Email newsletters are the online nemesis for many bloggers. In the ever-changing blogging landscape, however, it’s an absolute necessity.
Fortunately, I have been collecting customers since I built my first website. That line of communication has benefited my blog in more ways than you can imagine. If you’re still on the fence or just need a few reasons to start your list-building process, here are a few tips.
Google is fickle. If you rely heavily on search traffic, it won’t take long to find that this traffic source is liquid. One day, you’re at the top of the pile. The next day, someone took your place. With a ready audience list, you can rest assured that no one is going to show up.
Email is great for relationships. We all have a sector of shy readers. They may not feel comfortable commenting publicly, but they may feel more comfortable responding to you privately. Email lists are two-way streets, and responding to them is easy
Social media cannot compare. Only a fraction of your social media following sees your updates. Sure a post will go viral every now and then, but that doesn’t mean it yours Readers who are viewing this. The great thing about email is that even if they don’t have time to read it now, it’s not going anywhere. It will wait in their inbox until someone takes action.
Expand your reach. A great feature of newsletter services is integration with social media. Your latest newsletter can be sent automatically through your social profiles to give another set of followers the chance to see it. Your newsletter can also include social sharing buttons that allow your subscribers to share your news with their friends and followers.
Revenue on demand. If you’re looking for some extra cash or replacement clients in a pinch, your email list can be a lifesaver. You can hold a quick “fire sale” or let your customers know that your business has an opening and ask for referrals. You can also inform members of your list about short-term sales from others that may be of interest and for which you are an affiliate.
You own it. Facebook owns your page. Twitter owns your profile. Your RSS feed may be controlled by another entity. If you pay for an email newsletter service, you own your list If you decide you want to use another service, you can export that customer list and take it with you. You certainly can’t do this with your social media following.
How to get more newsletter subscribers
In 2015, growing my email subscribers became a priority. I have been above average for the past eleven months 3,000 new subscribers per month. That is very good. And in 2017 I took additional steps to increase these numbers even further. Here’s how I’m doing it.
Frequently ask your social media followers to join your email list. Remind them to make sure they get your updates. Maybe you can even offer occasional subscriber-only posts. Add a link to your opt-in box in the About section Facebook recently added one Call-to-action button This is a great place to include that link.
At the end of the post opt-in box works wonderfully. I got more customers with my pop-up and end-of-post boxes in six months than I did with my sidebar box in four years. Analyze and optimize! Again, I use OptinMonster for this.
Give them something extra. We talked earlier about a free signup bonus offer, but don’t let it end there People who receive my newsletter don’t just get posts. They can get latest job leads, trending posts, updated posts, special offers and more. My newsletters don’t take hours to compile, but it’s worth spending five minutes to find something great to share.
Ask commenters to sign up. If someone already likes your posts so much that they feel the need to comment, they’re more likely to sign up for your email — if you ask them to. Most newsletter services have a plugin that will add a checkbox to your comments or you can redirect commenters to a special page asking them to sign up. It works!
Make long posts downloadable. This is one of my favorite tips of all time and has produced instant results. Go through your most popular posts and see if there are any that are exceptionally long but useful (like 101 Tips, 50 Ways, etc.). We create these huge lists as share-bait, but it’s rarely enough to execute the 100 things we recommend to land something on that post. If you make this content available for them to take later, they’ll think you’re awesome. Convert it to a .pdf file and make it available as an incentive to those viewing the post Create a special sign-up form and insert it into that post and that post only You can see an example I made here.
Add a link to your guest posting bio. If you’re offering a customer incentive that fits the guest post you’re writing, as you should, include a link on your landing page letting readers know they can get that freebie.
I said before Analyze and optimize. This is very important when growing your list. Most newsletter services like Seva will allow you to create unlimited sign-up forms. Even if they all look the same, set them up for each area so you can track results; At the end of the post, sidebar, popup, social media. If something doesn’t work, change it.
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