Newsletters are a fantastic way to slowly introduce potential customers to your business, as consumers do not generally buy from a company or make an enquiry on their first visit, with only around 2% of people actually hitting the buy or enquiry button the first time they visit a website.
Therefore, it is imperative that you find a way of telling people about your business, allowing them to get to know you and more importantly, a way to keep in touch with potential customers, which is where a newsletter really can be an ideal solution. You can take your time to introduce your business, introduce new services, showcase latest results and shout about how good you are, all for a very cost effective and affordable amount each month.
But, getting your newsletter off the ground is never easy, as you will hopefully be going down the legitimate route and not participating in any naughtiness when it comes to buying spammy mailing lists or just adding people that have not even requested to be on your list.
So, here are 5 simple ways to increase your newsletter subscribers and make sure that you can build the foundations of something really special in the months to come.
Free Download / Guide
I have found from personal experience that free downloads and guides work really well, but they must be of quality to make sure that people stick on your newsletter, as if you give them rubbish to download, the first time they get your email they will hit the unsubscribe button. Guides and downloads are really popular online, with consumers likely to give their email if they feel that they are getting something in return, and because a guide is just often your time and expertise, it really does make commercial sense to offer these, and it also gives you a chance to showcase your authority and just how good you are at what you do or what you offer.
Prize Draw
Everyone loves a prize draw, especially if the prize is something a bit special, and whilst I am not suggesting you send the lucky winner to New York for the weekend, you can offer them discounted services, a free review or even a free product or bottle of wine, the key is to finding something that will entice people to sign up. If you can make it a monthly prize draw for staying on the newsletter then that is even better, as not only do they get to stay for your excellent content, but they might also win something in the process. The key to prize draws is not looking too cheap and making sure you offer something of value, which does not mean monetary, but means something that your customers want.
Paid Promotion
I often recommend running mini paid campaigns towards your newsletter campaign and whilst many customers just do not understand why you want to pay to get someone on your newsletter, the reasons are pretty straightforward. Once you have a captured consumer reading your newsletter, you then have a chance to make sure they get to know your company over a period of months, rather than pushing them through the hard sell straight away. Drip marketing works well, so if you can double your newsletter base and the emails you send out are of the highest quality, engaging and excellent, this will lead to more business later down the line, so paying for subscribers is not such a crazy idea!
Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and all the other social media platforms are a great way to get your message out that you have a newsletter that people need to be on it, whether that’s through a prize draw or guide download like we discuss above. People on Social Media tend to interact well with businesses that make an effort of really using it, so if you already have a few hundred people liking or following you, these people should also be on your newsletter, as you look to increase brand association and convert these people into paying customers.
Make It Obvious
How many times have you gone to a site and found the “Sign Up To Our Newsletter” box tucked away on some random page or right at the bottom of the site? If you use the internet as much as us then the chances are quite a lot, but the point here is that if you feel the newsletter is a big part of your site and you want more people on it, make it obvious, make it stand out and make sure people can easily sign up, both on a desktop pc and a mobile smart phone – don’t hide it away or make it complicated!
