How to collect emails: 11 proven methods to grow your list

You collect emails by offering visitors something worth their address, then capturing it where they already are: in a popup, an embedded form, or an onsite feed. The method that works depends on who is visiting and what they came for.

This guide covers 11 methods used by real ecommerce and online brands, with the formats that convert best first. Each one includes when to use it, how it works, and a real example with sourced numbers.

Jump to a method:

• Opt-in popups

• Embedded signup forms

• Onsite feed

• Lead magnets

• Product giveaways

• Interactive quizzes

• Spin-to-win wheel campaigns

• Back-in-stock signups

• Personalized landing pages

• Free product demos

• Loyalty and reward programs

Opt-in popups

Opt-in popups are the most direct way to collect emails: a visitor sees an offer, enters an email, and joins your list. They are the backbone of most onsite email programs because they convert across traffic types.

The average popup converts 4.82% of visitors, and ecommerce stores see the highest rate at 6.88%, based on Wisepops analysis of 1 billion displays. Three formats do most of the work: welcome, discount, and exit-intent.

Welcome popups

A welcome popup greets new visitors and offers something in exchange for an email: a discount, useful content, first access to sales, or subscriber-only offers.

This is where targeting pays off. Popups shown only to new visitors convert at 8.30%, against 4.60% for untargeted popups, so welcome offers belong on first-time arrivals.

Emma Sleep uses a conversational popup that asks a question before the email field rather than leading with the form. That format converts better in aggregate: multi-step popups average 5.17% against 4.62% for single-step, and Emma Sleep lifted its own subscription rate by 50% compared with a single-step version.

A conversational popup also collects more than an email. Each step can capture zero-party data like a name, a product preference, or how the visitor found you, which makes the emails you send afterward more relevant and easier to segment.

Discount popups

A discount is the strongest signup incentive. Discount popups convert at 7.45%, which is 62% higher than popups without one at 4.60%.

Tikamoon, a French furniture retailer, uses discount popups like €20 off a first purchase to collect emails, averaging about 11,650 new subscribers a month at a 3.64% signup rate. The key is showing the offer to the right people: most popup builders let you pick which visitors see a campaign, so the discount lands where it changes a decision.

Exit-intent popups

An exit-intent popup fires as a visitor moves to leave. It is a last chance to collect an email before the session ends, often with free shipping, a discount, or a content offer.

Exit-intent converts at 3.94% on average, below welcome triggers, but it reaches visitors you would otherwise lose entirely. Use it as a safety net rather than your only campaign.

Embedded signup forms

An embedded form is a signup field placed directly in the page rather than over it. It collects emails without interrupting, which suits visitors who are reading or browsing and not ready for a popup.

You can place embeds in a footer, on product pages, inside blog posts, or on a landing page. The one rule that matters: match the form to the site so it reads as part of the page rather than a bolt-on.

Pierre Hardy uses an embedded form that carries the brand's design into the signup, so the ask feels native to the page rather than tacked on.

Onsite feed

An onsite feed is a bell-icon notification channel that works like a social feed on your site. It is non-intrusive and familiar, which makes it a good way to promote a signup offer without a popup.

It suits time-limited offers and product news that reward visitors for subscribing. Aime, a cosmetics and food supplements brand, uses the feed to surface offers and updates to engaged visitors.

Lead magnets

A lead magnet is a resource you give away in exchange for an email: an ebook, guide, template, or checklist. It works when the content solves a real problem for your audience, so it suits visitors who are not ready to buy but want to learn.

Ziggy Family built its list around educational content for cat owners, offering nutrition guidance in exchange for an email. The content matched what visitors were already looking for, which kept signup quality high.

To make a lead magnet collect emails: focus it on a specific problem, place it only on contextually relevant pages, and promise a clear benefit.

Product giveaways

A giveaway collects emails by offering a chance to win a product. It works because the perceived value is high while the cost to enter, an email, is low, so it suits brands with a recognizable product worth winning.

WP Standard, a leather goods brand, has run giveaways for over a year as a steady acquisition channel. Founder Ryan Barr frames email as the channel a brand actually owns, unlike social platforms that can change access at any time.

To run one: pick a product worth $100 or more, create a popup campaign, and promote it on social. The signup ask stays simple, just an email to enter.

Interactive quizzes

A quiz collects emails by giving visitors a personalized result, a product match or a recommendation, in exchange for a signup. It works when the result is useful on its own, so it suits catalogs where choice is hard.

Beardbrand's "What type of beardsman are you?" quiz matches respondents to products across ten questions, then offers a newsletter signup at the end. The brand has generated around 150,000 emails through it.

You can build a quiz with a tool like Typeform and surface it in a popup for visibility, so the result and the signup sit in one flow.

Spin-to-win wheel campaigns

A spin-to-win popup turns email capture into a game: visitors enter an email to spin a wheel for a prize. It is the highest-converting popup format measured, at 29.99% against 4.04% for standard popups.

That lift comes from the interaction rather than just the prize, so it suits brands comfortable with a playful moment at signup. émoi émoi uses a wheel to collect emails with a limited-time reward.

Keep it credible: a real prize, a relevant background, and a clear deadline so the urgency is authentic.

Back-in-stock signups

A back-in-stock signup captures an email when a product is sold out: the visitor clicks "notify me" and enters an email to hear when it returns. It works because the intent is high, these are people who want a specific product.

The form needs a single field, an email, and the alert sends automatically. It is one of the cleanest ways to collect emails you can later market to, because the visitor asked to be contacted.

Personalized landing pages

A landing page collects emails by focusing one page on one audience and one offer. It works when the message is specific, so it suits paid traffic and segmented campaigns where you know who is arriving.

Zapier builds separate pages for marketers, IT, business owners, and sales, each speaking to that group's goal. The narrower the promise, the more relevant the signup ask.

Pair a landing page with a popup as a backup so the email capture has two chances to land.

Free product demos

For software businesses, a demo request is an email capture: the visitor enters details to see the product. It suits considered purchases where buyers want to evaluate before they commit.

A common setup pairs a landing page with an on-click popup. The visitor clicks "book a demo," a popup with the signup form appears, and the email is captured in the moment of intent. On-click popups convert at 54.42%, the highest of any trigger, because the visitor signaled interest first.

Loyalty and reward programs

A loyalty program collects emails by inviting visitors to join for points and perks. It works for repeat-purchase brands, since it turns a signup into the start of an ongoing relationship.

BAR-U-EAT runs a rewards widget where members earn points without buying first, by following the brand on social, sharing a birthday, or subscribing. Naming those perks up front collects emails even from visitors who are not ready to buy.

Getting started

Start with two or three methods that match your traffic rather than all eleven at once. For most ecommerce sites that means a welcome popup, an embedded form, and one incentive-led campaign like a discount or spin-to-win.

Then watch the numbers, adjust the offer, and add methods as you learn what your visitors respond to. For more results from real brands, see the Wisepops success stories.