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OptinMonster Review: Do You Really NEED This Tool?

Sezmi

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Sezmi’s Take

OptinMonster is a great choice if you’re looking for a service that works with WordPress and SaaS apps. There are many templates available and you can easily make your customized forms to match your brand. OptinMonster supports six different campaign types. These can be used with your products as well as for email forms.

9.5 Out Of 10

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They say the money is in your list. An email list, along with a blog is one thing you can control. Your mailing list cannot be taken away by anyone.

If this is you, then you need a way to generate as many email leads as possible. This is why I recommend OptinMonster.

OptionMonster is a core tool I recommend to digital marketers.

What is OptinMonster?

OptinMonster allows you to create a lead-generation form on your blog using lead generation software. It’s a hosted service (SaaS) that supports WordPress plugins.

You can use it on your blog and anywhere else you can insert Javascript. This makes it possible to use it for services such as Shopify, SamCart or Thrivecart. OptinMonster has many uses:

• Promotion Exit-Intent for your shopping cart
• Email optin for your lead magnet at each blog post’s bottom
• Access to restricted content requires you to have an email address in order to view a blog post.
• To highlight a blog post that is popular, a floating bar will be placed at the top of your page

There are many other options.

Pros

• There are many methods to generate opt-ins. Optinmonster’s greatest strength is the variety of ways to create optin forms.
• This is not just for WordPress — Because this is a service, and not a plug-in, you can combine it with other services. It works well with Thrivecart’s exit-intent popup.
• Advanced rules — Display options with many different rules, such as page count, time per page, exit intent, and number of pages.
• Many Integrations OptinMonster can be used with many email services, and supports Zapier.
• Fully Functional API – For power users like me, it is possible to extract analytics for external services. In my case, I added reporting data to Woopra.
• A/B testing — Create quick variants of your forms.
• Analytics OptinMonster Analytics is built-in and Google Analytics can be used to measure performance.

Cons

• Slow loading – OptinMonster is not the best service for lead generation. OptinMonster has many functions and features, so it is a good idea to load and use it selectively.
• More expensive — While the cheapest option can be as low as $9/month, it can go up to $49/month for more advanced plans.
• Limitations on Customization — Just like most visual designers, there is a limit to how customizable your design can be.

Screenshots

• Get a bird’s-eye view of your campaigns with Optinmonster’s dashboard

OptinMonster Features

The service is ideal for digital marketers as it offers many options and is full of features. These features include:

• Lead verification (New) – An add-on service that prevents spammers, bots and bad email accounts joining your mailing list. Additional $15 per month
  2-Step Optin — This is what they call MonsterLinks. It allows any image or link that can use an OptinMonster optin page. In my case, they are fired after a visitor clicks one of my affiliate links.
• GeoIP Location Targeting — A popup that displays based on the visitor’s current location in the world.
• Exit Intent — Use this feature to detect when visitors are about to leave your site and ask for their email address. This works on desktop, but it has recently been extended to mobile.
• Visual Builder — Drag and drop editor that lets you create optin forms without having to know HTML.
• Yes/No Formulas — This allows for simple yes/no forms.
• MonsterEffects – Over 26 animations and sound effects that will grab the attention of your visitors to your website. Create a pattern interrupt to increase conversion rates.
• A/B testing — Try different versions of your optin forms to determine which copy, campaign type and messaging work best.

Display Options

You have 6 different campaign types available

This is a lead generation tool, so it is important to display a web form. OptinMonster supports many campaign types, from subtle to more obvious.

• Lightbox Popup — This is the most popular way to collect email signups.
• Floating bar — Display a fixed line in the header or footer which stays the same regardless of how the visitor scrolls through a webpage.
• Fullscreen Welcome mat — Create an interstitial on full screen that can be ignored or hides your underlying content.
• Inline Formulas – An embeddable form that looks just like it is part of your content and blog posts.
• Slide in Scroll Box — Draw immediate attention to the pop that appears from the corner of the visitor’s screen.
• Gamified — This is a popular way to get people to feel that they “won”.

There are many pre-defined templates for each campaign type. For the more skilled designer, you can either use one of these templates as a foundation or create your own. They are compatible with both desktop and mobile-friendly optin box designs.

OptionMonster’s visual editor makes it easy to create web forms that match your blog’s branding.

You can lock content that visitors can’t access through their content locker. You can add a countdown timer to any campaign to create urgency and limit availability.

Pricing for OptinMonster

Although OptinMonster pricing may be a bit high, there are still 4 pricing options. Each plan has key features that I have highlighted.

The OptionMonster PRO Plan is recommended for most people.

WordPress and Google Tag Manager

There are two ways to use OptinMonster on your blog. The first is via their WordPress plugin. The second is to install it worldwide via Google Tag Manager. I believe that fewer WordPress plugins will result in better performance for your blog. Using Google Tag Manager with Optinmonster was the best option, but I found that it is easier to manage and performs better in my testing.

Using OptinMonster’s service is easy with the OptinMonster WordPress plugin. Install the plugin and connect to your account. After you have connected your account, you can access the campaigns you have created within your account.

OptinMonster is more flexible than other services because it doesn’t require WordPress to be used. I used OptinMonster to integrate my ThriveCart (via Google Tag Manager with an exit intent popup).

OptinMonster integrations

This software can be used with many services, including Zapier. Email integration options are an important feature and can be used to integrate with many different email marketing services.

OptinMonster may have the largest number of email providers that are supported in this category. Most of the time, email marketing providers support any provider that is out there.

You can use Zapier or create your own webhook if OptinMonster does not support it.

• ActiveCampaign
• AWeber
• Bronto
• Campaign Monitor
• Campaign Refinery
• Constant Contact
• ConvertKit
• Customer.io
• Drip
• E-goi
• EmailOctopus
• Emma
• Feedblitz
• GetResponse
• HubSpot
• iContact
• iPost
• Iterable
• Jilt
• Keap
• Mad Mimi
• MailChimp
• MailerLite
• Mailgun
• MailPoet
• Market Hero
• Marketo
• Maropost
• Moosend
• Ontraport
• Pardot
• SendinBlue
• Sendloop
• SendPulse
• Sendy

MonsterLeads is a great alternative to email services. This service is free and allows you to capture email optins in their service.

You can export the emails to any other system later.

In case of Optinmonster not working, it is a good idea to use MonsterLeads to backup your email service provider.

• Google Analytics

OptinMonster Alternatives

Like most services, OptinMonster does some competition. These are some of the most popular services, even though this isn’t an exhaustive list.

Rating

9.0/10

Price

$495 – $590 One-Time Fee

Promotion

Special Lifetime Deal

Rating

8.5/10

Price

Free – $599/year

Promotion

Get 65% off

Rating

9.0/10

Price

$59 – $259 Per Year

Promotion

None

Summary

OptionMonster offers many options for opting in forms.

These options are not mandatory. Certain options may be too offensive for your audience or negatively impact user experience, which can eventually lead to lower SEO rankings.

Always test the best option for your blog and brand. OptinMonster can be a powerful tool that will increase optins and increase your bottom line.