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 Websites—and then forgetting about
it—is going to attract subscribers by the thousands. Even if your Website
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 Website. 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 Website 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
Website 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:
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.
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