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 home and garden niche, we'll cover the best practices to make sure you're getting the most out of Grow!
- Not a home and garden 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
We recommend Spotlight Subscribe for most home and garden sites. If you use recipe or how-to cards and Jump to Card buttons in your posts, the Most Valuable Content form should be a better solution.
- Pro Tip: Use both a Spotlight Subscribe and Most Valuable Content form to maximize the opportunities for readers to become subscribers!
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 they will receive it, and establish a personal connection with your readers.
If your posts covers very distinct topics that draw different audiences, such as seasonal holiday decor or planting by climate zone, 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!
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 superfan audience more quickly.
Use Subscribe Redirect to redirect subscribers from the Subscribe form to a thank you page, lead magnet download, purchase page, etc.!
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.
How-To Card Save Button
If you're using Create, Tasty, or WordPress Recipe Maker cards for your crafting 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!
Exclusive Content
Exclusive Content should be used for supplemental materials, like your DIY instructions, growing guides, recommended tools, etc.
Place Exclusive Content widgets directly below your post's Most Valuable Content. (This is your how-to card if you are using them!) Making sure you place Exclusive Content where the most readers can see it should lead to the best conversion rate.
You can read more about how to best use Exclusive Content on your site here!
Print Pass
Enable Print Pass to lock your recipe or how-to card print pages behind a Subscribe form, just like Exclusive Content. It can help you increase the value of readers who print your instructions, especially if you have ads on your print pages!
- Pro Tip: Since its release, Print Pass has become Grow's top conversion tool, beating Spotlight Subscribe by almost double.
Grow Links
Using the Links Toolkit allows you to generate Email Connect links for support Email Service Provider newsletters and Grow Links to share on social media networks and anywhere else you're linking (or non-supported ESP emails).
These links let Grow identify users who land on your site, serving them personalized ads and increasing their value.
More identified users = more revenue in your pocket!
Let's Recap!
- Customize Grow to fit your brand.
- Make your Subscribe forms as specific as possible and use them to offer access to free resource libraries.
- Enable Subscribe Action Pack.
- Enable the Recipe Card Save button and Print Pass if you use recipe/how-to cards.
- Enable What's Next on Mobile Recommended Content.
- Use Exclusive Content for supplement materials, like PDF downloads of your resources.
- Use Grow Links (via the Links Toolkit) to share Grow Links anywhere you're linking to your site.