Welcome to Day 3 of All About Email Week! In case you missed the earlier posts in this series, here's a quick recap. Monday's post covered the benefits of email newsletters, and Tuesday's post focued on why you need to use an email newsletter provider and where to find them.
Now we'll talk about building your subscriber list.
As most of you (hopefully) know, it's not considered kosher to buy email lists or automatically sign people up without getting their permission first. But there are savvier ways to go about it. Here are few ideas to get you started:
- Offer an incentive. Create a giveaway or offer extras to people on your email list. For instance, Denene Brox sends a list of 10 Essay Marks for Weekend Writers when you sign up for her Weekend Writer email list. When I started building my list last year, I created a giveaway of a guidebook I'd worked on for people who signed up by a certain date. Obviously, a giveaway has a limited time frame, but it also creates a sense of urgency.
- Leverage social media. It's definitely possible to go overboard with this one, but when I'm working on that month's newsletter, I might tweet about it or post in my LinkedIn status with a link to my opt-in page. People who see it and get curious sometimes sign up that way.
- Play up your opt-in page. Be sure that people can easily find your opt-in page by posting a link (or even a cool-looking banner) on your website, blog, or in your email signature. Mine is listed in the blog sticky at the top of this page. Maria Schneider of Editor Unleashed also suggests including the link at the end of each post so it's unmissable (notice I've stolen her idea and used it throughout this series!).
- Include the "forward to a friend" option. I love this option, because it's easy and lets your subscribers share your newsletter with friends who might be interested in subscribing themselves.
- Use offline promotions, too. I can't remember who suggested this or I would credit her, but someone at a networking seminar suggested that when you exchange business cards with someone, you ask if they'd like to get your email newsletter. If they say yes, you can make a note on their card and sign them up manually so they don't have to do it themselves.
Are there other strategies that have proved successful for you? Leave a comment and let us know!
Of course, having a long list of subscribers is pointless if you don't deliver quality content, because they might decide not to open your emails, or worse, unsubscribe altogether. Tomorrow we'll talk about creating content, so stay tuned.
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