Email newsletters are an excellent way to expand your reach and fill your sales funnel with soft leads that can turn into customers in the future. Just how do you build a robust email newsletter? Well, for starters, you will need to write good email copy. This is a different skill set than longer form copywriting such as blog and website copy. But before you even get to the copywriting part, you first need to implement an email capturing strategy that will make signing up effortless for your subscribers. There are several ways to do this, and we will discuss them below.
Successful email newsletters are both informative and value-packed, but they are first and foremost a sales strategy. Your newsletter should be about staying in front of prospective customers. Your chances of converting email subscribers to future residents starts with your subscriber capturing strategy.
Feeling stuck or flat out lost on how to capture more email subscribers? Here are 5 proven strategies that are sure to do just that.
1. Reduce the Clicks
First and foremost, reduce the number of clicks it takes for a potential subscriber to sign up for your newsletter. The goal should be just one. You can accomplish this goal through an embedded data capture that is strategically placed on your website. An embedded data capture eliminates the need for your potential subscribers to click away from the current page they are on, which reduces the number of clicks (and the effort) it takes to subscribe.
You’ve no doubt seen these embedded data captures on websites. They commonly pop up after you’ve scrolled to a certain point, or spent a certain amount of time on the site. They are also commonly posted on the side bar where they stay in your line of sight as your scroll.
Embedded data captures require minimal information from subscribers. Sometimes it’s a name and email address, sometimes it’s just an email. Either way, this is about as simple as it gets, and when it comes to getting your visitors to subscribe to your newsletter, simpler is always better.
2. Incorporate Promotional Offers
Want to grow your subscriber count? Offer new subscribers something in return. This could be a gift card or a complimentary meal at your community’s dining venue. Many businesses offer free resources that come in email form. This is a great way to both entice your visitors to subscribe while also positioning your company as an authoritative voice on a certain topic or within an industry.
If you decide to take the email resource route, we recommend including a few lines from the resource below the subscriber form as a preview to what your readers can expect. You’ll only have a line or two, so make sure that it catches their attention immediately.
3. Add a Sign-Up Option to Your Comments Section
Do you have a comment section on your website? Maybe it’s part of your review section. Or maybe it’s just a helpful forum. Whatever form your comment section may be in, it’s common practice to require visitors to provide their email before they post their comment. This is an excellent opportunity to position an option to subscribe to your newsletter. A simple and small “subscribe to our newsletter” box that can be easily checked is all it takes.
4. Leverage Your Social Media Profiles
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are all excellent places to build your subscriber count. More people than ever are accessing the internet from mobile devices, and much of their time is spent on social media. If you already have a robust social media presence, or even if you are still growing your following, your social posts are ripe for invitations to subscribe to your newsletter.
With Facebook and Instagram becoming onlines store fronts, we recommend running consistent promotions on your social media accounts. You can use these promotions to grow your subscriber count, or even position specific offers for new email subscribers, just like you would on your website. Your social media posts have the potential to be far more visible than your website, making them a stronger email subscriber capturing strategy.
5. Utilize an Email Subscribe Call to Action
One of the best places to put your subscribe form is at the end of each of your blog posts. The best way to do this is in the form of a call to action (CTA), such as “Subscribe to our newsletter for more tips, tricks, and strategies.” If you provide informative and engaging content with actionable advice, then you will likely see your subscriber count increase as a result.
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