Here are some tips for marketing your email newsletter:
In the newsletter itself
1. Include valuable and relevant content that your subscribers want to read.
2. Offer something complimentary for subscribing. Whether it's an article, whitepaper, template, graphics, icons or even a free gift that you post out (although this will cost you money!).
3. Encourage your subscribers to forward the email newsletter to a friend - this allows you to grow your subscriber base virally through your existing subscribers.
4. Provide a free whitepaper or ebook only to your subscriber-base as a gift. Once again, encourage subscribers to pass this valuable content on to their own contacts.
On your website
5. Place your subscription offer high up on your home page and on each page of your site.
6. Make sure you promote the benefits of subscribing and provide a sample issue.
7. All the other forms on your site should provide a check box allowing visitors to opt in to receive your email newsletter.
8. Offer an incentive at the time of a purchase on your site so shoppers are made aware of your email newsletter and encouraged to subscribe.
9. If your email newsletter has a name, register it as a domain name and point it at your main subscription page to make it easier for people to find and subscribe to your newsletter.
Offline
10. Include details of your newsletter in your email signature.
11. Mention your email newsletter on your business cards (or brochures).
12. Target subscribers at events by having paper subscription forms for them to fill out. Or offer an incentive such as entering a prize draw by placing their business card in a box to give them a reason to opt in to receive your regular enewsletter.
Third party online sources
13. Include an advertisement for your newsletter in another popular email newsletter (make sure their database is the right target market for you).
14. Write content or guest articles for other newsletters or publications in exchange for a byline and promote your newsletter in the byline.
15. Tweet about your newsletters so your Twitter followers can subscribe.
16. Respond to requests for help on online forums and social networking sites such as Linked-in and include brief details of your newsletter in your signature.
I have an email newsletter called Net News & Views that I have been writing every two months for seven years and one of the best strategies that has worked for me has been to make a paper/hard copy available and give subscribers the choice of how they would like to receive it.
I also hand out hard copies at events or to new prospects to give them a sample and encourage them to subscribe. About 50% of my subscribers receive a hard copy and many keep them and refer back to them or pass them on to a friend.
What tips for marketing our email newsletter have worked for you?
“ Make sure you promote the benefits of subscribing and provide a sample issue. ”
Melissa Norfolk is an Internet expert who speaks to business, school and community groups about online marketing, email newsletters, effective use of the Internet, finding what you need online and Internet safety.
