Have you added Grow to your site, customized your appearance settings, and set up Co-Branded Sign Up, but don't know what to do next? If your site is in the education niche, we'll cover the best practices to make sure you're getting the most out of Grow!
Not an education site? Check out our other Best Practice guides!
Subscribe
Swap out all existing subscribe forms with Grow Subscribe forms to make sure you're obtaining reader consent to collect first-party data. There are several Subscribe form types to fit your desired set up:
- Spotlight Subscribe
- Pop Up Subscribe (It's Google-friendly; read more here!)
- Link Share
- Most Valuable Content Subscribe Form
- Subscribe Manual Placement
- Click to Subscribe
Make sure your Subscribe forms are as specific as possible. Use the description to let subscribers know what kind of content to expect and how often it's delivered, and establish a personal connection with your readers.
If you have a free resource library, use your Subscribe forms to offer readers access in exchange for subscribing. Once they're subscribed, you can email them their access credentials for your library.
- Pro Tip: Automate this by integrating Grow with your Email Service Provider!
If your site covers different education levels or subjects, like pre-school and grade levels or math and art, create category specific Subscribe forms then add them easily to the category's posts using Category Targeting.
- Pro Tip: Set up multiple newsletters and deliver your readers the content they're most interested in. You can use your Email Service Provider Integration to tell Grow which newsletter to send for each individual Subscribe form!
Have how-to or recipe cards? Enable the Most Valuable Content Subscribe Form and set one of your Subscribe forms to appear in the card!
Enable Subscribe Action Pack. These are additional opportunities for readers to subscribe appear when readers interact with Grow's widgets, like when they bookmark your posts for later, and can help you build your audience more quickly.
Recommended Content
Enable What's Next on Mobile. Since most of your readers are on mobile devices, this increases the chances of them clicking through to a second or third post!
Inline Recommended Content and Sidebar Recommended Content will serve you best for desktop readers. If you have over 15% desktop traffic, you should enable at least one of these widgets.
If your content includes a lot of list posts and your reader behavior research points to readers scrolling up the page, enabling the Header Carousel on Desktop could lead to additional pageviews.
How-to Card Save Button
If you're using Create, Tasty, or WordPress Recipe Maker cards for your science experiment or art project instructions, enable the Recipe Card Save Button feature — especially if you have a Jump to Card button.
This feature combined with Subscribe Action Pack can supercharge your subscription rate because readers who save the instructions will be prompted to subscribe!
- Pro Tip: If you're offering a Jump to Card button, enable the Most Valuable Content Subscribe form so readers who jump are still asked to Subscribe!
Exclusive Content
Exclusive Content should be used for supplemental materials, like your lesson plans, seasonal resources, worksheets, etc.
Place Exclusive Content widgets directly below your post's Most Valuable Content. Making sure you place Exclusive Content where the most readers can see it should lead to the best conversion rate.
Exclusive Content is a great way to offer free versions of your paid downloads to readers who don't opt into the purchase links placed in your content. They'll subscribe and consent to being served personalized ads to access the download after scrolling all the way through your post and your display ads.
You can read more about how to best use Exclusive Content on your site here!
Copy Link
Using the Copy Link button allows you to generate Grow Links for the posts on your site to share in email newsletters, on social media networks, and anywhere else you're linking.
These links let Grow identify both subscribers who have submitted their email addresses to Grow on any site, serving them personalized ads and increasing their value.
More identified users = more revenue in your pocket!