The need to capture subscribers for email is one of those tasks we find store merchants understand but don’t give a lot of attention. Most relegate email capture to a “Subscribe Here” form in the page footer of their website or an annoying pop-up when first arriving that promises a discount if the customer gives up their email address.

While at least that’s doing something, neither are particularly effective. And it’s usually because merchants settle for something easy and quick to check off the box that they’ve done something to capture emails.

For several years now, we’ve helped our clients improve their email capturing abilities by using OptinMonster. We’ve looked at so many alternatives over the years and OptinMonster proves the concept that anytime a firm focuses on one singular niche, they tend to do it better than others who take a Swiss Army Knife approach.

The real power of OptinMonster comes from how sophisticated their rules engine is. As a merchant, I can create all kinds of really neat ways to build interactive pop-ups, banners, and other inlines based on whether or not the visitor is a first-time or repeat visitor; if they’re on a particular product page; if they have already signed up for a particular discount; or if they’re coming from a particular referral source, such as Facebook or an Ad.

The level of creativity based on rules is really only limited by whatever time you have to create the many kinds of promotions.

And, among the different types of optins available, there are simple pop-ups, yes/no optins — which, by the way, work extremely well, and what I call the “Wheel of Fortune” discount games.

OptinMonster integrates with almost all types of CRMs and email programs, except, sadly, Zoho CRM, which we like. Watch for my review of Zoho One coming soon.

OptinMonster does have a Zapier connection and there is the ability to use straight HTML form code if needed, but I do wish they had a native Zoho integration.

Nevertheless, whatever hoops we have to jump through won’t deter us from using and recommending OptinMonster.