This post contains affiliate links for which I receive commissions. The reviews and opinions expressed in this article are my own.
As a marketer, email is one of my most used mediums to drive conversions. They are relatively cheap and can reach thousands of users all at once.
Your subscriber list is your golden goose, your primary source of sales. That is why you have to take care of your existing audience so they won’t leave.
But what about growing them? If your subscriber base stays stagnant, then you won’t generate more sales than the last time.
About 7 out of 10 Gen Z’ers receive 20 or fewer emails per day, and due to that, your emails garner much more attention than the normal. Do not discount the power of emails as a marketing tool.
This is where OptinMonster comes in as an industry leader in opt-in and converting. Here is my review of this fantastic lead-generation tool.
What is OptinMonster?
OptinMonster prides itself as the “most powerful conversion optimization toolkit in the world.” And many users consider the tool just like that: a class-leading generation and conversion software in today’s market.
OptinMonster is an all-in-one cloud-based lead generation and list-building software launched in 2013. The tool allows you to build lead capture forms and pages without the need to hire a designer and developer.
OptinMonster supports the most popular types and configurations of opt-in forms.
Designed for marketers, marketing agencies, eCommerce store owners, and many small businesses, OptinMonster makes lead generation easier. Generate more website conversions, grow your email listing, and reduce, or even rid of cart abandonment through the numerous conversion techniques the tool employs.
This software readily works out of the box with the most popular websites and eCommerce platforms. Furthermore, they have more integrations with email marketing programs and services compared to their competitors.
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Why Do You Need OptinMonster?
Email marketing is one of the most cost-efficient ways to build an audience and reach customers. Of course, spamming your users with unsolicited emails is probably not a wise option.
That is a reason why websites are asking whether or not they can interact with you through your email address. This process allows you to “opt-in” to their newsletters and subscriptions and removes the complications related to spamming.
The catch is this: basic email sign up forms rarely do the trick. It doesn’t really work on its own, and more often than not, users ignore these kinds of forms.
Without a lead-generation plugin or software, you will have difficulty getting recurring visitors. A cleverly-implemented and integrated one, however, can help you convert the visitors into subscribers or paying customers with relative ease.
Cultivate An Email List
OptinMonster helps you grow and cultivate your list of email subscribers through its attention-grabbing opt-in forms to convert visitors.
Its behavior detection feature allows you to show the right thing at the right time to users. A targeted campaign is achieving conversions because this makes the user more receptive to subscribing to an email list.
More Pageviews
The same targeted campaign and behavior detection rules, combined with the Yes/No feature, can help increase your page views. These features enable the redirection of your engaged users to your most visited and popular pages.
Lower Cart Abandonment Rates
Abandoned carts are one of the most significant problems an eCommerce store owner has to face. And OptinMonster can help those owners with this problem.
The tool’s exit-intent feature and technology display a targeted campaign to your existing visitors and motivates them to convert some more items before finally leaving.
Onsite Retargeting Efforts
Traditional retargeting involves showing customized ads to the visitors that left your site, with the aim of getting them to return.
OptinMonster allows you to perform onsite retargeting efforts with your customers through personalized exit pop-ups. This is triggered at the precise moment your visitors will leave.
OptinMonster Features
No review is complete without outlining the tool’s most significant features. Here are some of the essential functions of the software.
Ease Of Use
OptinMonster’s interface is one of the easiest I have tried. Other plugins and software force you to click around many browser tabs and screens to do what you want.
OptinMonster puts all its functionality into one browser window, which you can navigate with the in-window tabs. It is pretty straightforward, does not look and feel cluttered, and best of all, there is never any sacrifice on the functionality; everything works and works well.
Wide Variety Of Opt-In Forms
Now, unless you are a web designer, there is a good chance that you don’t know how to make appealing opt-in forms. Templates are welcome in this situation, and OptinMonster has them in spades.
OptinMonster will show you starter templates that you can serve as a base to your form, and you can work your way up from there.
OptinMonster has a great selection of form types designed to boost email subscriptions and signups. Form types and designs include:
- Slide-in forms
- Lightbox popups
- Mobile popups
- Floating bar opt-in forms
- Below the content opt-ins
- Sidebar forms
- And many more.
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All these forms can be customized however you like with OptinMonster’s builder. Use your very own fonts, images, text, and colors for every opt-in form you make.
Conversion-centered Features
OptinMonster focuses on opt-in forms that actually convert. To augment this function, they have multiple sets of features in place.
- The exit-intent technology triggers when a user is about to leave your site. When a visitor clicks the ‘exit’ button, a window is shown displaying the opt-in form.
- Page-level targeting allows you to create different opt-in forms based on the page a visitor is currently browsing.
- The scroll based-trigger feature displays a pop-up or the opt-in form when the user has scrolled at specified points of the page or down to the bottom.
- Time-based triggers will show a pop-up of an offer when the tool deems it the perfect time to display it to a customer.
- Geo-location targeting are campaigns based on the geographical location of a visitor.
- MonsterLinks Two-Step Opt-ins will allow you to display a pop-up opt-in form when a user clicks on a link or image.
- OptinMonster also has fullscreen welcome gates feature to grab a user’s attention quickly. You can show a full-screen call to action or an interstitial without redirecting your users to another page.
Doing it this way puts your site at less risk of getting punished or fined for using doorway pages, which Google is cracking down on.
Detailed Targeting Choices
One function where OptinMonster starts to separate itself from the rest of available opt-in tools is in its targeting and triggering features. It can be as broad or as narrow as you like.
You, as a page owner, will have access to detailed and in-depth features centered around targeting a consumer, either through cookies, exit intent, or geo-location.
You can customize them further and set up specific rules for each campaign. You can even do A/B testing for the different display rules so that you can see what combination drives the most conversions.
The built-in analytics shows the results of your strategy and lets you analyze how well it is doing.
MonsterEffects
Optinmonster has a set of visual cues and effects collectively termed as MonsterEffects. They make your opt-in forms look better and more engaging.
These are CSS effects which you can add to your forms to catch the eyes of your visitors. They can lead to your forms being instantly noticed by the users. Also, these make the pop-ups more lively and may help improve the user experience.
Great For Multiple Websites
Keep in mind that OptinMonster is a cloud-based software. This will not apply to everyone, but on the chance that you are running multiple websites, OptinMonster allows you to view and manage all of your opt-ins from a single window and through the same interface.
This takes a great weight off of multiple-website owners.
OptinMonster Compared Against The Competition
In my opinion, OptinMonster is the software for generating leads and conversions. But just what makes it better than its competitors?
Perfect For All Businesses
It doesn’t matter whether you are a publisher, an eCommerce store, a B2B operator, or any other business owner or marketer. OptinMonster has the features you would expect for a decent lead generation software, and more.
Packed With Features
OptinMonster is packed to the brim with fresh and useful features for lead generation. These include:
- An Intuitive builder
- Smart campaign triggers, more than other lead generation software
- Opt-in forms and campaign types
- Behavior detection
- Targeted campaigns
- Quick and seamless integration with different email marketing services
- A/B testing and results
- Detailed stats on your lead generation campaigns
This shows that OptinMonster is not merely an opt-in form builder, but also a conversion analysis tool.
Ease of Use
An absolute beginner can do just fine with OptinMonster. Pointing and clicking will be perfectly fine for creating those gorgeous opt-in forms; no coding skills necessary.
A clean interface, pre-created templates, and easy integration with most email marketing solutions are added benefits.
Great Performance
OptinMonster is a cloud-based service, and since it is hosted, it does not consume resources of the server. Your site will not be slowed down by this opt-in form and pop-up management software.
Now, those are the things that it does well in a vacuum. When compared to other lead-generation tools, how does OptinMonster stack up?
OptinMonster vs LeadPages
LeadPages, as a whole, cannot be really compared to OptinMonster. LeadPages is more of a landing page creation platform.
But they both offer ways to create opt-in forms, and that is where I will compare them.
OptinMonster blows LeadPages out of the water when it comes to built-in templates. The former has a lot more choices of available templates.
LeadPages has its drag-and-drop editor. But with OptinMonster, you can customize the design with CSS.
Both give you two-step opt-ins, targeted and timed pop-ups, and exit intent capability, but OptinMonster gives you more control on what page the pop-ups appear.
However, I feel the OptinMonster is harder to set up than LeadPages. In my opinion, if LeadPages is already up and running, and is deeply integrated with your site, then stick with it.
If you are looking for a dedicated lead catching service, then OptinMonster is the better choice.
OptinMonster vs ThriveLeads
ThriveLeads supports primarily the same opt-in form types as OptinMonster and has quite more templates available as well. The quality looks the same, but I feel while ThriveLeads has more flat and reserved styles, OptinMonster has bright designs.
ThriveLeads has OptinMonster beat when it comes to customization. The former’s drag-and-drop editor lets you put elements anywhere you want them for a more customized arrangement.
The testing and reporting of the two are comparable enough, but ThriveLeads has an “automatic winner” function, while OptinMonster has not.
One thing OptinMonster has going for them, though, is the interface. If you are a beginner and you are both looking at the OptinMonster and ThriveLeads interface, surely you would choose the former for its simplicity and straightforwardness.
OptinMonster vs. Sumo
These two are relatively the same when it comes to the things they offer, but OptinMonster has more bang for your buck.
Sumo is a great choice when you are starting because, unlike OptinMonster, it has a free pricing tier. When you reach 200 subscribers, however, you will have to shell out more money with Sumo.
OptinMonster Pricing
OptinMonster has several pricing tiers, all billed annually.
The basic plan has the standard functionalities and essential tools in a lead-generation service. The higher the tier, the more features are unlocked.
The Pro plan is their most popular tier and includes all features you can use for three different sites.
OptinMonster, as a paid solution, comes with stellar customer support through a support ticket system. The response time is fast, and their experts are well-versed in the conversion wants and needs of their consumers.
Conclusion
Investing in a reliable lead generation and conversion tool is a requirement if you want to collect emails and turn them into paying customers. OptinMonster is not the cheapest out there, but it boasts value greater than many of its more expensive counterparts.
OptinMonster has one of the best feature sets you can find with the price point it offers. The tool is especially more valuable for busy webmasters and owners, as you can manage all your sites within one interface.
I can say that OptinMonster is a worthy purchase, and adds a lot of value to your business. Growing your email list has never been easier with OptinMonster.
And that’s it for my review of this lead-generation tool? Have you had experiences with OptinMonster, too?
What do you want to see in my next review? Comment your insights below.
Here are more reviews of my favorite tools below.
