Starting a newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with customers and prospects by providing valuable information as well as your own promotions. Building a quality list is not always easy though, so here’s how you can start yours.
Provide useful content
To get an email address, you have to provide something of value. Just because your newsletter is free, it doesn’t guarantee a sign up.
Put a subscription form on each of your web pages
Put a form in a prominent place on your website, preferably above the fold. All you need is an email address field and perhaps one for their name also. Make it really stand out with colours which are eye catching and in-keeping with your design.
Include a Privacy Policy
Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. Simply create a privacy policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form.
Put a subscription form on your social media pages
When you post on Facebook, the details appear on your followers walls. Their friends then visit their wall, see your post and click to your page to see what it’s about. Don’t miss this chance for more sign-ups! Put your newsletter sign-up form (or a link to it) from your Facebook, Twitter or Youtube account and take advantage of the viral marketing that comes your way.
Provide an archive
Set up a newsletter archive on your site. With our e-marketing system, each email you send gets automatically added to the list, allowing potential subscribers see the kind of content they will be receiving. It also provides a good way to entice people back to your site as well as an SEO boost. If people really like your newsletters, they will be visiting your archive to see what other useful info they might of missed.
Let your subscribers share your content
If your subscribers find your content interesting, they will want to share it. Make it really easy for them to do so by including a “share” link in your emails. This can lead to new business, and even viral content so make sure you encourage this by putting the share facility in a prominent position.
Give good gifts
Offering a free gift is a great way of enticing someone to enter their email address and sign up for your newsletter. To make it really worthwhile, your gift should be of real value, and unique.
Writing an ebook is a great inbound marketing method. Just fill it with quality information related to your newsletter and allow people to download it in exchange for their email address. You could even compile all the best bits from your archive to make things extra easy for yourself.
Add a squeeze page
A squeeze page is like a sales page for your newsletter, with the goal of getting more subscribers. It should include a good headline, some compelling copywriting to explain the benefits of signing up and testimonials including their full name. You can then promote the page with Google adwords for some instant traffic.
Blog
Blogging can really compliment your email marketing, and can act as another channel to get your content to people. Again, include your sign-up form alongside every blog post, as you can then go on to target these people with your own offers by email.
Let others use your content
Allow your email marketing copy to be distributed by other newsletter writers as long as the content isn’t modified. If they use your content, this will mean more exposure for your work, new subscribers, and more links pointing to your site.