Every internet marketer will tell you “the money’s in the list.” This means traffic to your website or blog isn’t any good (from a financial point of view) until they join your email list, often a newsletter.
In the early days of internet marketing it was easy to get subscribers. You just put a sign-up box on your website that read “sign up for newsletter”. People signed up because it was new and they were only getting a handful of emails a day.
In 2008 however, between personal and business emails, SPAM, and newsletters, everyone is getting way too much mail. As a result, people are much less likely to give up their email address; the cost in additional email is too high.
So if the money is in your list, but people don’t want to join your list, what do you do?
Create a free offer
First, you need to create an enticing offer; something that will compel visitors to take action. Yes, newsletters still work, but you’ll likely also need to give them something extra to get them to sign up. In other words, you need to sell them on your newsletter.
Many people offer a free report, white paper or e-book to new subscribers to their newsletter. If this report has a compelling title and solves a major problem your audience has, this may be a good choice. The problem is, there are so many free reports available, many people download them with the intention of reading them but never do. The report sits on their hard drives gathering virtual dust. As a result, free reports have become less enticing an offer.
Offering a free audio or video may be a better alternative to the free report. Fewer people offer these as an enticement so they have a higher perceived value. Also, more and more people are using MP3 players to multi-task. I do it myself. I download an audio or video and listen at the gym, in the car or while doing housework. For me, an audio or video I can download is usually a more compelling offer than a report – unless I really need the information on the report.
Really sell the subscription
Once you have your freebee to entice people to sign up, you need to sell it. Spend as much time and effort writing your sales copy for your free giveaway as you would a paid product. Yes this product is free, but remember: people don’t want to give away their email address. You need to make it worth their while.
Place your sign-up box in a prominent place on your website, ideally “above the fold” – meaning viewers don’t have to scroll down to see it.
Write an eye-catching headline. Don’t write “sign up for my free …” – that just won’t cut it. Sell whatever solution your free offer provides. If you were looking to lose weight, which headline would grab your attention and make you more likely to sign up?
Sign up for our free weight loss newsletter
Or
Learn How to Lose 20 pounds in Six Weeks
Once you have your free offer and your sign-up box in place there are a number of ways to increase subscriptions. First, if you have a blog, consider adding a sign-up box at the end of your blog posts. According to the Aweber blog, they increased their subscription rate by 50 percent just by adding a sign up box at the end of their blog posts. Hey, if it works for Aweber …
Use a pop-up
Another method for increasing subscriptions is to use the pop-up. A pop-up is a screen that “pops up” whenever someone comes to your site. It grabs their attention and directs the visitor to your sign-up form.
I know many people find them annoying. As a user I do too. But, the thing is they work. And if you use them correctly, you’ll minimize the annoyance factor. If you use a service like Aweber to manage your email list, you can easily create the pop-up and set the parameters.
You can choose the delay before the pop-up appears. If it comes up immediately after a visitor comes to their site they’ll most likely turn if off and ignore it. If the visitor has been there a while they’ll be more likely to be interested in the offer. Aweber suggests conducting a split test – try different delay times and see what the results are.
You can also control how often the pop-up appears. I find pop-ups most annoying when they appear every time I visit a site, even after I’ve already signed up for the offer. Limit the number of times a pop-up appears to visitors to reduce this annoyance factor. If you’re not using Aweber but have a WordPress blog, look for the plug-in “What would Seth Godin do”. It allows you to create a pop-up that appears the first two times someone visits your site.
Also consider adding an image to the pop-up. An eye-catching photo or graphic may keep the visitor there long enough to actually read your headline.
Getting people to sign up for your newsletter has become more difficult, but is not impossible. These simple suggestions are easy to implement and should increase the rate of subscribers to your ezine.
Andrea J. Stenberg
How are you doing with your subscription rate? Have you found a tip that really helps increase subscriptions? Please share it with us by leaving a comment.
