes it easy to create and run giveaways on your site. The giveaway app is designed to work with any website without any coding skills needed.

The downside is that adding giveaway entry options is a bit more complicated than it needs to be. So it can be hard to customize what actions you want the user to take in order to be eligible to participate.

Plus, when you create a giveaway, Rafflecopter will generate an embed code that you need to paste on your site. So this isn’t the most beginner-friendly option to start with.

Rafflecopter Features:

• Readymade themes and custom entry form design
• 1-click email integrations
• Prize image gallery to get more contestants
• Real-time analytics

Rafflecopter Pricing:

Sign up for free with a limited features plan. Paid plans for this giveaway app start at $13 per month.

What Is the Best Online Giveaway Tool and WordPress Giveaway Plugin?

Our pick for the best online giveaway tool and WordPress giveaway plugin is RafflePress. Not only is RafflePress super easy to use, but it’s dedicated entirely to giveaways, so the pricing and features are exactly where you need them to be.

The free version has everything you need to create a successful giveaway, but the paid versions start at only $49 for an entire year.

Get started with the premium version of RafflePress now! Or, you can always grab the free version.

And that’s it! These have been the best online giveaway apps, tools, and plugins that you can start using to get more engagement with your contest today.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to check out the following:

• RafflePress Review: Is This Plugin Any Good?
• How to Run an Online Contest or Giveaway
• 22 Stunning Sales Promotion Examples to Win More Customers

These articles will have everything you need to run more effective contests that bring you tons of new qualified leads.

These plugins convert your website into a membership platform and unlock huge potential for increasing revenue and subscribers.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with a variety of membership plugins. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and I’ve learned to match the right plugin to my client’s specific needs.

In this article, I share 5 of the best WordPress membership plugins based on my experiences with some of the most popular options.

If you are looking for the best WordPress membership plugin, read on and pick the one that best suits your goals. 

Best WordPress Membership Plugins

• MemberPress
• Paid Memberships Pro
• WooCommerce Memberships
• LearnDash
• Restrict Content Pro

Summary of WordPress Membership Plugins

	Plugin	Best For	Key Features	Pros	Cons
	MemberPress	Complex membership sites, online courses, digital product stores	Multiple membership tiers, drip content, digital downloads, strong integrations	Comprehensive feature set, easy to use, excellent support	Can be overkill for simple sites, pricing can escalate
2	Paid Memberships Pro	Customizable membership sites, budget-conscious users	Flexibility, open-source, strong community	Highly customizable, cost-effective	Steeper learning curve, core features might be limited
3	WooCommerce Memberships	Online stores with product-based memberships	Integration with WooCommerce, product-based memberships	Seamless integration, leverages WooCommerce infrastructure	Limited to product-based memberships
4	LearnDash	Online courses, educational content	Drip content, quizzes, certificates, strong LMS features	Excellent for online courses, robust features	Can be overkill for simple membership sites, pricing can be steep
5	Restrict Content Pro	Small to medium-sized membership sites, content protection	Easy to use, affordable, focuses on core features	Simple setup, cost-effective	Limited features, not suitable for complex membership structures

How to Choose the Best WordPress Membership Plugin

With all the WordPress membership plugins out there, how do you choose the right one?

There are 3 key areas to consider:

• Features: Determine how much you need from a login-based plugin. Do you only need the basics, or do you want to offer a full-fledged interactive experience? Of course, cost is a factor, as well!
• Compatibility: Your plugin must work with your WordPress theme and other plugins. You can check if your plugin is compatible with a staging site.
• Ease of Use: Be sure it’s easy for your team and customers to use. User-friendly plugins are especially important for beginners.

Best WordPress Membership Plugins for Your Subscription Website

We’ve tested the features, compatibility, and ease of use of all the top subscription plugins. Here are our favorite WordPress plugins to manage memberships on your website.

1. MemberPress

I first encountered MemberPress on a client project that required a robust membership solution with a focus on digital product delivery. The client was launching an online course platform and needed a plugin that could handle multiple membership tiers, drip content, and digital downloads seamlessly.

MemberPress impressed me right away with its intuitive interface and comprehensive feature set. Setting up membership levels, creating drip schedules, and integrating payment gateways was a breeze. The plugin’s ability to restrict content based on membership level is excellent, and the digital downloads feature is a real standout.

However, while MemberPress is undoubtedly powerful, its extensive feature set can sometimes feel overwhelming for simpler membership sites. For smaller projects or those with very specific needs, it might be overkill.

Features

• Integrations with Mailchimp, Constant Contact, GetResponse, Easy Affiliate, and more
• Unlimited members and memberships
• Content dripping functionality
• Content restriction rules, including access end dates
• Powerful learning management system (LMS) features for online courses
• Customizable checkout

Pros

• Comprehensive feature set
• Easy to use interface
• Strong support
• Excellent for digital product delivery
• Flexible membership tiers

Cons

• Can be overkill for simpler membership sites
• Pricing can escalate with add-ons

MemberPress Pricing

• Basic: $179.50 per year
• Plus: $299.50 per year
• Pro: $399.50 per year (includes 3 free months of OptinMonster and TrustPulse)

Best for: Online course platforms, digital product stores, and complex membership sites with multiple tiers and features.

Get started with MemberPress today!

2. Paid Memberships Pro

I’ve used Paid Memberships Pro (PMPro) on several personal projects and for clients who needed a highly customizable membership solution. It’s open-source nature and extensive add-on ecosystem make it a versatile choice.

I appreciate PMPro’s flexibility. It allows you to tailor the membership experience to your exact needs. Whether you’re building a simple members-only area or a complex subscription-based platform, PMPro can adapt.

That said, the initial setup can be more involved than with some other plugins, and the core functionality is less extensive out-of-the-box. You might need to invest time in configuring settings or purchasing add-ons to achieve your desired results.

Features

• Can show “sneak peeks” of content
• Pay per post or view
• Personalized member homepages
• Thorough admin dashboard
• Many payment methods and gateways

Pros

• Highly customizable
• Open-source
• Strong community and support
• Cost-effective
• Suitable for a wide range of membership sites

Cons

• Steeper learning curve
• Core features might be limited compared to some competitors

Pricing

• Free: $0
• Standard: $174 per year
• Plus: $299 per year
• Enterprise: $5,000+ per year

Best for: Developers, those with advanced customization needs, and budget-conscious users who don’t require a full-featured membership plugin.

Click here to get started with Paid Memberships Pro.

3. WooCommerce Memberships

As a WooCommerce expert, I naturally gravitated towards WooCommerce Memberships for clients who already had an online store. It’s a logical extension of the popular ecommerce platform.

The plugin works seamlessly with WooCommerce, allowing you to offer product-based memberships. This is ideal for businesses that sell physical or digital products and want to create additional revenue streams through exclusive member content.

However, if you don’t already use WooCommerce, the learning curve might be steeper, and the plugin’s focus on product-based memberships could limit its usefulness for other types of membership sites.

Features

• Integration with Constant Contact
• Member areas requiring invitations
• Content dripping
• Membership levels
• Easy communication with members

Pros

• Seamless integration with WooCommerce
• Ideal for product-based memberships
• Leveraging existing WooCommerce infrastructure
• Familiar interface for WooCommerce users

Cons

• Limited to product-based memberships
• Might not be suitable for non-ecommerce membership sites

Pricing

• $199 per year

Best for: Online stores looking to create membership tiers based on product purchases.

Click here to get started with WooCommerce Memberships.

4. LearnDash

I first came across LearnDash when a client approached me about building an online course platform with membership functionality. Initially, I was skeptical about using an LMS for membership, but I decided to give it a shot.

LearnDash blew me away with its focus on creating structured learning experiences. While it’s primarily an LMS, its membership features are solid. The ability to drip-feed content, create quizzes, and offer certificates within a membership framework is a unique selling point.

For complex membership sites with a strong educational component, LearnDash is a fantastic choice. However, if you’re primarily focused on content restriction and don’t need the full LMS functionality, there might be more streamlined options.

Pros

• Excellent for online courses and educational content
• Robust drip content and quiz features
• Strong community and support
• Versatile platform

Cons

• Can be overkill for simple membership sites
• Pricing can be steep for basic membership features

Features

• One-time payment or subscription courses
• Integration with popular payment gateways and marketing apps
• Course and group management
• Detailed reporting on enrollment, performance, and progress
• Robust LMS capacity

Pricing

• 1 Site: $199 per year
• 10 Sites: $399 per year
• Unlimited: $799 per year

Best for: Online course platforms, membership sites with a strong educational focus, and those who need advanced learning management tools.

Click here to get started with LearnDash.

5. Restrict Content Pro

Restrict Content Pro (RCP) is a plugin I’ve used on several small to medium-sized membership sites. Its simplicity is its greatest strength. If you need a straightforward way to protect content and manage subscriptions, RCP is a solid choice.

The plugin is easy to set up, and the interface is clean and intuitive. While it lacks some of the advanced features of other plugins, it excels at the core functionality of content restriction.

However, for complex membership sites with multiple tiers, drip content, or advanced features, RCP might fall short. It’s best suited for simpler membership models.

Features

• Unlimited number of membership levels
• Customer dashboard
• Stripe integration for free level, more payment options at paid levels
• Membership emails
• Autogenerated member pages

Pros

• Easy to use and set up
• Focuses on core membership features
• Affordable
• Good for smaller membership sites

Cons

• Limited features compared to other plugins
• Might not be suitable for complex membership structures

Pricing

• Basic: Free
• 1 Site: $99 per year
• 5 Sites: $149 per year
• Unlimited: $249 per year

Best for: Small to medium-sized membership sites with basic requirements, bloggers, and those on a tight budget.

Get started with Restrict Content Pro right here.

What Is the Best Membership Plugin for WordPress?

Through our testing and research, we determined that MemberPress is the best membership plugin for WordPress .

MemberPress is the most comprehensive option, and it’s the easiest to use. It has tons of features and excellent documentation and support.

That said, our favorite may not be the right one for you. That’s okay! The best membership plugin for you depends on your specific needs. Consider factors like the type of content you’ll be offering, the complexity of your membership structure, your budget, and your technical expertise when making your decision.

Do you want to learn more ways to increase revenue on your member website?

Take a look at our list of 30 Ways to Make Money With OptinMonster! In that article, you’ll learn how our powerful popup software can help you make the right offers to the right visitors.

If you want to start with OptinMonster today, check out our affordable pricing plans.

Theme builders are gaining popularity because they allow you to customize the entire website without having to learn to code. Using a theme builder, you can easily design website header, footer, and content layouts.

In this article, we’ll show you some of the best WordPress theme builders that will allow you to take full control of your website.

Before jumping into the list, let’s get familiar with theme builders.

What Is a WordPress Theme Builder?

A WordPress theme builder is a tool or software that allows you to create custom WordPress themes without needing to write code. It typically provides a visual interface where you can design and customize various aspects of your theme, such as layout, colors, fonts, and styles.

While theme builders may sound similar to page builders, there are a few significant differences.

A WordPress page builder is basically a drag and drop system for pages and posts whereas a WordPress theme builder is a plugin that lets you design a layout for posts, archive pages, and all other templates handled by a theme.

Now that you know the fundamental differences between a theme builder and a page builder, let’s look at the list of best theme builders.

Best WordPress Theme Builder: Top 8

1. SeedProd
2. Thrive Themes Builder
3. Divi Theme Builder
4. Beaver Builder
5. Themify
6. Elementor Theme Builder
7. JetThemeCore
8. Brizy Pro

1. SeedProd

SeedProd is one of the most popular WordPress theme builder. It is actively installed on more than a million websites. It also comes with an easy-to-use drag and drop interface which lets you build a beautiful site the way you want.

SeedProd lets you design website templates for single pages, blog posts, archive pages, 404 page, sidebars. The plugin is optimized for speed and bundled with 300+ templates to save your time.

Since it’s constantly maintained and updated, it quickly gains traction among the users.

Features:

• Drag and drop visual editor
• 300+ beautiful templates
• Conditional templates display settings
• Coming soon and maintenance mode
• Premade themes
• Premium Integrations

Pricing:

SeedProd is a free plugin bundled with free templates. With SeedProd paid version, you can unlock the theme builder starting at $199 per year along with premium support.

2. Thrive Themes Builder

Thrive Themes Builder is a part of the Thrive Theme Suite. It comes with a drag and drop front-end visual editor so you can see what you’re building.

Thrive Theme Builder allows you to visually create your website header, footer, post templates, page layouts, category pages, checkout pages and more.

Along with their base themes, you get readymade templates and modules to create conversion-focused websites.

It is well integrated with online tools like Zapier, email marketing tools, and webinar platforms.

Features:

• Inline text editing
• Content Modules for elements
• Access to Thrive Leads
• Template Library
• WooCommerce integration

Pricing:

Thrive Theme Builder is available as a standalone plugin but also included in the core Thrive Suite. The standalone plugin is available for $99/year, or you can bundle it with the Thrive Architect page builder for $199/year. The complete Thrive Suite bundle of 9 plugins is priced at $299 for a single year.

3. Divi Theme Builder

Divi Theme Builder is a plugin that comes bundled with the popular Divi theme. The best part is that if you’re not a fan of the Divi theme, you can use this plugin with any other WordPress theme.

With Divi’s theme builder, you’ll be able to visually design custom header, footer, and theme templates quickly. It offers over 800 full site templates to speed up the website design process.

If you’re a small business owner, you can quickly find a readymade template for your business.

Features:

• Templates library
• 100+ modules
• Access to other Divi plugins like Monarch
• Support for dynamic content
• Conditional template display
• Global design elements

Pricing:

Divi builder is a part of the Elegant Themes membership. You can purchase it for $89 per year or a lifetime membership at $249. You’re backed by their 30-day money-back guarantee too.

4. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is one of the popular WordPress page builder plugins with an easy-to-use drag and drop interface.

With their Beaver Themer addon, you can create layouts for blog templates, archive pages, custom post type templates, and so on.

The Beaver Themer addon opens all the options to customize the theme elements like header, footer, and announcement bars.

Since it is an established plugin, you can rest assured that they offer constant updates and won’t let you down with any bugs or glitches.

Features:

• Visual drag and drop builder
• 30 design modules
• Conditional template display
• Support for custom fields
• BigCommerce Integration

Pricing:

Beaver Themer addon is a paid extension of the premium version. You’ll have to spend $546 every year purchasing Beaver Themer addon for unlimited websites.

5. Themify

Themify is a popular WordPress theme shop offering themes for small businesses and plugins for extending their theme functionalities. It offers Themify Builder Pro, an intuitive plugin that lets you design every aspect of the theme like header, footer, post, page, 404, archive, and WooCommerce templates.

Features:

• Drag and drop modules
• 40+ readymade landing pages
• Easily extendable addons
• 60+ animation blocks
• WooCommerce templates

Pricing:

Themify Builder Pro offers 25 Builder addons along with the core theme. You can sign up for their membership by paying $69 for one-year support and plugin updates.

6. Elementor Theme Builder

Elementor is a powerhouse of functionality that makes it an exceptional website builder tool. It was created to make building and designing easy for any website, blog, or landing page

Elementor Pro, the paid version of the Elementor plugin, comes with various features like popup builder, theme builder, dynamic tags, support for the global widget, and so on.

With Elementor theme builder, you can design the main aspects of your website like the header, footer, single posts, archive pages, and so on using the drag and drop interface.

Features:

• User friendly drag and drop page builder
• Huge community
• Plenty of readymade templates
• Lottie animation widgets
• Business scaling features

Pricing:

Elementor theme builder is available in the paid version starting at $59/year for a single website. If you’re a business agency, you can check their expert plan worth $199/year that can be used on 25 websites.

7. JetThemeCore

JetThemeCore is a plugin from the JetPlugin suite popularly known as Crocoblock. JetPlugin is an Elementor addon that offers a variety of plugins for extending the free Elementor functionalities on your website.

The plugin offers theme builder features available in the Elementor Pro plugin. You get access to readymade templates for creating core pages like single pages, archive pages, 404 pages, taxonomy archives, and so on.

JetPlugin magic button provides access to these hundreds of pre-built templates so you can quickly install them in just a few clicks.

Features:

• Core page templates
• Drag and drop builder
• Suitable for Elementor users
• Free access to kava theme

Pricing:

You cannot get this as a standalone plugin as it is dependent on the JetPlugin suite. The basic plan will cost you around $199 per year.

8. Brizy Pro

Brizy Pro is a relatively new candidate in the drag and drop page builder ecosystem. It’s similar to Elementor but focuses more on inline editing. This saves time, so you don’t have to jump to and fro from the sidebar for making a new change every time.

Brizy also offers a theme builder in the pro version which makes every part of your WordPress site customizable. You can create dynamic templates for single and archive pages 404 pages and have complete control over headers, footers, and sidebars.

One more exciting feature is their cloud membership, an alternative to Wix. This comes at no additional cost and is included within the plugin’s premium version.

Features:

• 36+ content elements
• Beautiful design pre-made templates
• Inline drag and drop builder
• Brizy cloud membership
• Integration with marketing tools
• Display conditions

Pricing:

The premium plugin starts at just $59 for 1 websites. You also get one year of support and plugin updates.

Which Is the Best Theme Builder for WordPress Website?

SeedProd is the best WordPress theme builder.

While most of the theme builder plugins offer similar features, SeedProd Pro turns out to be the most advanced theme builder. Lite is a free version and offers features like domain mapping, a wide range of marketing integrations, and access controls.

We hope this article helped you find the best theme builder WordPress plugins for your website. While you’re looking for theme builders, you might consider below some articles for marketing your services as well.

More on WordPress Plugins

• 11 Best WordPress Marketing Plugins (Compared)
• Best WooCommerce Themes for Your Online Store
• SEO Made Easy—Search Engine Optimization Guide
• How To Create a Popup Video: Step by Step Tutorial

Unlike many tech blogs, OptinMonster has a unique advantage: experience. As seasoned WordPress users, we’ve personally implemented and tested many plugins on our websites. This hands-on approach allows me to provide insights and recommendations based on actual performance, not just theoretical knowledge.

I aim to share our expertise and help you select the best WordPress eCommerce plugins to power your online store.

Get ready as I unveil our top picks for the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress.

Overview of the Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins

Before diving into my detailed review, here’s a quick overview of the top 5 choices for the best WordPress eCommerce plugins:

	Plugin	Best For	Free Version?	Pricing
	WooCommerce	Wide range of products (physical, digital, services), high customization, and scalability.		Free core plugin, paid extensions
	Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)	Selling digital products exclusively, with a focus on simplicity and efficiency.		Starts at $99.50/year
	Ecwid	Small businesses or those looking to embed a store on multiple platforms due to its flexibility.		Starts at $21/month
4	BigCommerce	Businesses seeking a robust, all-in-one platform with advanced features and scalability.		Starts at $29/month
5	WP EasyCart	Small businesses with a limited product range seeking a simple, user-friendly solution.		Starts at $69.00/year

Key Factors to Consider

When selecting an eCommerce plugin, keep these factors in mind:

• Product Type: Physical, digital, or both?
• Product Quantity: How many products will you sell?
• Scalability: Do you anticipate significant growth?
• Design Customization: How much control do you need over your store’s appearance?
• Technical Expertise: Are you comfortable with coding or do you prefer a drag-and-drop interface?
• Budget: Consider the initial setup costs and ongoing fees.
• Payment Gateways: Ensure your preferred payment methods are supported.
• Shipping Options: Evaluate the plugin’s ability to handle your shipping requirements.
• Marketing and SEO Features: Consider built-in tools or the need for additional integrations.
• Customer Support: Assess the available support options and response times.

Best WordPress eCommerce Plugins

1. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is, without a doubt, the behemoth in the WordPress eCommerce plugin realm. It’s the go-to choice for countless online store owners, and for good reason. Having spent countless hours playing with it, I can confidently say it’s a robust, flexible, and scalable platform.

WooCommerce’s strength lies in its versatility. It’s like a blank canvas for your online store. The core plugin provides a solid foundation, but its true power is unleashed through its extensive ecosystem of extensions.

When testing, I was setting up an online store for organic skincare products. Product variations were a nightmare – different sizes, scents, and packaging combinations. WooCommerce’s product variations feature was a lifesaver. It handled everything flawlessly, from displaying options on the product page to managing inventory levels for each variation.

Another feature that impressed me was its shipping options. Calculating shipping costs based on weight, dimensions, and destination can be a complex affair. WooCommerce’s shipping zones and classes made it incredibly easy to set up accurate shipping rates for different regions.

While WooCommerce is undoubtedly a powerful tool, it’s not without its quirks. For instance, managing complex product attributes can be a bit cumbersome compared to some other plugins. However, there’s usually a plugin or custom code solution to address such issues.

The free version of WooCommerce offers a solid foundation for most online stores. However, to unlock its full potential, you’ll likely need to invest in premium extensions. These extensions cover everything from advanced shipping and payment options to marketing and customer support tools.

Pros:

1. Highly Customizable: Extensive range of themes and plugins for design and functionality.
2. Open Source: Free to use with a large community of developers.
3. Integration with WordPress: Seamlessly integrates with WordPress, making it a great choice for existing WordPress sites.
4. Scalable: Can handle small to large stores with proper hosting.
5. Large Support Community: Extensive documentation and support forums.

Cons:

1. Complex Setup: Can be overwhelming for beginners due to the number of customization options.
2. Performance: Requires good hosting and optimization to handle high traffic and large catalogs.
3. Hidden Costs: Many essential features require paid extensions.
4. Maintenance: Regular updates and maintenance are required to keep the store running smoothly.

Verdict: I wholeheartedly recommend WooCommerce for anyone looking to build an online store on WordPress. Its vast community, extensive documentation, and countless available resources make it a reliable and supportive platform.

WooCommerce Pricing: The core WooCommerce plugin is free and open-source. Some extensions are free, while others are paid.

If you’re interested in WooCommerce, check out the following article: How to Create a WooCommerce Popup (+7 Ways to Boost Sales).

2. Easy Digital Downloads

While WooCommerce is a versatile platform for both physical and digital products, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is crafted with digital goods in mind. If you’re selling ebooks, software, music, or any other digital content, EDD is a compelling choice.

EDD’s focus on digital products is evident in its user-friendly interface and efficient workflow. From setting up product pricing to managing customer downloads, everything feels intuitive.

I recall while testing I was building an online course platform. EDD’s ability to handle multiple payment gateways, including recurring subscriptions, was a game-changer. Setting up different pricing tiers and creating a seamless checkout experience was effortless.

Another impressive feature was EDD’s file access control. It securely stores and delivers digital products, preventing unauthorized access and ensuring customers receive their purchases promptly.

While EDD excels at handling digital products, it might lack some of the advanced features for physical goods that WooCommerce offers, such as inventory management and shipping options. However, for those exclusively selling digital content, these limitations are unlikely to be a significant concern.

The core EDD plugin is free, providing a solid foundation for selling digital products. To expand your store’s capabilities, you can explore a range of premium extensions. These extensions offer features like subscriptions, affiliate marketing, and advanced reporting.

Pros:

1. Specialized for Digital Products: Perfect for selling digital goods with features tailored for digital downloads.
2. Simple and User-Friendly: Easy to set up and manage.
3. Extensible: Numerous add-ons available for additional features.
4. Strong Community Support: Active community and extensive documentation.

Cons:

1. Limited to Digital Products: Not suitable for physical product sales.
2. Add-on Costs: Many advanced features require purchasing add-ons.
3. Scalability Issues: May not be ideal for very large stores.

Verdict: If you’re looking for a dedicated solution to sell digital products on your WordPress website, EDD is undoubtedly worth considering. Its focus on simplicity and efficiency makes it a strong contender in the eCommerce plugin market.

Easy Digital Downloads Pricing: Starts at $99.50/year with a limited free version available

3. Ecwid

Ecwid positions itself as a flexible eCommerce solution that can be embedded into any website, including WordPress. While not as deeply integrated as WooCommerce or EDD, it offers a unique approach to online selling.

What sets Ecwid apart is its cloud-based nature. This means your store data is stored on Ecwid’s servers, offering potential benefits like automatic backups and easier scalability.

I used Ecwid for a few small projects, and I was impressed by its simplicity. Setting up basic products and payment options was a breeze. However, when dealing with more complex product configurations or inventory management, I found it a bit less intuitive than dedicated eCommerce plugins.

Ecwid’s strength lies in its ability to be embedded anywhere. I’ve used it to create small online stores within existing websites without disrupting the overall design. This flexibility can be a huge advantage for businesses with limited technical resources.

While Ecwid offers a decent range of features, power users might find it lacking in some areas compared to dedicated eCommerce platforms. For instance, advanced shipping options and inventory management tools can be more limited.

Ecwid offers a free plan with basic features, but to unlock its full potential, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan. These plans provide additional features like more product variations, advanced shipping options, and customer support.

Pros:

1. User-Friendly: Simple and straightforward setup process.
2. Cost-Effective: Often cheaper than many competitors.
3. Integration Options: Works well with various payment gateways and shipping options.

Cons:

1. Limited Customization: Fewer themes and plugins compared to WooCommerce.
2. Smaller Community: Less community support and documentation.
3. Scalability: May not handle very large catalogs or high traffic well.

Verdict: Ecwid is a solid choice for small businesses or those looking for a quick and easy way to add eCommerce functionality to their existing website. While it might not be the best option for large-scale or complex online stores, it certainly deserves consideration for its simplicity and flexibility.

Ecwid Pricing: Starts at $21/month with a limited free version available

4. BigCommerce

BigCommerce stands out as a fully hosted eCommerce platform that offers a comprehensive suite of features for online businesses of all sizes. Unlike WordPress plugins, BigCommerce is a standalone platform, providing a complete eCommerce solution out of the box.

I worked with several clients using BigCommerce, and I’ve been impressed by its focus on scalability and performance. The platform handles product catalogs with thousands of items efficiently, and the checkout process is optimized for conversions.

One of the standout features for me is BigCommerce’s built-in SEO tools. It provides valuable insights into on-page optimization and helps you improve your store’s search engine visibility. I’ve seen firsthand how these tools can boost organic traffic and sales.

Another area where BigCommerce shines is its integration with popular marketing platforms. Connecting your store to email marketing services, social media channels, and other tools is relatively straightforward. This makes it easier to run targeted campaigns and track customer behavior.

While BigCommerce is a powerful platform, it does come with a learning curve compared to some of the other options. The interface can be overwhelming for beginners, and customizing the store’s design might require some technical expertise.

Pros:

1. All-in-One Solution: Comprehensive platform with hosting, security, and updates handled by BigCommerce.
2. Scalability: Handles high traffic and large product catalogs effortlessly.
3. Built-In Features: Many essential eCommerce features built-in without needing additional apps.
4. Multi-Channel Selling: Easily integrates with marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.

Cons:

1. Cost: More expensive compared to open-source solutions.
2. Customization Limitations: Less flexibility compared to self-hosted platforms.
3. Learning Curve: Can be complex for beginners due to the extensive feature set.

Verdict: BigCommerce offers several pricing plans to accommodate different business needs. The platform includes essential features in its base plan, but you’ll need to upgrade for advanced functionalities like advanced shipping options and abandoned cart recovery.

BigCommerce Pricing: Starts from $29 per month with zero transaction fees, unlimited products and storage, and unlimited staff accounts. 15-day free trial available.

5. WP EasyCart

WP EasyCart presents itself as a straightforward eCommerce plugin designed to simplify the process of selling products on WordPress. While it may not boast the same level of complexity as some other options, it certainly has its appeal for those seeking a no-frills approach.

WP EasyCart’s biggest strength lies in its simplicity. Setting up basic products and processing orders is relatively hassle-free. For small businesses with a limited product catalog, it can be an efficient solution.

I’ve used WP EasyCart for a couple of small client projects, and while it fulfilled the basic requirements, I found its feature set to be somewhat limited compared to more robust options. For instance, managing product variations or implementing complex shipping rules proved to be more challenging than expected.

The plugin’s focus on ease of use comes at a cost. You won’t find advanced marketing tools or in-depth analytics within WP EasyCart. If you need these features, you’ll likely need to rely on external integrations or plugins.

WP EasyCart offers a free version with limited functionality. To access additional features like digital product delivery, advanced shipping options, and customer support, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan.

Pros:

1. Ease of Use: Simple setup and user-friendly interface.
2. Affordable: Competitive pricing with a range of features included.
3. Integration with WordPress: Seamlessly integrates with WordPress, easy to manage within the WordPress dashboard.
4. Good Support: Reliable customer support and documentation.

Cons:

1. Limited Customization: Fewer themes and plugins available compared to WooCommerce.
2. Scalability: May struggle with very large stores or high traffic.
3. Feature Limitations: Some advanced eCommerce features may be lacking or require additional purchases.

Verdict: While WP EasyCart might not be the best choice for large-scale or complex eCommerce ventures, it can be a viable option for small businesses with simple product offerings. Its user-friendly interface and straightforward approach make it a potential contender for those looking for a quick and easy way to start selling online.

WP EasyCart Pricing: Starts at $69.00/year with a limited free version available.

WordPress eCommerce Plugins: Honorary Mentions

WP Simple Pay: If you’re looking for a straightforward solution to accept payments without a full-fledged shopping cart, WP Simple Pay integrates seamlessly with Stripe to process one-time and recurring payments.

TrustPulse: While not directly related to eCommerce, TrustPulse is a valuable tool for building social proof and increasing conversions. By displaying real-time customer activity, it can boost trust and encourage purchases.

OptinMonster: Another conversion optimization tool, OptinMonster helps capture leads and grow your email list through various opt-in forms, popups, and exit-intent technology.

Shopify: Although not a WordPress plugin, Shopify is a popular hosted eCommerce platform that offers integration with WordPress.

MemberPress: Primarily for membership sites, but can be used to sell digital products and access to content.

What Is the Best eCommerce Plugin for WordPress?

After thoroughly using these plugins, I can confidently say that WooCommerce is by far the best WordPress eCommerce plugin.

For small businesses with limited product offerings, WP EasyCart or Ecwid are excellent starting points due to their simplicity and ease of use. WooCommerce is also a viable option, but might be overkill for a very small inventory.

For digital product-focused businesses, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is the clear winner for its specialized features and efficiency.

Businesses selling both physical and digital products, WooCommerce is the most versatile option, offering flexibility to handle both product types.

For high-growth businesses or enterprises, BigCommerce or WooCommerce with premium extensions are suitable for handling large product catalogs, high traffic, and complex business needs.

I hope this article helped you determine the best WordPress eCommerce plugin for your needs.

More on WordPress Plugins

• 29 Best Shopify Apps To Boost Your eCommerce Store: Free + Paid Apps
• 18 Best WordPress Plugins & Tools
• 32 Best WooCommerce Plugins to Grow Your eCommerce Business
• WordPress Affiliate Plugin – Best 10
• 12 Best WordPress Plugins For Coming Soon Pages
• Here Are the 6 Best WordPress Form Plugins
• Conquering Course Creation: Top WordPress LMS Plugins Compared

Shopify is the leading platform for entrepreneurs and businesses to build online stores. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, Shopify makes it easy to set up an online store and start selling products or services.

However, to truly excel in this competitive world of ecommerce, it’s essential to use the right tools, and that’s where Shopify apps come into play.

There are both paid as well as free Shopify apps for you to grow your email lists, generate leads and increase revenue.

In this article, I will share with you the best apps for Shopify and, most importantly, the best free Shopify apps that can boost your ecommerce stores.

Overview of the Best Shopify Apps

Quick Links

• Best Shopify Apps for Conversions
• Best Shopify Apps for Social Media Selling
• Best Shopify Apps for Social Proof
• Best Shopify Apps to Upsell and Cross-Sell
• Best Shopify Apps for Gift Giving
• Best Shopify Payment Option Apps
• Best Shopify Apps for Email Marketing & SMS
• Best Shopify Apps for Dropshipping

Best Shopify Apps for Conversions

A conversion is any action taken leading up to and including the actual sale. These might include joining your email list, clicking on a coupon offer, adding an item to the cart, or clicking the checkout button.

Improving your conversion rate means convincing more people to take action when they visit your site. Here are the top Shopify apps to increase conversion rates across your website.

1. OptinMonster

Ranking first on our list is OptinMonster, one of the best Shopify apps for growing your email list, boosting your sales, and recovering potential customers.

In fact, OptinMonster can do the job of multiple apps, which is why I have put it at the top.

With OptinMonster’s ecommerce features, you can quickly and easily create stunning marketing campaigns for:

• Lead generation
• Product recommendation
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Discount wheels and other incentives

Key Features:

• Drag and drop campaign builder
• Lots of design blocks to add videos, countdown timers, images, and more
• Varied campaign types such as popup, fullscreen, floating bar, slide-in, discount wheel, inline, and content locker
• 50+ premade templates and playbooks
• Precise targeting and triggering rules
• Usable across platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Big Commerce, and more
• Live customer support and extensive documentation

Best Used For:

• Recommending products
• Retaining customers on site
• Increasing conversion rates

Customer Review:

Pricing: Starts at $9/month for up to 2,500 campaign impressions.

Available On: Shopify App Store, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and all other ecommerce platforms

If you’re serious about jumpstarting your ecommerce business growth, then get started with OptinMonster today!

2. PushEngage

PushEngage is a push notification Shopify app you can use to send custom notifications to your visitors. This lets you recover abandoned carts, re-engage with users when they’re on the site, and ultimately drive more sales.

People are more likely to sign up for push notifications since they don’t have to share personal information, like an email or phone number, to opt in.

The best thing is that you can easily install PushEngage with one click.

Key Features:

• Customizable optin display rules
• Flexible push notification design options
• Automated abandoned cart messages
• Audience segmentation
• Easy setup with no coding required

Best Used For:

• Attracting traffic
• Reengaging visitors on site
• Recovering abandoned carts

Customer Review:

Pricing: PushEngage has a free plan for up to 200 subscribers and 30 campaigns to help you get started. The pricing plans start at $9/month for up to 100K subscribers.

Available On: Shopify App Store, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and all other ecommerce platforms

3. Octane AI: Advanced Quiz Maker

Octane AI is a Shopify quiz app that lets you build a product quiz in minutes.

These product quizzes are not just an amazing opportunity to send personalized recommendations. It’s also a source of incredibly valuable data about what your customers want.

Your quizzes ask customers one question at a time to pinpoint what they’re looking for. Then it automatically generates a list of personalized product recommendations.

The recommendations come with add-to-cart links to improve average order value. The quiz data syncs with your email and SMS marketing apps so you can follow up with truly customized marketing.

Key Features:

• Conversational quiz popups
• Personalized product recommendations
• Add to cart directly from the popup

Best Used For:

• Suggesting products
• Increasing average order value
• Gathering customer data

Customer Review:

Pricing: Starts at $50/month.

Available On: Shopify App Store

4. LiveChat

LiveChat is the best live chat support software on the market that can help you improve customer satisfaction, conversion rate, and revenue.

Studies reveal that 70% of shoppers abandon their carts. By answering their questions quickly, you can minimize their frustration and increase their chances of purchasing from you. In fact, website visitors who engage in a live chat are 6.2 times more likely to buy.

You can also use LiveChat to:

• Initiate automated chat greetings
• Offer personalized customer service
• Conduct post-chat surveys to further improve the user experience
• Upsell and cross-sell complementary products

And more.

Key Features:

• Saved templates for repeated questions
• File sharing
• Inactivity messages
• Evaluation surveys for collection feedback
• Mobile responsive
• 200+ integrations

Best Used For:

• Improving customer satisfaction and engagement
• Reducing cart abandonment
• Increasing conversion rate and revenue

Customer Review:

Pricing: Pricing starts from $20 per month.

Available On: Shopify App Store

Best Shopify Apps for Social Media Selling

While Shopify is a great platform to build your ecommerce store, you may want to sell on other sales channels that have more reach. Here are the best apps for selling through other platforms.

5. Pinterest

Pinterest, another free Shopify app, makes it possible to publish shoppable product Pins on your Pinterest account.

Pinterest is a popular content sharing platform, especially for fashion, household goods, and other lifestyle products. With the Pinterest Shopify app, customers browsing on Pinterest can discover, save, and buy products from your online store. It’s basically free advertising.

Pinterest can be used directly in the Shopify admin panel. You can view Shopify’s marketing attribution reports to show you just how much revenue your Pinterest posts are generating.

Key Features:

• Automatic catalog updates
• Pinterest tag for performance tracking
• Shop tag on Pinterest profile
• Targeting by demographics and interest

Best Used For:

• Building awareness
• Generating traffic

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free to install, you pay for any Pinterest ads you purchase

Available On: Shopify App Store

6. Instafeed

Instafeed creates custom shoppable Instagram feeds to expand your store’s reach.

The connection between Shopify and Instagram goes both ways. You can add your Instagram feed to your Shopify store. This keeps your store content looking updated, grows your Instagram audience, and shows social proof on your Shopify store.

You can also use Instafeed to create shoppable posts in Instagram. This can convert your Instagram audience into Shopify customers.

Instafeed is fully integrated into Shopify’s admin panel, so you can manage your feeds from inside Shopify.

Key Features:

• Compatible with all themes and devices
• Flexible post layouts
• Product tagging on Instagram posts
• Show likes on posts

Best Used For:

• Building brand awareness
• Displaying social proof
• Converting visitors to customers

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available with basic feed features. Paid plans with product tagging, advanced layouts, and more feeds start at $5.99/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

7. Vajro – Mobile App Builder

Mobile App Builder is a free Shopify app (60 days free trial). This app makes it easy to create a fantastic customer experience with a mobile app without coding.

You can drag and drop the pieces you need to build the app you want. There are also 4 pre-built themes you can customize to your heart’s content.

Your app will automatically sync all products with your Shopify store. And it can all be done from within your Shopify admin panel.

Key Features:

• Push notifications
• Live selling on the app and Facebook
• Marketing automations for onboarding, abandoned cart, special deals, and more

Best Used For:

• Creating a custom brand experience
• Driving engagement
• Increasing sales

Customer Review:

Pricing: Starts at $99/month with a 60-day free trial

Available On: Shopify App Store

Best Shopify Apps for Social Proof

Social proof is when shoppers look to the behavior of other customers as an example to follow. When you show social proof like reviews, testimonials, and purchase notifications, you’re basically saying, “These customers bought this and are happy, if you want to be happy like them, you can buy this too!” Here are the best Shopify apps for collecting and displaying social proof:

8. Judge.me

Judge.me is a trending Shopify app for collecting and displaying customer reviews automatically. This social proof app can boost sales by showing real feedback from happy customers.

Judge.me will email customers for reviews, which they can leave directly inside the request email. You can then curate your reviews and display them on your Shopify site, Google Search, Google Shopping, and Facebook.

Key Features:

• Text, photos, and video reviews
• SEO (search engine optimization) rich snippets
• Social sharing of reviews

Best Used For:

• Displaying social proof
• Gathering customer feedback
• Improving SEO

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plan is $15/month and includes advanced features like coupons, product groups, and Google Shopping integration.

Available On: Shopify App Store

9. UpPromote: Affiliate Marketing

UpPromote lets you create an affiliate program for your Shopify store. This can broaden your marketing reach significantly, but you only have to pay when affiliates actually make a sale.

UpPromote provides a registration form and branded affiliate landing page to encourage affiliates to join your program. They then receive an affiliate link or coupon code to promote your shop and products. UpPromote tracks all the completed referrals and makes it easy to pay affiliates through PayPal, store credit, or manually.

Key Features:

• UpPromote Marketplace for finding potential affiliates and influencers
• Reliable order tracking
• Powerful affiliate management
• Individual portals for affiliates to get resources and track their performance

Best Used For:

• Growing brand awareness
• Influencer and affiliate marketing

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans start at $21.99/month with advanced features like store credit affiliate payments and customer signups for affiliate program

Available On: Shopify App Store

10. Referral Candy

Referral Candy is an easy way to set up a referral program that turns your existing customers into brand ambassadors. Word-of-mouth marketing is still incredibly powerful, so harness it for your store!

Customers can earn discounts, store credit, cash, and even custom gifts for sending their friends to your Shopify store.

Referral Candy makes it easy to recruit new referrals with a post-purchase popup, embedded signup form, or widget.

You can also run an affiliate program with Referral Candy.

Key Features:

• Seamless integration with Shopify admin, email marketing tools, and other apps
• Automated customer invitations
• Customizable templates for everything

Best Used For:

• Building customer loyalty
• Growing brand awareness
• Reaching new customers

Customer Review:

Pricing: Plans start at $49/month with a 30-day free trial

Available On: Shopify App Store, WooCommerce Magento, BigCommerce, and other ecommerce platforms

11. Smile: Loyalty & Rewards

Smile: Loyalty & Rewards is the best Shopify app for boosting sales from your existing customer base through points and rewards.

You can create a custom loyalty and rewards program easily with Smile. Customers earn points by joining the program, placing an order, making repeat purchases, leaving reviews, or even donating to a nonprofit. Then you choose how you want to reward them.

Smile can also help you create a referral program, so your most loyal customers can also be rewarded for telling their friends about you.

Key Features:

• Rewards, referral, and VIP program management
• Customizable widge and rewards panel
• On site nudges to encourage customer engagement

Best Used For:

• Growing customer loyalty
• Generating referrals
• Increasing lifetime value (LTV)

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans start at $49/month and include advanced branding, unlimited orders, and more

Available On: Shopify, BigCommerce

Best Shopify Apps to Upsell and Cross-Sell

You’ve done the hard work of persuading a customer to buy. Don’t stop there! It’s often easier to increase the amount of an order than it is to get the sale in the first place. Check out these apps for getting bigger orders.

12. ReConvert Post Purchase Upsell

ReConvert lets you create one-click upsell and other offers that appear on the checkout and thank-you pages.

Customers can add upsell items to their cart with 1 click and proceed straight to checkout. You can also optimize your thank you page with upsells, cross-sells, pop-up discounts, product recommendations, urgency timers, and customer surveys.

ReConvert integrates fully with the Shopify admin panel, so you can create your upsells directly in Shopify.

Key Features:

• Advanced segmentation
• Intuitive editor and offers and thank-you pages
• AI-powered product recommendations and discount distributors

Best Used For:

• Boosting average order value (AOV)
• Recommending products
• Collecting customer feedback

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available with 49 store orders per month, paid plans start at $7.99/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

13. Vitals

Vitals is a true marketing workhorse. This Shopify app lets you import and collect product reviews, create upsell and cross-sell campaigns, provide live customer support chat, reduce abandoned carts, improve SEO, and more.

Best of all, you can do all of this from inside the Shopify admin. Vitals also integrates with popular marketing tools like Facebook Messenger, Klaviyo, and Instagram.

Key Features:

• Over 40 apps in one suite
• Future updates and improvements included in your subscription
• Speedy support team

Best Used For:

• Improving user experience
• Increasing order value
• Showing social proof

Customer Review:

Pricing: $29.99/month with 30-day free trial

Available On: Shopify App Store

14. Frequently Bought Together

Frequently Bought Together brings Amazon-like related product recommendations to your Shopify store.

The AI-powered recommendations are displayed as bundles on the product page, with automatic bundle discounts to further tempt customers.

Frequently Bought Together is directly integrated with the Shopify admin panel.

Key Features:

• Fully customizable user interface
• Multiple recommendation algorithms
• Bundle discount upsells

Best Used For:

• Upselling
• Recommending products

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available for new businesses, paid plan starts at $9.99/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

15. BOGOS.io Free Gift Buy X Get Y

BOGOS.io Free Gifts helps you create a wide variety of gift promotions for your Shopify store.

You can increase order value by offering free gifts with purchase, discounts on cart totals, buy 1 get 1, and more. The free gifts can be added automatically or customers can choose from several offers.

Key Features:

• Many offer types and customization options
• Customizable gift icons
• Prioritized gift offers

Best Used For:

• Increasing average order value
• Building customer loyalty

Customer Review:

Pricing: Plans start at $29.99/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

16. ViralSweep

ViralSweep takes gamification in your Shopify store to the next level. You can use ViralSweep to award contest entries for purchases, and run photo, video, hashtag, and referral contests.

These contests are not only a great way to build engagement and boost orders. You can also collect important contact information and build your list.

Key Features:

• Variety of promotions
• Shareable contests
• 1-click winner selection

Best Used For:

• Building engagement
• Boosting average order value
• List-building

Customer Review:

Pricing: Starts at $49/month with 7-day free trial

Available On: Shopify App Store

Best Shopify Apps for Gift Giving

Another way to increase your sales is to tap into gifting. Perhaps a customer isn’t really interested in your products, but they know someone who would love them. Here are our top picks for gifting apps in Shopify.

17. Rise.ai: Gift Cards & Loyalty

Rise.ai is an easy way to offer gift cards for purchase.

Customers can send branded digital gift cards through email and earn store credit or other rewards for purchasing gift cards. This not only helps you make a sale you otherwise may not have gotten, but introduces your brand to a new customer.

You can also use Gift Cards & Loyalty Program to run loyalty, rewards, and referral programs.

Key Features:

• Advanced gift card experience
• Fully customized loyalty program
• Intuitive store credit solutions

Best Used For:

• Increasing sales
• Building brand awareness
• Improving customer retention

Customer Review:

Pricing: Starts at $19.99/month with 7-day free trial

Available On: Shopify App Store

18. Giftship

Giftship makes it easier for customers to gift your products to their friends and family.

Customers can send items to multiple addresses in a single checkout with gift options for every recipient. You can offer gift messages, gift wrap, delivery dates, and more.

Giftship also makes your life as the store owner easier with its automatic packing slip and invoice printer, as well as their expert customer support.

Best of all, you can use Giftship directly inside the Shopify admin panel.

Key Features:

• Shipping to multiple addresses
• Gift options
• Upselling

Best Used For:

• Increasing order value
• Improving customer experience

Customer Review:

Pricing: Starts at $29.99/month plus optional usage charges, with 7-day free trial available

Available On: Shopify App Store

19. Gift Reggie

Gift Reggie is a gift registry and wishlist app for Shopify. Customers can create their own wish lists and gift registries right on your Shopify site.

Wishlists and registries are a great way to make more sales and build brand awareness, since customers will be sending their lists and registries to lots of other potential customers.

Gift Reggie works within the Shopify admin panel.

Key Features:

• Full white label integration with your store theme
• User-friendly front and back end dashboards
• Automated registry and wishlist updates

Best Used For:

• Increasing sales
• Building brand awareness

Customer Review:

Pricing: Starts at $9/month with 5 active registries

Available On: Shopify App Store

Best Shopify Payment Option Apps

Alternate payment and ordering options are often overlooked as a way to increase sales, but they can work quite well.

20. PreOrder Globo | Back in Stock

Globo PreOrder can increase your sales by offering preorders on new or out of stock products, and showing restock alerts. Customers who might otherwise leave disappointed will instead be able to preorder or get reminders to buy when the product or variant they want is back in stock.

Globo PreOrder works directly in the Shopify admin dashboard and works with the latest themes.

Key Features:

• Manual and scheduled preorder options
• Partial payments and discounts on preorder
• Customizable preorder buttons and email notifications

Best Used For:

• Improving customer experience
• Boosting conversion rates

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available for up to 5 products, paid plan starts at $9.90/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

21. Appstle Subscriptions App

Appstle Subscriptions is a subscription app for Shopify that lets you offer products and services to your customers on a repeating basis.

Recurring orders are a great way to boost your revenue, and Appstle makes it easy to offer subscriptions to your customers.

You can manage your Appstle subscription orders from within your Shopify admin panel.

Key Features:

• Unified shopping cart for one-time and subscription purchases
• Tiered discounts on subscriptions
• Self-managed customer portal

Best Used For:

• Increasing lifetime value
• Building customer loyalty

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available for up to $500 in monthly subscription sales, paid plans start at $10/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

22. Shopacado Volume Discounts

Shopacado Volume Discounts makes it incredibly easy to offer tiered pricing and volume-based discounts. Customers are encouraged to purchase more items and buy in bulk.

You can also offer member-only pricing and nudge visitors to sign up for your membership program.

Key Features:

• Custom pricing and discounts
• Discount notification bar
• Easy-to-use dashboard

Best Used For:

• Increasing order value
• Nurturing customer loyalty

Customer Review:

Pricing: Starts at $7.99/month with a 7-day free trial

Available On: Shopify App Store

Best Shopify Apps for Email Marketing & SMS

Once the sale has been made, your customer relationship is just beginning. With the right strategy and tools, you can convert a new buyer into a loyal repeat customer and brand advocate. Here are our favorite marketing tools for nurturing customer relationships after the sale.

23. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) combines email and SMS marketing to reach your Shopify customers with onboarding material, new products, and other marketing content.

With Brevo, it’s easy to create beautiful and effective emails and send them to your Shopify customer lists. You can also manage your text messaging directly from your Shopify back office.

Key Features:

• Automatic sync with Shopify contact and purchase data
• Best deliverability rates for Shopify marketing and transactional emails
• Powerful and intuitive email builder

Best Used For:

• Providing customer service
• Growing customer relationships

Customer Review:

Pricing: Brevo has a free plan for up to 300 emails per day, paid Brevo plans start at $25/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

24. Constant Contact

Constant Contact provides the email and ecommerce tools you need to drive more sales. You can connect your Shopify store to Constant Contact in seconds. Then you can segment your contacts and send targeted offers, abandoned cart emails, and coupons.

Constant Contact integrates with Zapier, Salesforce, Canva, and over 3,700 other online marketing solutions.

Key Features:

• Hundreds of design templates
• Marketing automation
• Advanced email reporting metrics

Best Used For:

• Growing customer relationships
• Increasing lifetime value

Customer Review:

Pricing: Paid plans start at $9.99/month with a 60-day free trial

Available On: Shopify App Store

25. OmniSend

OmniSend is an all-in-one ecommerce marketing solution that includes email and SMS marketing, gamified popups, push notifications, and more.

You can create shoppable emails quickly with the drag-and-drop content editor and prebuilt templates and workflows.

Key Features:

• Pre-built workflows
• Robust segmentation
• Fully customizable opt-ins

Best Used For:

• List building
• Improving customer relationships

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan for up to 250 contacts, paid plans start at $16/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

26. Klaviyo

Klaviyo is an incredibly popular email marketing and SMS platform for ecommerce.

You can sync all your Shopify data and drill deep into customer segmentation. Klaviyo has dozens of built-in, fully customizable automation for welcome emails, price drops, browser abandonment, and more.

Key Features:

• One-click Shopify integration
• Powerful segmentation and personalization
• Benchmarks to compare to other businesses similar to yours

Best Used For:

• Analyzing customer data
• Growing customer relationships

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan for up to 250 contacts, paid plans start at $20/month

Available On: Shopify App Store

27. Yotpo Email Marketing SMS

Yotpo Email Marketing SMS is an SMS and email marketing automation app that syncs seamlessly with Shopify. You can create hyper-personalized text and email campaigns for each customer using real products from your store.

Key Features:

• Targeted text campaigns
• SMS automation builder
• Accelerated mobile checkout

Best Used For:

• List building
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Increasing revenue

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free to install, and you pay for messaging rates, paid plans with advanced features start at $19/month

Best Shopify Apps for Dropshipping

Shopify Apps for Dropshipping are specialized tools that automate and optimize the dropshipping process on Shopify. They handle tasks like product sourcing, order fulfillment, and inventory management, allowing businesses to focus on growth and customer satisfaction.

28. DSers AliExpress Dropshipping

DSers is one of the best Shopify apps for dropshipping. DSers lets you source products for your Shopify store without handling inventory or fulfillment on your own.

Key Features:

• Automatic order and package tracking
• Bulk orders
• Multiple Shopify store management

Best Used For:

• Sourcing products
• Managing inventory and fulfillment
• Dropshipping

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan for up to 3,000 products, paid plans start at $19.90/month, including more products and advanced product mapping

29. Printful

Streamline your product creation process with Printful, an exceptional print-on-demand app. This platform empowers you to curate an array of items, from trendy t-shirts and cozy hoodies to stylish accessories and homeware. Say goodbye to inventory concerns and shipping logistics—Printful takes care of it all. Your primary focus? Unleash your creativity in crafting designs and effortlessly showcase your products on your online store.

Key Features:

• An expansive selection of over 300 products, catering to your Shopify store’s unique needs
• Seamlessly managed order fulfillment, encompassing inventory control and efficient shipping solutions
• Integrated tools for crafting captivating and customizable product designs

Best Used For:

• Leveraging global warehouses across five continents for streamlined dropshipping
• Swiftly expanding your product lineup with top-quality apparel, accessories, and more, seamlessly integrating them into your store.

Customer Review:

Pricing: Free plan available with 20% off and free shipping on samples; paid plans start from $9/month.

Available On: Shopify App Store, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and all other ecommerce platforms

There you have it! These are the best Shopify apps for improving your sales at any stage.

How To Choose the Right Shopify App for Your Store?

Here are some essential points to guide you in selecting the right Shopify app for your store:

• Identify your specific business needs and goals
• Read reviews and ratings from other users
• Check compatibility and integration with your current setup
• Consider pricing and ROI
• Utilize free trial periods for testing
• Look for regular updates and reliable customer support
• Prioritize security and data privacy
• Seek recommendations from fellow entrepreneurs
• Review app customization options
• Check app support documentation for ease of use

By following these guidelines, you can find the perfect app to enhance your Shopify store’s performance and streamline your ecommerce operations.

Summary – Best Shopify Apps for Ecommerce

Below is the list of the best Shopify apps you must have:

1. OptinMonster
2. PushEngage
3. Octane AI: Quiz Growth Tools
4. LiveChat
5. Pinterest
6. Instafeed
7. Mobile App Builder – Vajro
8. Judge.Me
9. UpPromote: Affiliate Marketing
10. Referral Candy
11. Smile: Loyalty & Rewards
12. ReConvert Upsell & Cross-Sell
13. Vitals All-in-One Marketing
14. Frequently Bought Together
15. Free Gifts BOGO
16. ViralSweep
17. Gift Cards & Loyalty Program
18. Giftship
19. Gift Reggie
20. PreOrder Globo & Back in Stock
21. Appstle Subscriptions & Loyalty
22. Volume & Discounted Pricing
23. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
24. Constant Contact
25. OmniSend
26. Klaviyo
27. SMSBump
28. DSers Dropshipping
29. Printful

OptinMonster: The Ultimate Shopify Solution for Exponential Sales Growth

While there are numerous Shopify apps available to help boost sales, one stands out from the rest: OptinMonster.

As highlighted in the article, OptinMonster is not just another app; it’s a comprehensive solution designed to grow your email lists, boost sales, and recover potential customers.

With its user-friendly drag-and-drop campaign builder, varied campaign types, and precise targeting rules, OptinMonster offers unparalleled customization and efficiency.

Whether you’re looking to recommend products, retain customers on your site, or increase conversion rates, OptinMonster has got you covered.

So, if you’re serious about taking your Shopify store to the next level, it’s time to invest in the best.

Shopify Apps FAQ

1. What is the best dropshipping app for Shopify?

The best dropshipping app for Shopify depends on your specific needs, but some popular option is DSers Dropshipping.

2. What are the best apps for Shopify?

The best apps for Shopify vary based on your store’s requirements. However, some widely recommended apps include OptinMonster for sales and conversions and TrustPulse for social proof.

3. What is the best email marketing app for Shopify?

Brevo and Omnisend are two of Shopify’s most popular and highly-rated email marketing apps. They provide powerful automation and segmentation features to boost your email marketing efforts.

4. What is the best review app for Shopify?

The best review app for Shopify is Judge.me. This apps help you collect and display customer reviews, enhancing trust and conversion rates.

5. What apps should I use on my Shopify store?

The apps you should use depend on your business needs. Commonly used apps include those for inventory management, SEO optimization, customer support, marketing, and social media integration.

6. How many Shopify apps should I have?

While there is no fixed number, it’s generally best to keep the number of apps to a minimum, usually 3 to 5. Focus on quality rather than quantity, as too many apps can slow down your store and cause compatibility issues.

7. Are Shopify apps worth it?

Yes, Shopify apps can be worth it if they fulfill specific needs and help improve your store’s performance. However, it’s essential to choose apps wisely and evaluate their impact on your business.

8. Is Shopify still a good platform?

Yes, Shopify remains a popular and reliable e-commerce platform. Its user-friendly interface, extensive app ecosystem, and excellent customer support make it a preferred choice for many businesses.

Read More About Shopify Apps

• Best Shopify Popup Apps To Boost Sales: Comparison
• Shopify Email Apps: Best Email Marketing Apps For Shopify
• Best Upsell Apps for Shopify to Maximize Revenue
• Best Newsletter Apps for Shopify to Grow Subscribers

By including social proof in your digital marketing, you can convince more of your leads to make a purchase. How? By showing them how much their peers love your products.

That’s why all the big brands use social proof on their sites, on their social media, and in their email marketing.

Whether you’re a beginner or an old pro at social proof marketing, we’re here to help with this ultimate guide.

Our team at OptinMonster has spent over a decade helping businesses convert their website traffic into revenue. We know all the best ways to optimize your site to land more sales. That’s why we use social proof throughout our own website:

And is our social proof strategy successful? With over 1.2 million websites using our lead generation software, the answer is definitely yes.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about using social proof in your marketing strategy. We’ll also share social proof examples and tips to help you improve your conversion rates and grow your business.

• What Is Social Proof?
• 6 Types of Social Proof
• 4 Data-Backed Benefits of Social Proof in Marketing
• 16 Social Proof Examples (With Tips)
  • 1. Show Real-Time Purchases With TrustPulse
  • 2. Add Testimonials and Numbers to Your Homepage Like FreshBooks
  • 3. Create a Testimonial Page Like OptinMonster
  • 4. Encourage On-Site Reviews Like Etsy
  • 5. Create an Official Facebook Group Like ROKR
  • 6. Pair Large Numbers With a Discount Like WPForms
  • 7. Highlight Subscriber Count Like OptinMonster
  • 8. Show Fast-Selling Products Like Maurices
  • 9. Get Celebrity Endorsements Like Betty Crocker
  • 10. Host Social Media Takeovers Like the City of Calgary
  • 11. Host Industry Experts Like Chalene Johnson
  • 12. Invest in Case Studies Like OptinMonster
  • 13. Display Awards Badges & 3rd-Party Reviews Like MemberPress
  • 14. Showcase Customer Photos Like ModCloth
  • 15. Create a Referral Program Like Instacart
  • 16. Add Social Proof to Popups with OptinMonster

What is Social Proof?

Social proof is a psychological concept where people are influenced by the actions of others. It’s the idea that if many people are doing something, it must be correct or desirable.

The term was first used by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book ‘Influence: Science and Practice.’ Social proof is why we listen to recommendations, and trust what others say in reviews.

If that definition sounds like peer pressure, you’re not too off-base. However, social proof isn’t a type of bullying like peer pressure can be. In fact, it isn’t a bad thing at all. Instead, social proof simply states that humans, and thereby consumers, actively look to others when gathering evidence for a decision.

For marketers, that means it’s not enough to tell shoppers why you think your product is great. You must show shoppers that your existing customers think your product is great.

Consumers want proof from their peers and from unbiased 3rd parties, not from the brands selling the products.

What is an example of social proof?

Let’s say you’re planning a special dinner with a friend, and you’ve narrowed your choices down to 3 restaurants in a nearby city. You scan through the menus for each restaurant, but to make your final decision, you’ll probably depend on one thing: online reviews.

You check out comments on each restaurant’s social media pages, as well as 3rd party review sites like Yelp and Google.  As you do so, you’ll examine several factors:

• The overall star rating: Does one restaurant have a 4.7 rating, while the others are closer to 3.5?
• The number of star ratings: A high rating average may not mean much if there are only 8 reviews. Fewer reviews may also indicate that the restaurant isn’t very popular.
• The specifics of the reviews: Do the reviews consistently say that the service is terrible? Do multiple reviewers say it’s the best Italian food they’ve ever had?

Every time you look to others to make a purchasing decision, you demonstrate the power of social proof.

Similarly, your own website visitors want to feel confident that they won’t regret spending money on your product. Marketers use social proof as a tactic for conversion rate optimization by easing the minds of worried customers.

6 Types of Social Proof

Now that we’ve covered the meaning of social proof, let’s look at the categories that are useful in digital marketing. These are the 6 different types of social proof:

1. Customers: Social proof from your existing customers or users. These include customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies.
2. Experts: Social proof from credible and esteemed experts in your industry, especially experts your target audience sees as aspirational.
3. Celebrities: Social proof from celebrities or other influencers who have used your product.
4. Crowds: Social proof from citing a large number of people. This includes highlighting your number of customers or how many 5-star reviews you’ve received.
5. Friends: Social proof from friends of your potential customers, such as users seeing that 50 of their Facebook friends follow your business page.
6. Certifications & Awards: Social proof from credible, 3rd party entities that certify that you are knowledgeable, high-quality, or trustworthy. A “USDA Certified Organic” badge is one example.

Data-Backed Benefits of Social Proof in Marketing

Next, we’ll tackle the question of why social proof is vital to your marketing strategy. To explain some of the benefits of social proof, we’ll look at some statistics from recent studies on social proof and customer behavior. This data will illustrate just how well social proof works.

1. Social Proof Improves Shopper Confidence

In Bazaarvoice’s 2023 report on Shopper Experience, they take a close look at the impact of user-generated content (UGC), such as reviews, ratings, photos, Q&As, and social media posts. In other words, they look at how social proof affects consumers.

Their finding? 78% of shoppers report feeling more confident in a purchasing decision when they see UGC.

2. Shoppers Care More About Social Proof than Branded Content

Bazaarvoice’s study also shows an imbalance between the priorities of shoppers and the priorities of brands. 75% of brands spend most of their content marketing budget on branded content. However, 67% of shoppers rely more on UGC when making purchasing decisions.

You can see all of Bazaarvoice’s findings by signing up for the Bazaarvoice Shopper Experience Index Vol. 17.

3. Local Businesses Need Social Proof, Too

According to BrightLocal’s 2023 Local Consumer Review Survey, 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses.

Plus, 76% reported reading online reviews regularly, and 21% said they read them daily.

4. Social Proof Directly Leads to More Sales

And finally, the most important benefit of social proof is that it helps you win more sales and make more revenue. Here are some stats:

• Websites with customer reviews see a 67% higher eCommerce conversion rate than websites where customers don’t see reviews. – Trustmary’s customer review tests
• 83% of Americans say a recommendation from a friend or family member makes them more likely to purchase a product or service. – Convince & Convert’s Word of Mouth Report
• 77% of people who watch a testimonial video say it helped convince them to buy the product or service – Wyzowl’s Testimonial Statistics Report

These are just a few of the social proof statistics that show how important it is to make social proof a priority in your marketing strategy.

16 Social Proof Examples to Increase Conversions

The question isn’t whether or not social proof will help you increase conversions, but rather which social proof strategies should you use. Here are some real-life examples of social proof. Each example is paired with a tip for how you can use social proof in your own marketing efforts.

1. Show Real-Time Purchases With TrustPulse

Type of Social Proof: Customers

When you display real-time stats, you can show website visitors that other people are choosing your product right now. Not only is this a great example of social proof, but it adds the fear of missing out (FOMO) into the mix as well.

A great tool to easily implement this is TrustPulse. This software lets you display your most recent site activity in a small but attention-grabbing popup.

You can show purchases, registrations, signups, or anything you want. You can even set up “on fire” notifications if something in your store is blowing up in popularity. These are great for leveraging FOMO on landing pages and checkouts.

Plus, TrustPulse takes less than 5 minutes to set up, from initial signup to running live on your site.

Just click here to get started with TrustPulse.

2. Add Testimonials and Numbers to Your Homepage Like FreshBooks

Type of Social Proof: Customers and Crowds

One of the most commonly used forms of social proof is the customer testimonial. Testimonials are a lot like positive reviews, but they are used a bit differently.

Testimonials are quotes that explain the benefits of your product, and they’re usually displayed along with a name and photo. For B2B companies, the person’s title and company are also listed.

FreshBooks is a popular invoicing and accounting software for small businesses. They use testimonials right on their homepage to highlight why business owners love their product. By doing this, they make sure their testimonials connect wth their target audience: business owners who want to simplify their accounting. They also use the power of large crowds, by stating that 30+ million people have used FreshBooks.

3. Create a Testimonial Page Like OptinMonster

Type of Social Proof: Customers

In addition to displaying testimonials throughout our own website, we also have a dedicated OptinMonster testimonials page where we list quotes from some of our best reviews.

Customer reviews and testimonials can be displayed in a number of different formats as long as they highlight the value of your product through the voices of satisfied customers. In fact, according to one case study, WikiJobs used testimonials to increase sales page conversion by 34%.

4. Encourage On-Site Reviews Like Etsy

Type of Social Proof: Customers and Crowds

If you’ve ever purchased from the online marketplace Etsy, you’ve probably gotten an email that looks like this:

If you want to get more reviews and ratings on your site, just ask! Below the “Review this item” button, Etsy’s email says, “Leaving a review helps Jo with their shop, and also others shopping on Etsy.” 

This is a clever tactic on Etsy’s part. Etsy benefits from getting more reviews, but they focus on the benefits to the seller and other shoppers.

As the reviews pile up, shoppers will be swayed both by the quality and number of customer reviews.

Pro-tip: Don’t be afraid to offer incentives in exchange for a review, especially if you’re a local business. This is becoming a more common tactic, with 26% of local consumers reporting that they were offered a discount in exchange for a review in 2022.

5. Create an Official Facebook Group Like ROKR

Type of Social Proof: Customers and Crowds

ROKR is an online retailer that sells detailed wooden 3D puzzles. Their Facebook page runs a private group called ROKR® Official Fans Group.

I joined this group because I had purchased one of their puzzles and wanted to find advice on how to complete a few tricky parts. It was clear that many other new members joined for the same reason, and established members were happy to help.

However, something else happens when you join this group:

You see thousands of fans posting their own puzzle projects and displays.

These posts show up in your Facebook newsfeed, so you regularly see how much others are enjoying the puzzles they’ve bought and assembled. This results in massive free marketing for ROKR, as people who join because of a single purchase see a thriving community of over 22,000 members. And those members advertise ROKR’s products every time they post a finished puzzle. This strategy can easily turn new customers into brand loyalists.

ROKR occasionally posts in the group with special announcements, but the group’s primary focus is community building and social proof.

6. Pair Large Numbers With a Discount Like WPForms

Type of Social Proof: Crowds

WPForms, a form-building plugin for WordPress, uses a floating bar from OptinMonster to promote a special Valentine’s Day sale.

But in addition to the coupon button and countdown timer, WPForm also includes some compelling social proof:

• “Trusted by 6M+ websites”
• “12,500+ 5-star reviews”

By including these numbers, WPForms makes a strong case for the value of their special offer.

7. Highlight Subscriber Count Like OptinMonster

Type of Social Proof: Crowds

Here at OptinMonster, we have an email newsletter that provides tips on optimizing your website to get more conversions.

We have optin campaigns sprinkled throughout our site, asking visitors to sign up for that newsletter:

Notice that the main heading for this signup form isn’t “Join our list” or “Sign up today.” Instead, it’s “Join Over 235,335.” We lead with the social proof of the size of our subscriber list.

8. Show Fast-Selling Products Like Maurices

Type of Social Proof: Crowds

The clothing store Maurices adds a “Going Fast” notification on pages for products that are selling quickly.

This strategy is usually thought of as a scarcity tactic. And it does indeed create a sense of urgency for shoppers, who realize they need to buy before the product is sold out.

However, phrases like “Going Fast” and “Almost Sold Out” also leverage social proof.

In this case, it sends the message, “You’re right to like this blouse because other people like it, too. Go ahead and buy it while you can!”

9. Get Celebrity Endorsements Like Betty Crocker

Type of Social Proof: Celebrities

In the age of social media, influencer marketing is more important than ever. In this social proof example, Betty Crocker partnered with actress Alyson Hannigan to promote their products at Walmart.

Hannigan’s 2 million+ Instagram followers don’t just follow her for updates on her acting career. She also posts about her family and her home life as a mom. So this partnership is both a celebrity endorsement and an example of influencer marketing. Hannigan’s followers will see this photo and be tempted to buy the ingredients for this tasty dessert themselves.

10. Host Social Media Takeovers Like the City of Calgary

Type of Social Proof: Experts

Social media takeovers are a great way to expand your influence to an audience that may be interested in what you have to offer but aren’t necessarily familiar with your brand. In a social media takeover, an influencer or expert will literally take over the posting on your social networks for a certain amount of time.

The city of Calgary had a social media takeover of their Instagram platform. Residents and city ambassadors would take over the city’s Instagram for a week to show off all the cool things the city has to offer.

This strategy was a clever way to use social proof. People who research the city for a potential visit or move will see these takeover posts from experts. In this case, the experts are people who already live in the city and can show just how great it is.

Takeovers are usually an easy sell because they also benefit the influencer or expert, since they get to reach a new audience, too.

11. Host Industry Experts Like Chalene Johnson

Type of Social Proof: Experts

Inviting expert guests to contribute to your social media platforms or blog is a great way to use social proof. If experts believe in your brand enough to contribute, then customers are more likely to trust you, too. Wellness coach Chalene Johnson is always doing this in Instagram Stories and on Snapchat:

Your followers, and others who stumble upon these guest posts, tend to attribute the expert’s authority to your brand. After all, it’s your platform that’s being used to share the message. Plus, followers will look to you as a source of this knowledge in the future, even though you’re acting just as a distributor. Over time, expert social proof helps you build trust with your followers and potential customers.

12. Invest in Case Studies Like OptinMonster

Type of Social Proof: Customers

In a case study, you present the success story of one of your customers or clients. A good case study should include the following:

• Specific data on how your product or service helped your customer succeed
• A compelling cause-and-effect narrative
• Customer quotes that explain why your product was a game-changer

At OptinMonster, we have a dedicated Case Studies section on our blog, where you can easily browse our customer success stories.

For instance, we did a case study with the American Bird Conservancy. At the top of the case study page, we highlight the most important statistics from the study:

Throughout the article, we introduce the nonprofit’s mission and goals and show examples of the OptinMonster popups they used to generate more leads.

The case study concludes with a summary of the results and a testimonial quote from the American Bird Conservancy’s Director of Digital Communications.

13. Display Awards Badges & 3rd-Party Reviews Like MemberPress

Type of Social Proof: Certifications & Awards

Does your business have industry certifications or accreditations? Have you won awards? If so, you want customers to know about them! Most certifying organizations have badges or logos that can be freely displayed on your website.

MemberPress, a WordPress membership plugin, displays badges for their G2 awards in the footer of their site.

But the award badges aren’t the only social proof in this footer. MemberPress also shows their plugin’s average rating on several 3rd party review sites.

14. Showcase Customer Photos Like ModCloth

Type of Social Proof: Customers and Friends

People love to be featured, so why not feature your happy customers as social proof? With a customer photo showcase, you can show off your customers’ styles or creations that have resulted from your products.

For example, Modcloth has a style gallery where they allow customers to post photos of themselves wearing the products. They encourage customers to use a specific Instagram hashtag to be included in their gallery. Not only does this give ModCloth social proof for their site, but their customers’ friends will also see these posts on Instagram.

This is even more powerful than hiring professional models because shoppers can see how their clothes look on real customers. And the customers are advertising your products to their friends with every post they make.

To show off your customers’ photos on your website, you can use a Smash Balloon

With Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feed Pro, you can easily create an Instagram hashtag feed and embed it anywhere on your WordPress site.

Here’s an example of an Instagram hashtag feed:

Smash Balloon also offers feed plugins for X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and customer reviews. Now you can keep your site automatically updated with user-generated content as well as your own social feeds and latest customer reviews.

Get started with Smash Balloon today!

15. Create a Referral Program Like Instacart

Recommendations from friends and family are some of the most powerful forms of social proof. That’s why it’s a great idea to incentivize those recommendations by creating a referral program.

Instacart uses a popular referral strategy by offering 2 incentives:

1. The customer’s friend gets a discount on their first order.
2. The existing customer gets an account credit when the friend makes their first order.

This type of referral program uses social proof to attract new customers, and it also encourages brand loyalty within your existing customer base.

16. Add Social Proof to Popups with OptinMonster

So far, we’ve covered a wide variety of social proof examples: everything from encouraging product reviews to getting celebrity endorsements to creating case studies.

But once you have all this great social proof ready, how do you make sure your target audience sees it?

One excellent way is to put that social proof in a popup on your website!

That’s where OptinMonster comes in!

With our 100+ pre-made templates and easy drag-and-drop builder, you can have a social proof campaign up and running on your site in mere minutes.

Here’s an example of an OptinMonster popup we use on our own site:

Notice that below the call-to-action button, we highlight one of our customer testimonials. This quote, along with many others, is presented throughout our site. But by including it in this popup, we’re able to draw more attention to it, right as we’re asking our website visitors to get started with our software.

With OptinMonster, you can create lightbox popups, fullscreen mats, floating bars, inline forms, and more. 

Practically any of the social proof examples in this list can be added to these on-site marketing campaigns to make them more compelling for your users.

Plus, OptinMonster’s robust targeting and triggering display rules let you show your campaigns to the right people at the right time. Here are just a few examples:

• Exit-intent® Technology: Show your message to visitors as they’re about to leave your site. Add your best social proof and an enticing offer, so you can get their email address or land a sale before they go.
• Page-Level Targeting: Tailor your popups and social proof for specific product pages or blog posts.
• Referrer Detection: Create campaigns based on how the visitor got to your site, such as by clicking a Facebook ad.
• Time on Site: Show your social proof to your most engaged users, by setting them to display after visitors have spent a certain amount of time on your site.

Are you ready to convert more website visitors with social proof? Give OptinMonster a try!

More Social Proof Resources:

• Social Proof Statistics: Powerful Facts That Will Help You Boost Your Brand
• 18 Best Social Proof Software Tools to Boost Sales
• 9 Ways to Get More Product Reviews and Increase Social Proof
• 10 Creative Examples of Testimonials to Win CustomersHow to Ask for a Testimonial: 7+ Tips to Get Glowing Customer Quotes