177 - Laryssa and Liz on Turning Website Visitors Into Email Subscribers

Summary

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Success With Jewelry, Episode 177

Turning Website Visitors Into Email Subscribers
Hosts: Laryssa Wirstiuk & Liz Kantner
Date: June 15, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Laryssa and Liz dive deep into a critical—but often underutilized—aspect of jewelry marketing: transforming website visitors into engaged email subscribers. They explain why, even with a robust email strategy, growing your list is essential for long-term success and share actionable tips for optimizing your website’s signup opportunities. The conversation covers pop-up best practices, authentic lead magnets, strategic form placement, and the necessity of thoughtful welcome emails.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Why Email List Growth Matters

• The natural decay of lists:
  "After a period of time, even if you have like a decent list, let's say you have a thousand people and and you're not working to like keep adding to it. That list starts to kind of go bad after a period of time...people lose interest. People change their email addresses. People forget who you are and you have to keep rebuilding it to keep a Healthy list over time."
  — Laryssa (01:41)

• Don’t get complacent:
  Many brands set and forget pop-ups or signup prompts, but an active strategy is crucial.

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Pop-Ups: Etiquette, Timing, and Best Practices

• First-time visits & reappearance:
  Pop-ups should greet visitors the first time, and can reappear if they return, but not multiple times in a single session for a better user experience. (04:08)

• Timing triggers:
  "You typically want it to appear right before the average amount of time someone spends on your site. For a lot of websites ... that's like 15 seconds ... so the pop up would come up at like 14 seconds."
  — Laryssa (05:19)
  Use Google Analytics to determine average visit duration.

• Pop-ups WORK (despite being annoying):
  "You need to put that away ... it is one of the most effective ways to grow your email list. And having an email list is very important for long term marketing."
  — Laryssa (04:08)

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Pop-Up Design: What Actually Works?

• Trends vs. Fundamentals:
  Gimmicky pop-ups (like spin-the-wheel or scratch-offs) can be eye-catching and fun, but reliable basics still perform well. "The tried and true works amazing. Like you can just do the most boring pop up as long as it's clear, it does what it needs to do ... and you'll have great success with it."
  — Laryssa (09:18)

• Brand alignment:
  Always reflect your voice. For example, Marla Aaron uses “emails are boring, we try not to be” (10:02) as a unique, brand-aligned hook.

• Alternate placements:
  Off-to-the-side pop-ups (14:00) or in-content signups can be less disruptive while still capturing attention.

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Lead Magnets & Signup Incentives

• What’s a lead magnet?
  "A lead magnet is something that gets somebody to...it's something you're giving to get an email address."
  — Liz (15:59)

• Creative Examples:

  • Quizzes: "Quizzes are very effective, especially if you don’t want to trade like a discount right up front." — Laryssa (13:21)
  • Guides and resources: “Give me your email address and I'll send you like my guide to taking care of pearl jewelry.” — Liz (15:59)
  • Product fit tools: Palm Sunday’s ring sizer demo, presented in a way unique to the brand. (16:22)

• Discounts are not always best:
  "I would say that discounts don't move people to put their email in anymore unless they're wanting to purchase and they want that extra discount."
  — Liz (18:22)

• Other incentives:
  Consider free shipping, early access, exclusive content, or "buy more, save more" offers instead of default discounts.

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Testing & Optimization

• A/B testing is easy and important:
  "You can try, I don't know, like your ring sizer thing versus something else and see what inspires people to sign up more."
  — Laryssa (19:22)

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The Importance of the Welcome Email

• Critical first impression:
  "If there's no welcome email that says sense when someone signs up, go, do go, just like stop everything you're doing and do that now. It's just so important because that is the first potential positive interaction you can have ..."
  — Laryssa (20:02)

• Build trust:
  "When they sign up for your list, that's when they're most excited about your brand and it builds trust to confirm they're on your list."
  — Liz (20:53)

• Real-life cautionary tale:
  Laryssa describes receiving conflicting welcome emails with an expired discount, shaking her trust in the company—even though she ultimately received her order. (21:14-22:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You need to put that [pop-up resistance] away...it is one of the most effective ways to grow your email list."
  — Laryssa (04:08)
• "The tried and true works amazing. Like you can just do the most boring pop up as long as it's clear, it does what it needs to do ... and you'll have great success with it."
  — Laryssa (09:18)
• "Quizzes are very effective, especially if you don’t want to trade like a discount right up front."
  — Laryssa (13:21)
• "You don't want to just do things because someone else is doing it or it's best practice or it's something that we said on this podcast. You want to think about how can you make it feel very much your own because then it'll be more effective."
  — Liz (17:13)
• "If there's no welcome email ... stop everything you're doing and do that now. It's just so important ..."
  — Laryssa (20:02)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:41 — Why your email list needs constant growth
• 04:08 — Pop-up etiquette, timing, and effectiveness
• 09:18 — Do fancy pop-ups actually work?
• 10:02 — Brand-aligned copy examples
• 13:21 — Quizzes & creative lead magnets
• 15:59 — Definition & examples of lead magnets
• 18:22 — When discounts work (and when they don’t)
• 19:22 — A/B testing pop-ups
• 20:02 — The must-have: your welcome email

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Actionable Takeaways

• Consistently refresh your list—people lose interest and lists decay over time.
• Use pop-ups strategically: right timing, one per session, return visits welcome.
• Don’t be afraid of pop-ups—data doesn’t back up the fear of annoying visitors.
• Make pop-ups and lead magnets match your brand voice.
• Test different incentives and styles to find what truly resonates with your audience.
• Welcome emails aren’t optional—they are foundational for trust and future conversions.

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For jewelry brands serious about growth: audit your signup process, try something new, and always keep your customer journey front-of-mind. Let Laryssa and Liz know what you try!

Transcript

[Liz]

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry Podcast your go to source for real conversations about business marketing and what it actually takes to succeed as a jewelry brand

[Larissa]

Today I'm Larissa, the strategist, systems queen and the one who finds joy in turning big marketing challenges into step by step plans that actually work. Email marketing and generating revenue through it is the specialty of my agency, Joy

[Liz]

Joya and I'm Liz, your creative compass and advocate for designers doing things differently. I I live for brilliant brand storytelling, beautiful visuals, and helping designers confidently show up and shine. I founded the StayGold collective to create community and support for independent jewelry brands.

[Larissa]

Together we bring you two decades of jewelry marketing experience and on this podcast we're pulling back the curtain on everything we've learned. Whether you're just starting out or scaling to your next big milestone, you'll get honest insights, helpful tips, and maybe a few giggles along the way.

[Liz]

This is episode 177. We talk about email marketing a lot on this podcast, but today we're covering specifically how your website should be actively working to grow your list because you can have a consistent email marketing strategy. But if your website isn't set up to capture the people who are already visiting, you're missing out on people who are interested in your brand. We're going to discuss where to put your signup forms, what makes someone want to add their email address, and how to do it in a way that feels like you. And if you're an insider, stick around. We're going deeper on lead magnet ideas that work for jewelry brands, plus pop up timing and placement strategies. Let's get into it. Ah, email marketing. I know this is your happy zone.

[Larissa]

My happy zone, yes. But I am glad that we're talking about this. Well, you said, Liz, before we started recording that you've been getting questions about this. So it's something people want to know about. And then secondly, for me it's really important to talk about this topic because when I'm doing my clients reporting at the end of every month, I look at like how the list grows or how the list doesn't grow. And after a period of time, even if you have like a decent list, let's say you have a thousand people and and you're not working to like keep adding to it. That list starts to kind of go bad after a period of time. Like not all of it, but it will slowly start to deteriorate because people lose interest. People change their email addresses. Like people forget who you are and you have to keep rebuilding it to keep a Healthy list over time.

[Liz]

And I think that a lot of people get stuck in and I am kind of this way too, honestly, to be very honest with you. Until I got a couple questions within the past week about email signups and pop ups on websites, I hadn't thought about it much, which is silly of me, but you do kind of think, oh well, you know, we just have the pop up. I love like a footer sign up and that's that. And it's not something that I think we talk about having a strategy around or making changes to because it's kind of like, oh well, that's the way you do it and that's that. And if it's not working, then, you

[Larissa]

know, I find another way to collect email. Yeah, even just having a pop up, there are things you can do to make it more effective too. So like, just because you have one doesn't mean like check you're good. You know, there are ways to improve it over time. Also

[Liz]

one of the questions I got, I'd love to talk through, I'd love for, to hear you talk through kind of the best practices with. Let's start with the pop up with an email pop up. Someone asked me kind of what's the etiquette like, you know, is it, is it something that you want to just appear the first time somebody visits your site? How long is somebody on your site before it should pop up? Is it something that you want to pop up every time somebody visits your site? What is kind of the strategy or best practice around that?

[Larissa]

Yeah, definitely. Well, first, before I get into that, I do want to say because I think that some people just like don't want to have pop ups because they think they're invasive and they don't like getting pop ups. And like you need to put that away. Like put that thought away because it is one of the most effective ways to grow your email list. And having an email list is very important for long term marketing and then in terms of like etiquette. So they're like, with anything in marketing, there's no like one answer. It really depends on your particular business. But yes, a pop up should appear the first time someone visits your site. It should keep appearing. Not more than once in a single session. Like, like you don't want someone on your site and within 15 minutes they like keep seeing your pop up. Like you don't want that. But if someone comes back a few days later or a few weeks later, for example, and they hadn't signed up before the pop up, should appear again. And most email platforms, as long as they can identify or connect, like the IP address should be able to know if that person had signed up or not. And I mean if they're using like an Incognito browser or something, that's not going to work. But there are ways to throttle like whether it shows for a person or not. And then in terms of timing, there's also no blanket answer for this, but you typically want it to appear right before the average amount of time someone spends on your site. So for a lot of websites, for example, the average time will be like 15 seconds. I know that sounds crazy, like it sounds like no time at all, but that's the reality. And so the pop up would come up at like 14 seconds or something like that. And that's a metric you could find like in your Google Analytics. I can't remember if it's in Shopify or not. But understanding like how long on average does someone spend on the site and getting the pop up to them, like right before on average they would leave. And if you truly don't know what that number is, like five to 10 seconds, which amount of time before a pop up triggers, that's great.

[Liz]

That answers a lot of the questions, what is a good pop up? Or could you describe a pop up that is, you know, kind of what should someone think about? Because I think people are used to pop ups now, right on websites. And a lot of times I'll X out of them because I just want to get to seeing the thing that I'm trying to look for. And then I typically, and I've talked about this before, I like to like scroll to the bottom to sign up for their list after I've consumed the content on their website. That's typically how I exist, but with a pop up one in particular that stands out to me when I'm reflecting on popups. I've put my email address into is for a brand called Curator sf and I was just seeing if I could pull them up and have their pop up come up for me. But they have like a spin the wheel for like a discount kind of thing. And that's not to say, okay, so right now they've switched it. Right now they have a pick a flower and unlock a special discount. So you like click on, there's three flower drawings and you get to click on one and then you get a discount. You have to add your email to claim that discount. And that's unique to me. It kind of caught me off guard the first time I Saw the spin the wheel one and just now with this pick a flower because it's different and it's like a hand drawn flower, it aligns with their brand. It makes sense. You don't always have to have a discount. But anyway, I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on pop ups that

[Larissa]

like with anything in marketing there are trends and like fads that come and go. And I think the same is true in pop ups. And as someone that specializes in email marketing, I for sure see them, the trend right now in pops up that pop ups is like a scratch off. So like you like use your cursor to kind of like scratch as if it's like a lottery thing. Very trendy right now. And I think there will always be that because people are looking for like, oh, what's like the next cool, interesting thing I can do to try to get people to sign up, which is kind of gimmicky in a way. And I mean they do work sometimes because like Liz just said, they're engaging, like they're kind of interesting, they catch your eye. But then at the same time, if you're relying on that, you're kind of chasing like the next pop up trend. The tried and true works amazing. Like you can just do the most boring pop up as long as it's clear, it does what it needs to do, it communicates what it needs to communicate and you'll have great success with it. Like there's no real magic trick. There are things you can optimize for timing, like a B test, different messaging colors, all this stuff. But if you don't want to mess with any of that, you don't want to deal with this like trendy stuff like a standard. Here's what you get. Sign up a button like, good, that's great.

[Liz]

I don't think that Marla Aaron, I'm on her website now, has a pop up. But the reason I went to her site is because she has like a block in the middle of her homepage that says emails are boring. We try not to be join our newsletter and I love something like that. For someone like me who browses in a way of like, I want to get to the site and look at the things and then sign up after I've consumed what I want it to consume on the site or found the product or you know, learned more about the brand, I think that you could miss that though. So I see why pop ups are effective.

[Larissa]

I'm looking at her site right now in incognito to see if something comes up. Yeah, let me know. I don't think so. And you know what I would say to that? They need a pop up.

[Liz]

Because.

[Larissa]

So here's the thought process behind that because I agree. I'm also an online shopper. I close a ton of pop ups and I'm very aware of that behavior because I'm an email marketer and I'm thinking, look at me, I just closed that pop up. But you want to know what it does do is it greeted me, it told me that something is available, whether it's an offer lead magnet, blah blah, blah. So now that's in my brain and the option to do that is there. I just want to see what I want to see. But I know that if I want to come back to that and I do want to buy something or I do want more information or I am interested in being on this brand's list, like I have the option to do that in the footer or somewhere else or I can just open the site again on like my phone and sign up. And so a lot of people will bypass it the first time. But that it doesn't mean it's not effective. And I'm saying that to being on like the back end of seeing data of my clients pop ups again. You think, isn't this like annoying people? No, we still get a ton of signups and that's how people get like the welcome email and then people convert from the welcome email. So like you would think it's annoying. You really would. But when you see that people are using it and that's how like my clients for example are growing their lists like we can't not do it.

[Liz]

Yeah, I think it's finding the way that feels authentic to you as part of it. Like you know, even if you're going with a tried and true like standard pop up, like making sure it still reflects your brand or is in your voice, I think that that's really important. I'm on May Lindstrom's site and they don't do a discount, they do gift with purchase. But they also have the a call to action of like discover my care path because it's a skincare brand. So discover, you know, and I've seen that a lot in the, the beauty industry or in skin care, you know, like enter, tell us about your skin and we'll give you like the, we'll let you know which products we recommend for you. And I think that's such a great lead magnet. I think that's such a great Way to capture email addresses.

[Larissa]

Quizzes are very effective, especially if you don't want to trade like a discount right up front. For sure.

[Liz]

Yeah, I think that's great. Interesting. I went to another site, I could keep going to sites because this is interesting, but Le Labo does not have a pop up either. They are a scent. They sell scent products and things like that. Pretty well known brand. But they do have a really clear sign up in their footer and they don't have a very long scroll on their home page. So that's interesting.

[Larissa]

I'm looking to.

[Liz]

But Foundre, which is a jewelry brand, has a pop up that's kind of off to the side a little bit. It's not so like in your face, it's kind of off to the side. So you can still scroll, goal and look and you don't necessarily need to X out of it. But it's right there and it says let's keep in touch. Subscribe to hear from Beth on new launches, exclusive opportunities and in depth explorations into our tenants. Interesting. And they actually sent, they send a lot of emails, but they sent a really nice email yesterday that was about Beth's personal jewelry collection. And then the call to action was clicked to this curated page of pieces that are in Beth, who is the founder of Foundry, her jewelry box and her collection. And I thought that was a really nice email.

[Larissa]

That's. I like that idea. I would say too, like, because I'm just thinking about Le Labo and it's kind of shocking to me that they don't have a pop up but at the same time like a bigger brand like that you. It's hard to know like what these brands are prioritizing when it comes to marketing. Like for example, maybe they just rely on the store purchasers, you know, like they get. That's where they make the money. Maybe E commerce is not their priority, but I think for a smaller brand, when growing an email list like Truly should be our number one goal in your marketing strategy, you can't afford to like miss any opportunity to like collect an email address. It has to be just so present and obvious like how someone can sign up to your list and just to circle back.

[Liz]

Lead magnet. A lead magnet is something that gets somebody to. It's something you're giving to get an email address. So it could be like a quiz to find out your results, your email address or give me your email address and I'll send you like my guide to taking care of pearl jewelry or something like that. So that's what a lead magnet is for anybody who didn't know what that term meant.

[Larissa]

Shout out to. I hope this is right. I have like such a bad memory. Shout out to Palm Sunday, possibly. I think it was Palm Sunday that I saw an Instagram post about her having like a ring sizer lead magnet. And I really hope I'm not misremembering that or butchering it. But the way, if it was her, the way it was presented was very compelling because like ring sizer. Okay. Like, wow. But the way that she talked about it was like very interesting.

[Liz]

Yeah. She has the ring sizer where you can see how your rings would fit into her stacking rings, right?

[Larissa]

Yes, that is correct. Thank you for putting the pieces together for me.

[Liz]

Yeah, of course. Yeah. I think that's a great lead magnet and it's so her and her brand. And I think that's what we need to think about when we're thinking through pop ups and collecting email addresses and lead magnets is how does this make sense with your brand? How does this align with your brand? You don't want to just do things because it's someone else is doing it or it's best practice or it's something that we said on this podcast. You want to think about how can you make it feel very much your own because then it'll be more effective.

[Larissa]

Mm. Yeah. And also remember, because I think that, I don't know, people need to be reminded of this sometimes. It's like you can offer an incentive or discount or perk or something that's not necessarily like a 20% off. It could be like, oh, get like free shipping on your first order or like a buy more, save more kind of thing. Like whatever works for you in your margins that you think would still be compelling. You don't have to like match a discount that other businesses are doing on a first purchase.

[Liz]

I would say that discounts don't move people to put their email in anymore unless they're wanting to purchase and they want that extra discount. Like if they're ready to purchase and they're like, oh, I could get an extra 10% off, I'm going to sign up for this email list. I wouldn't say it's the thing that makes people sign up.

[Larissa]

Well, especially for a brand that will need a longer customer journey. Like a fine jewelry brand where someone might not go and like buy right away. You know, if I'm buying, I don't know, a cleanser that's like $30 is not going to take me Months to make that decision. Sure. Give me 15% off. I'll take it. You know what I mean?

[Liz]

Yeah. So if, I mean if you're feeling. I guess I mostly saw that because if you're feeling you don't want to offer a discount or you don't want to, you know, try to offer the discount everybody else is offering, you don't need to. You don't necessarily need a discount.

[Larissa]

Yeah. But it's also helpful to potentially test things too. The nice thing about pop ups, especially like let's say you have klaviyo and you're doing a klaviyo popup, it's super easy to a B test different things. So you can try, I don't know, like your ring sizer thing versus something else and see what inspires people to sign up more. And you can do that a bunch of times until you understand like what is the thing that's going to get people to sign up.

[Liz]

So before we wrap up this episode, I feel like I need to say if you are collecting email addresses, you need a welcome email.

[Larissa]

Yes. If there's no welcome email that says sense when someone signs up, go, do go, just like stop everything you're doing and do that now. It's just so important because that is the first potential positive interaction you can have with this like nameless fate. Like you don't know who this person is and this is a way for you to connect with them. And it's also the time, the only time in the email journey where they're possibly expecting someone, something from you. Any other time you send them an email, they're not expecting it. This is a time where you can like be validated as a sender in their inbox. And so if you're not sending like you've already basically lost them. Goodbye.

[Liz]

Because when they sign up for your list, that's when they're most excited about your brand and it builds trust to confirm they're on your list. And the other thing I'd say about welcome emails, even though this is not an episode necessarily about welcome emails, is go look at what welcome email is going out. Because I think that there are a lot of brands out there that aren't sure. And it is.

[Larissa]

I've seen a lot of very weak welcome emails. I'm really glad you said the thing about trust. Can I tell like a mini, mini story about. So I recently bought pillows. Very exciting new pillow.

[Liz]

I love to hear what you're buying. You're always buying something very random.

[Larissa]

I needed pillows for sleeping. I bought new pillows. I mean, this company that I bought from, whatever. I'm like, I'm assuming this is, like, a business. It was referred to me by, like, a hotel that I stayed at. That's where they got their pillows. So that's why I knew about them. But I wanted to see if they had a welcome discount, because pillows can be kind of expensive. So I sign up and I get two welcome emails. One that was, like, had some discount that said, like, this expires in May 2024. And then, like, another welcome email. And, like, I still ordered the pillows. But the whole time in the back of my mind, until I did receive them, I was like, am I actually going to get these pillows? Like, is this business actively in business? Because obviously no one is, like, managing this email marketing.

[Liz]

That's funny. And that's, you know, you could have canceled your purchase or not gone through with it. Yeah.

[Larissa]

Because it felt kind of shady in general. I couldn't find a lot of, like, marketing presence about this business, and I think it did make me have a lot of doubts, and that's why having all this stuff in place is a trust issue as well.

[Liz]

I'm glad you received your pillows.

[Larissa]

I did.

[Liz]

Such a happy ending. All right, what are you going to change about how you're capturing emails on your site? Let us know. And if you love the podcast, leave us a review or send us a message. Thanks for being part of our community.