How to Create a Newsletter Signup
If you want to increase your newsletter subscribers but do not want to spend a lot of money hiring a professional, there are a few simple things that you can do. One is to create a subscription form on your website. The best subscription form depends on the type of website you have and how it was developed. If you’re not sure what system your website was built on, you can use Email Marketing software that offers several integrations. Constant Contact is a popular choice. They are an industry leader with an easy drag and drop design interface that makes creating newsletters simple and quick. In this article, we will look at how to create a newsletter sign up, how to increase the number of subscribers and how you can generate more revenue and brand loyalty by directly communicating with specific audiences in order to increase conversions.
There are a few different ways you can offer newsletter signups. The free way is to create a new form on your website by using a plugin (how your site was built will determine the best option). After you create your new form, simply add it to the page you want to collect emails. Consider adding a catchy phrase like “sign up to get exclusive offers”. You also want to make sure you set the email address you want the sing ups to get routed to.
If you prefer to use an all-in-one platform, Constant Contact allows you to create the form and the emails in your account. The first step is to sign up for free. Constant Contact gives you a 30 day free trial to make sure they are a good fit before you sign up for a paid plan. After you create your form, add it to your website and then all the sign ups will automatically get sent to your subscriber list. We recommend scheduling a follow up email after someone signs up, which can be automated so you do not have to lift a finger.
If you do not have a website, you can also add a sign up form on your social media account. If you have several followers, you can get hundreds of new sign ups in no time. However, creating a newsletter sign up on your website is best practice since you have full control over the design, content, layout and can provide additional information in a strategic way. Even a landing page will work.
How to Increase the Number of Subscribers
It’s important to bring something to the table if you are asking visitors for their name and email address. Start by creating a compelling lead magnet. A lead magnet is offering some type of incentive or special offer in exchange for their information. This can be in the form of a discount code for your e-commerce store or a digital coupon that gets automatically emailed to them after they subscribe. You can even offer a “how to guide” that is specific to your audience in the form of a PDF or E-book.
Regardless of the type of lead magnet, consider creating an auto responder that has a welcome message. The welcome message should include the type of content they will receive, the number of emails per month and of course, a big “thank you for subscribing” message with a way for them to get in touch if they have additional questions.
Another way to increase the number of subscribers is to run Social Media ads with a call to action that takes them to your subscription page. It’s important to have a new page ready to go based on the objective and the content. This is a good way to create sales funnels, which have specific objectives with a specific call to action. For instance, if you are targeting photographers and offering entry level courses, you want to make sure the page they end up on is related to photography courses. You could even customize the page with a sample of the type of valuable information they will receive exclusively as a subscriber.
Another successful strategy is to study your audience. After running a few campaigns and analyzing the data, you will be able to spend some time getting to know your audience’s preferences and when they engage with your content the most. You can then start to send your emails based on data and learn what will be most relevant to them at different times of the day. For example, if you know your customers tend to engage with content related to finance in the morning, then consider sending an email about this topic during that time slot and not when they’re focused on something else like social media. If you realize a particular segment of your email list checks social media during the afternoon, you can create a post or an ad with a “subscribe” call to action. There have been different studies that show the best days of the week to post on social media. In general, Thursday and Friday between 11am – 3pm are heavy traffic times. But again, it really depends on the platform and your products and services.
Additionally, it’s important to segment your audience based on categories. For instance, create an audience for loyal customers who continuously show your business love. You can send coupons, discounts or free products and services. You can also give them an inside look on what the business is working on or upcoming product launches with the option to reserve a high demand item. You can also create audiences based on demographics, past purchases, geographic area or website behavior and align those with your products and services.
How can you identify which subscribers should be segmented to a particular audience? Here is an example. Let’s say you launched a campaign, webinar or an ad about a specific topic – let’s go with a series that covers “how to make the perfect martini” – and several people subscribed to your restaurant’s newsletter: Consider segmenting those subscribers in an audience you send emails to about drink specials, secret recipes or the drink of the month with a bogo offer.
Leveraging events through Social Media ads is also a great strategy to increase newsletter subscribers. Offer an incentive or promotion related to the event that you know will make your customers happy. Whether they can make it or not, the content could compel them to subscribe for future offers. You could even extend the dates to increase the chance of redeeming your offer, like a retail golf shop offering promotions the week of the PGA Tour. Or a restaurant offering reservations or discounts during the playoffs. You will be surprised how many loyal customers want to feel connected to their favorite businesses.
How to Generate More Revenue & Brand Loyalty
When you offer incentives and customer appreciation discounts, consumers rarely stop in for that one discount. Incentives lead to higher tickets for restaurants, help offset slow business cycles for retail, create new opportunities and leads for service companies and drive more traffic to websites for e-commerce, realtors, contractors, and other service industries. Healthcare can even send healthy tips and reminders to patients.
Content marketing has been around for centuries. Email Marketing is a great way to deliver that content to consumers. Keeping your brand in front of your customers can create a snowball effect with referrals and recommendations as well as social sharing and repeat business. The best part is you can automate Email Marketing and then reallocate time and resources to other revenue streams.
After you have a solid list with high engagement, you can take it a step further by asking for a phone number and then launching an SMS Marketing strategy. Like Email Marketing, Text Message Marketing is a great way to reach customers directly, quickly and strategically. We wrote and article showing how you can increase revenue with SMS Marketing. Email Marketing is still great for content, and since it’s easier to create compelling content with several visuals and beautiful images, we definitely recommend taking an integrated approach to digital branding. However, do not sleep on SMS Marketing – very effective!
Final Thoughts
Email Marketing is a proven and effective way to increase revenue, brand loyalty and direct communication with your customers. It is more of a long run play with short run strategies. In the beginning, it will take time to build your list, to understand your audience and to optimize conversions – do not expect next day results. Constant Contact makes it easy to get started for those new to the game. Their platform is robust and can be integrated with several platforms. If you simply do not have the time or resources to manage your Newsletter program in-house and would rather hire professionals, feel free to reach out – we are always happy to help.
Disclaimer: at no additional cost to you, we may receive compensation when you buy through our links. We only recommend industry leaders and solutions our clients have had success with. Plus, everything we recommend offers a free trial, so you can test the waters before paying a penny.
Do you currently have a Newsletter program or strategy? Have you tried other platforms? Thoughts?
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