Collecting emails is important. You know that, I know that, our office dog Bambam knows that.

But what may surprise you is that depending on your goal, you can actually get more sales, increase your conversion rates, and get more from your visitors by giving them a big clear call to action instead of asking for an email signup.

That’s exactly what these sites have been doing, and they’ve seen some crazy results from it.

For Example:

• Sean sent people to a giveaway and got 5x the email conversion rate we normally see.
• Sujan pre-launched his ebook and got 100 eager people to give him feedback and help with promotion.
• Bruce removed his email signup box… and got 3x more signups. WTF?!

And they all did it using a little known Welcome Mat Pro feature, the “Call to Action (CTA)” template, which you can use too.

Let me show you how they did it, then at the end I’ll show you how to set it up on your own site.

CTA 1: Show Off Your Products… and Boost Your Revenue by 42%

Mike Schwarz from RibbedTee uses a Welcome Mat not just to show off his product, but to show off popular celebrities wearing their shirts.

The black shirt under Danny Trejo’s vest? That’s a RibbedTee.

And we can’t forget Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wearing his:

Instead of asking for someone’s email address, Mike sends them straight to a page where they can buy one of those comfy undershirts.

Is it helping his business? You bet. According to Mike:

“On the 3 Call to Action Welcome Mats, we’re getting a direct click-through rate of 22%- 30%”

And they’re not just clicking through, they’re buying as well. Mike has seen a 42% increase in site-wide revenue JUST from adding Welcome Mats like these to his site.

Have a product that you want to promote with a big powerful Call to Action? %(productlink:welcome-mat-pro:[Go set it up now]).

CTA 2: Pre-Launch a Product and get 100+ Eager Evangelists

Sujan Patel used a Welcome Mat to help him pre-launch his ebook, the “Content Marketing Playbook,” on mastering the art of content marketing.

Anyone who showed up to his site during his pre-launch period would see this Welcome Mat offering the book for free, and could download the book through Gumroad.

Of the 2,900 people who saw the popup, 105 ended up downloading the book, giving Sujan a 3.7% conversion rate and 105 new email addresses.

According to Sujan, since using this Welcome Mat and a few others, his number of sales leads per day has doubled.

Not only is he building a bigger email list, he’s doubling his business in the process.

Launching a product soon? %(productlink:welcome-mat-pro:[Use a Welcome Mat CTA to promote it]).

CTA 3: Say Hi… And Get 200% More Signups in the Process!

Now, normally, when someone uses a Call to Action they’re trying to promote a certain product or part of their site, and are less focused on getting more email addresses.

But what if you just used it to let people know what they’re going to be reading about, and to add a little personality to your site?

That’s what Bruce Bradley did. He added a Welcome Mat pointing people to his blog and telling them that they’d learn all about eating natural foods.

Here’s the crazy part… According to Bruce, even though there was no email sign up call to action, people who clicked through to his blog after seeing this Welcome Mat were 3x more likely to sign up.

Why? It’s hard to say for certain, but mine and Bruce’s guess is that the Welcome Mat gets people a little more familiar with what he’s all about (beyond the scope of just one post) and makes them want to hear more from him.

Want to welcome people to your blog like Bruce? %(productlink:welcome-mat-pro:[Go set up a CTA]).

CTA 4: Promote Your Giveaway to get a 10% Signup Rate

Normally we see people get a 2-3% conversion on their Welcome Mats asking for people’s emails… but Sean used a Call to Action Welcome Mat and got a 10% email conversion!

How? By sending people to a KingSumo giveaway instead of just asking for their email address.

During the one week he ran the giveaway on Lacrosse Scoop, 2,773 people saw the Welcome Mat. Of them, 228 people clicked on the link to the giveaway, and he got 286 emails out of it.

Wait… how did he get more emails than clicks? Because people who signed up for the giveaway referred their friends! That added another ~2% to his conversion on this CTA, without people even having to see it!

Running a giveaway? %(productlink:welcome-mat-pro:[Promote it like Sean did using a CTA]).

CTA 5: Promote Another Site or Product, and Increase Revenue by 300%

Matthieu is the co-founder of mygaytrip, a popular site for the best gay news (tourism, culture, cinema, celebrities news, sexy, etc.), and a guide to the best gay-friendly places to visit in the world.

From the success of that site, he co-founded misterbnb, a site similar to AirBNB but focused on visiting LGBT-friendly areas and staying with welcoming hosts.

Then he just needed to get people from mygaytrip to misterbnb, and to let people reading the blog know that they could book apartments at many of the destinations they were reading about on mygaytrip.

He created this Welcome Mat, letting visitors know about misterbnb, and prompting them to go check out the site:

When he switched to this Welcome Mat from his old banner sending people to the site, he saw a 300% increase in clicks, which led directly to a 300% increase in revenue on misterbnb from mygaytrip.

Have a separate site or product that you want to promote? Read on to see how to do it.

Creating Your Call to Action

Ready to create your own Call to Action Welcome Mat? Here’s all you need to do.

First, if you haven’t already, then you’ll need to install %(productlink:welcome-mat-pro:[Welcome Mat Pro]) on your site (there’s a 14-day free trial).

Second, follow along with Matt here as he walks you through getting a Welcome Mat Call to Action up and running.

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Third, sit back, have a glass of wine, and let your new Welcome Mat take care of the rest!