Follow these seven easy steps for attracting new subscribers and
growing your opt-in e-mail list.
By Corey Rudl
I think it goes without saying that a newsletter is a powerful
marketing tool. Any promotions you send to your customers and
subscribers after they've been receiving your newsletters will be
that much more successful because with your newsletter, you'll have:
established your credibility,
developed a reputation as an industry expert,
cultivated a relationship with your subscribers,
inspired customer loyalty,
and maintained regular contact.
Regularly give your subscribers useful or entertaining
information that they'll benefit from, and they'll come to trust
you, respect you and buy from you.
Sounds great, right? But now you're probably left wondering, "How
do I get people to subscribe?" After all, you can write hundreds
of newsletters, but if you only have a handful of subscribers, it
can be a lot of work for little reward.
The big mistake I see a lot of e-business owners making is
thinking that simply posting a "Subscribe today" box on their Web
sites--and then forgetting about it--is going to attract
subscribers by the thousands. Even if your Web site is highly
trafficked, this is going to produce disappointing results. You
need to be prepared to actively promote your newsletter, much the
same way you would promote any other product or service online.
Try following these steps to increase your subscriber base:
Step 1: Promote your newsletter on your Web site. Yes, you should
definitely promote your newsletter on your site. But the keyword
here is "promote." How motivating is it for a visitor to give you
his or her name and e-mail address when presented with a
subscribe box titled, "Subscribe to our free newsletter"?
Why should they subscribe? How will they benefit from
subscribing? What are they going to get? Just because your
newsletter is "free" doesn't mean they'll want it. There are
plenty of free newsletters out there they could subscribe to.
What makes yours different or special?
You really need to "sell" your free newsletter to potential
subscribers. In one or two short, exciting sentences, clearly
state the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter. For
example, if your Web site is golf related, you might say
something like "Subscribe to the FREE 'Golf Tips' newsletter and
receive monthly tips and advice from Pro Golfers. Improve your
swing, hear about world-renowned golf courses, learn which clubs
the experts prefer, plus much more!" It sounds a lot more
interesting than "Subscribe to my free newsletter," don't you
think? Visitors to your web site will think so, too!
The other tip I'd like to share is about where you should place
your newsletter subscription box on your site. First of all,
don't hide it! Your goal should be to make sure that everyone who
visits your site is offered the opportunity to subscribe to your
newsletter at least once, if not twice.
Your newsletter subscription box should appear "above the fold"
(i.e., it should be immediately visible on the first screen) of
your homepage. This is where you'll get the best response--and
the most subscribers!
Step 2: Offer existing customers a subscription. Have you offered
your existing customers a subscription to your newsletter? If you
haven't, you should e-mail them an offer like this as soon as
possible. This is an easy way to get a flood of new
subscriptions.
And be sure to add a subscription offer to your "thank you for
ordering" page or e-mail. If someone's interested enough in your
product or service to purchase it, you can bet they'll want to
subscribe to your newsletter. Don't miss this opportunity to
maintain contact with existing customers.
If you've offered a free subscription to your customers but
received a poor response, consider making things a little more
interesting by offering them a "special gift" like a free article
or eBook when they subscribe. This extra incentive should
dramatically boost the number of new subscriptions you receive.
Step 3: Promote your newsletter in your e-mail signatures. An
electronic signature--also referred to as a "sig file"--is a
three- to six-line footer you can attach to the bottom of your
e-mail messages and public forum postings. And it's a prime spot
to advertise your newsletter.
Unlike a lot of other blatant advertisements, a sig file is
universally accepted, so take advantage of this perfect
opportunity to plug your newsletter. Anyone who receives an
e-mail from you will also receive your invitation to subscribe to
your newsletter. Chances are, if you're e-mailing them, they
already have a direct interest in your industry or niche, so take
advantage of this and offer them a free subscription right at the
bottom of any e-mail you send.
Step 4: Ad swap with other newsletters and e-zines. A great trick
for increasing your subscriber base involves contacting other
newsletters that relate to your target market and offering to
swap ads with them. Tell the newsletter owners you'll promote
their newsletter to your subscriber base if they'll return the
favor. This is a great way for both of you to increase your
readership. Subscribers will appreciate the recommendation of
another source of quality information, and as long as the sites
you swap with are complementary and not competitive, it's not
going to hurt your business at all.
Step 5: Promote your newsletter in newsgroups, discussion lists
and forum postings. Another good place to promote your newsletter
and locate targeted potential subscribers is in newsgroups,
discussion lists and forums that relate directly to your industry
or niche. Simply post a brief description of your newsletter and
a link to your subscription page.
Step 6: Offer subscribers the opportunity to give gift
subscriptions. Offer or announce gift subscriptions in your
newsletter that encourage your current subscribers to send gift
subscriptions to friends. You can automate your site to send the
gift subscription with a little blurb stating whom the gift is
from and what they'll be receiving (and the opportunity to
unsubscribe, of course). A friend of mine has built most of his
mailing list doing this alone. He went from 5,000 subscribers to
more than 16,000 subscribers in less than a year just using this
one technique.
Step 7: Renting opt-in e-mail lists. Renting e-mail addresses
from third-party list providers is a route that some new
newsletter owners choose because you're given quick access to a
list of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have "opted" to
receive e-mail on topics that interest them. You can usually
expect to be charged 5 to 20 cents per deliverable message, and
you should expect any e-mail addresses that are "bad" or that
"bounce" to be replaced by addresses that are current.
If you decide to use a service like this, it's absolutely
critical that you find out how the e-mail addresses were
obtained. You want e-mail addresses that have been collected
ethically and responsibly, and this means you want the e-mail
addresses of people who are directly interested in your product,
industry or field of expertise, and have given their permission
and "opted-in" to the list.
Important note: If you buy lists of e-mail addresses that have
been "harvested" from newsgroups, classified ad sites, online
services and other similar sources, you'll be accused of
spamming! These people have not given you permission to contact
them, and you can get into a lot of trouble this way. Again, I
can't overstate the importance of making sure the e-mail
addresses you rent have been collected ethically and responsibly!
A few reputable third-party list providers who offer targeted
opt-in e-mail lists are:
Postmaster Direct, YesMail, E-Target, Targ-it, Focalex and
TargitMail.
Ultimately, your goal should be to develop a relationship with
your subscribers through quality articles in your newsletter
before you even consider trying to sell them anything. Give them
quality information that they'll benefit from to establish your
credibility and develop a rapport with them.
Remember that the true value lies in the relationship that you
develop with the person who owns the e-mail address--not in the
e-mail address itself. It will be the relationship you develop
with your subscribers that will result in big sales both now and
in the future--an important point to keep in mind no matter how
many new subscribers you attract.
Corey Rudl, president of Internet Marketing Center, is the author
of Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet, a
comprehensive how-to guide for e-business success, which reveals
strategies for generating traffic, increasing revenues and
automating your online businesses. Contact
questions@marketingtips.com for free tips and resources.
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