Email is a dominant form of communication in business, and a well-written, personalized email newsletter is one of the most cost-effective methods to connect with your target audience and increase reach, leads and sales. You can touch customers in real-time since most of us have our mobile phones within arm’s reach at any given point in the day, and email newsletters also provide a wealth of simple metrics to gauge effectiveness, such as open, unsubscribe, bounce and click-through rates. These metrics give marketers many different options to make key adjustments to content or delivery schedule.
Follow these suggestions to grow a massive following for your email newsletter and reap the many benefits that come with a having a huge subscriber base.
4 Tips For Boosting Your Subscriber Count
So many email newsletters are instantly deleted – or worse, unsubscribed. These four steps can boost the effectiveness of your email newsletter and ensure it doesn’t end up as cyber trash.
1. Make it Look Good. Simple, right? You’d be surprised. An easy-to-read newsletter with appealing fonts, colors and pleasing overall design is crucial for breaking through the clutter and captivating readers. Popular email marketing campaign software, such as MailChimp, Constant Contact and Campaign Monitor provide users with an abundance of ready-to-use templates that take a lot of the guesswork out of design. Better yet, these templates are usually formatted to work well on mobile devices – which is of utmost importance since mobile devices took over desktop computers as the most-used method for accessing the internet.
2. Make Them Want To Sign Up. Everyone likes to know what's in it for them. Providing existing subscribers with incentives in your emails is a sure-fire way to boost open and click-through rates. Target new subscribers with signup bribes such as one-time product discounts, gifts, coupons, or similar type of bonus for subscribing to your newsletter. The nominal cost of incentives are easily offset by the increase in subscribers and click-through traffic. You also get an excellent opportunity to share insight into your business model or services through your newsletter content. Incentives keep readers engaged and anticipating your next email newsletter.
3. Make it Worthwhile. We’ve all stumbled through bush-league newsletters. Give subscribers a reason to read your newsletter by providing great content. Topics should be aligned with key business initiatives, but narrow enough in scope that they provide razor-sharp focus. Newsletters also should primarily be educational rather than promotional – you can only insert so much marketing-speak before readers click the trashcan icon in their email software. Pay particular attention to subject lines, headlines, and lead paragraphs – these are the first reader touch points. Engage readers here and you are more likely to engage them throughout the body of the newsletter. Lastly, have just one Call To Action and make sure it’s subtle – it’s safe to assume your readers know you want them to click through to your site and check out your products.
4. Promote it Through Social. Social media is an excellent – and free – tool that can significantly boost your newsletter following. There are several ways you can use Facebook to increase your subscribers.
- Facebook Pages provides a Call to Action sign-up button that can be set up to easily add new subscribers.
- Post teasers with key highlights of your newsletters and ask readers to subscribe to read the rest of the content. The goal is to make them feel they are missing out on important knowledge by not being subscribers.
- Create a contest or giveaway where readers provide email addresses as part of their contest entries. Make sure they know that participating in the contest also comes with a subscription to your newsletter.
Always Tweet and post about a newsletter every time one is published and provide a “subscribe now” link. Additional Tweets should tease incentives, coupons or other giveaways found in your newsletters.
Strict adherence to these guidelines can make your subscriber count skyrocket. View your newsletter in the same vein as you do your main products and services. These are the things that have helped your business stand out. Develop your newsletter with the same pride you’ve taken in creating your other offerings and you’ll soon have a massive base of loyal subscribers.