"Sign up for our newsletter" converts at 0.5%. Here's the title that beat it 26x.
Sumo analyzed over 39 million opt-in forms. The bottom 25%, the ones titled "Sign up for our newsletter," convert at about 0.53%. The top forms convert 13x better, and they all do one thing: the title answers "what's in it for me?" "Get 10% off today." "10x your SEO traffic." The thing, not the mechanism. But the real winner went further. Instead of the same opt-in everywhere, they matched it to the page. In an article about Kickstarter campaigns: "Get the 1-page checklist with the exact scripts, free." That form converted 26 times better than the average. Nobody wakes up wanting a newsletter. They want the thing. Name the thing, and match it to whatever page they're already on. What does your main opt-in say right now? "Subscribe"? "Join our list"? That's the leak.