Today's tiny task: try to subscribe to your own email list

Email marketing is consistently near the top of the list for driving purchases on Shopify stores but it's also a strategy that gets way less attention and resources than other flashy options.

Today's tiny tip is to help make your email marketing a tiny bit better.

1. Open a browser you don't use regularly. Use Firefox if you're a Chrome user, or Chrome if you're a Safari user. Or use a browser from your phone.
2. Visit your store's homepage.
3. Slow down and take a minute to look at your page and find how a customer would opt-in to your email list. Notice where your eye is drawn and what steals your attention.
4. Sign up using a new email address. (tip: you can create them automatically in gmail by adding +something to the first part. e.g. help+testing-email@example.com)
5. Read the first email you send and consider how a brand new customer would perceive getting this email from a stranger.

This process shouldn't take more than five minutes but if you actually do it, you might surprise yourself with how many improvements you spot.

Maybe your store loads too slowly for a new visitor or you can't find the opt-in at all (#3).

Maybe your opt-in form is broken or hostile at accepting email addresses. Or there are multiple pop-ups, spinners, bars, and billboards making it confusing which one you should use (#4).

Maybe your system never sends a welcome email or its content is several years outdated and the links don't work (#5).

Or perhaps everything worked well. At least now you know you're ready for the holiday season and don't have to worry about losing potential email subscribers.

Tiny tests like these are great for making incremental improvements. Especially after a redesign or other significant change to your store.

Another incremental improvement is setting up your store's structured data for Google's Rich Results.

Most Shopify themes don't quality for Rich Results so they lose out on highly visible SEO enhancements.

JSON-LD for SEO provides high-quality data that will let your store qualify for Rich Results. Often times faster than the industry averages.

Eric Davis