# Sidebar email opt-in redesigns: all 0.3-0.6%, inconclusive

- Outcome: Flat / inconclusive
- Page type: Lead form (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Form design, Email capture
- Test run by: [Devesh Khanal](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/devesh-khanal/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://growthrock.co/sidebar-and-end-of-post-email-opt-in-forms-dont-waste-your-time/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/gap-growthrock-blog-sidebar-optin-variants-flat/

A few redesigned sidebar email opt-in forms all converted between 0.3% and 0.6%, too low and too close to pick a winner. Devesh Khanal of GrowthRock ran the test on a marketing blog with over 100,000 monthly unique visitors and published it on the GrowthRock blog. With about 18 conversions from 4,000+ impressions, the test was abandoned as inconclusive.

## Result

**all 0.3-0.6%, inconclusive**

- Opt-in rate: every version converted between 0.3% and 0.6%.
- Total of about 18 conversions from 4,000+ impressions. The author warns that a gap of 9 versus 4 sign-ups is just noise.
- No winner. The test was stopped as inconclusive.

## Control

The blog's existing email opt-in form in the sidebar.

## Variant

A couple of redesigned versions of the sidebar opt-in form.

## Why it likely came out this way (our reading)

- Readers come for the article and tend to ignore sidebars, so design tweaks there reach few people.
- With conversion rates under 1%, even a big relative lift adds very few subscribers.
- The author's view is that content upgrades, pop-ups and homepage gates convert far better, so time is better spent there.

## Caveats

Only about 18 conversions in total, far too few to separate the variants. The post dates from 2015, and exact designs and rates per variant were only shown in an image.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we redesign our sidebar opt-in form with a clearer offer, then more readers will subscribe because the form will stand out from the sidebar.
- Primary metric: Email opt-ins per post view
- Guardrail: Opt-ins from other forms on the page
- Guardrail: Time on page
- Guardrail: Unsubscribe rate of new subscribers
- Who should test it: Only high-traffic content sites that can collect hundreds of opt-ins per variant. Most blogs will get more from testing content upgrades or other capture points first.

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Credit: Devesh Khanal ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/gap-growthrock-blog-sidebar-optin-variants-flat/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.