Bonus: 25 More Ways to Increase Subscribers to Your Email Lists

[et_bloom_locked optin_id=optin_2]

 1. Mention people with large followings in Social Media in your newsletter and tweet the online link to your newsletter – hoping the mentioned people will engage it. You are playing the law of averages with this one. Make sure that what you are sharing is relevant to your readers, but go for this. Any attention you can receive from a large thought leader is incredibly helpful.

2. Cross promote newsletters with a complementary business. This is a great strategy, but not necessarily for the beginner. Follow complementary business email newsletters and be selective in who you approach with this idea. This could reap great rewards.

3. Recruit subscribers at offline events like trade shows. If your business is one that attends tradeshows or conferences. A major goal should be getting people to sign-up. Run contests, ask for people to fill out information cards. Whatever you need to do in order to get email addresses.

4. Ask people. Someone gives you a business card – Ask, ‘Could I put you on my newsletter list?’ Anytime you meet someone that you think could genuinely benefit from your newsletter or email campaign ask them if you could add them to the list.

5. Ask your social media followers to join regularly. Social media is so fickle. You never know who will see your message. This is something you should just have in you plans monthly to ask people to join. If it makes sense run a contest to get new subscribers.

6. Make your opt-in form as simple as possible. The very basic info anyone should need for an email subscription is an email address. If you want you could make a second form after they give you their email address and ask them to tell you more about themselves. I’ve seen campaigns like this that work fairly well.

7. Create a free multi-day email course to offer your subscribers. I’ve signed up for a few of these in the past and have found them to be valuable as a customer. If you could create a course and entice people to sign up for your course as part of your strategy. This would include a series of email. A couple that I followed were video courses and only allowed you to view one video per day. This could be an excellent way to get new subscribers.

8. Use the ‘Call to Action’ button on your facebook page to get more sign-ups. Facebook launched this button a little while back. Why not use to get people to sign-up for you newsletter?

9. Offer a product discount when a visitor signs up. This is a great way to entice people to sign up. I’ve seen free gifts on your first order. I’ve seen free shipping on your first order, and I’ve seen percentages off coupons. This is a good idea for eCommerce sites.

10. Make sure that any form on your website allows a user to sign up for your subscription. Many times companies will have a contact form or an event sign up form. Include a radio button in your form and ask if people would sign-up for your newsletter.

11. Provide social proof – tell people how many have signed up for your newsletter. This can be good and bad. If you only have a few people subscribed it could be a deterrent for someone to sign up, but if you are like Social Media Examiner 400,000 email subscribers would make a person feel like they are missing out.

12. Offer graduated discounts – the next 50 to sign up get this discount, the next 100 get that discount, etc. This is a great social media strategy as people will sign up and share this type of post.

13. Find more ways to add subscription links to your website. Look through the design of your website and find additional places where you could put a link to subscribe. Many successful websites have 3 or 4 places above the fold where they ask visitors to sign-up.

14. Reassure your visitors Make them feel safe giving away their email address. State that you aren’t going to sell their address or send them a bunch of ads.

15. Give an answer to the question, “what’s in it for me?” This is a great way to frame your website’s newsletter sign-up page that you use to convince people to sign-up. Try to answer questions you think your visitors might have about your newsletter.

16. Create a high-value piece of content an ebook or white paper that is only downloadable after sign-up. This is similar to the content upgrades. This is an especially effective strategy in a Business-to-Business environment. Share the link to the content across social media, send it to influential bloggers and maybe even buy ads to get people to that page.

17. Run a contest where newsletter sign up is required to enter (do this on social media and also require them to share the post). I have done this many times for clients with great success. Offer one or two items that you are going to give away for anyone who signs up for your newsletter and shares the social media post is entered to win. Plug all the names in an excel spreadsheet and run the random function to choose a winner.

18. Increase the amount of newsletters you offer. Separate your subscribers into smaller subsets and send them info that you know will interest them. This will make your subscribers more likely to share your newsletters with a friend who would benefit from the newsletter.

19. If you interact with your clients or customers every day, have a paper sign up sheet and ask them to sign up. This works best if you have a physical location that people visit. People will sign-up if offered.

20. Treat your blog home page as an email capture form. Your blog is a place where people expect deeper information on subjects you write about. They are primed to get your newsletter because that is their frame of mind. Ask, ask and ask again on that page.

21. Partner with a local business and host a mutually beneficial event and get people to sign-up. These types of events are great because you are inviting your customers and clients as well as the other businesses are inviting their customers and clients to the event. This gets you in front of an audience that should be interested in what you have to say.

22. Ask current subscribers to forward your email on to friends. This might seem simple, but like I’ve said throughout this list, a simple ask can go a long way.

23. Ask people to join on your receipts. Do you sell products and give receipts? Even the most basic cash registers allow you to print custom messages on your receipts – create a landing page with an easy URL to type on your receipt and direct your customers there.

24. Find speaking opportunities and weave into your presentation that your audience can get more information on the topics you are speaking on from your newsletter. This might be outside of your comfort zone, but there are so many conferences and events that need speakers. A simple Google search for, ‘a call for speakers’ would give you a plethora of options. When you are speaking simply offer it to your attendees.

25. Mention the sign-up URL on your voicemail. If people call your business place a message in your voicemail with an easy to remember URL to sign-up for your newsletter.

[/et_bloom_locked]