This is a critical component of your internet marketing strategy. Getting subscribers on your email list. The idea is that when someone comes to your website, to read an article or your blog, or even buy a product, they may want to stay in touch with you. So you must give them a way to keep in touch, you’re going to ask them to join your newsletter or email list.
You could say:
well, why don’t they just bookmark my website and come back later?
The Problem
In an ideal world, that’s all that a visitor would have to do. But we have so much going on in our lives and we have so much information that comes across our browsers that we tend to forget to come back to a website. Even though we really wanted to and meant to.
The Solution
The solution is to offer your visitors a way for them to receive updates. As I’ve mentioned before, you can send updates about your website in a variety of ways; Twitter, Facebook and even RSS. But as of now and for the past 10 years or so, e-mail updates have the highest proven and measurable ROI. They are the most effective method of reaching your customers.
To get people on your email list, you need to give them the option. Usually, you’ll see a sign-up box on the sidebar that allows them to enter their name and email and click join. This in turn sends people to your email list service and puts them into your list. You can then send them updates whenever a new blogpost or article is posted on your site, and you can also send them newsletters and other emails. Ideally, you would setup an autoresponder series of emails, but we’ll cover that in a later blogpost.
But what if you already have that on the sidebar and you are not getting people to join? The first thing I would look at is to give your visitors a good reason to join. If you sell something, offer them a coupon or discount in return for joining your newsletter updates. If you only blog, then make a call to action at the bottom of your posts inviting them to join your list so they don’t miss future articles. The key for people to join is to offer them something great, on internet marketing terms, you need to make them an irresistible offer.
It could be that you give them a free download, a video, an mp3, or an ebook; you could also offer a discount. The key is something irresistible, when you’re a blogger then your articles must be of high quality and interest so people want to join your list.
Ok, so what if you already have all that?
Maybe people are still not joining your list, or you want to make sure people have a chance to opt-in to your list. That’s the term for “signing up”; when people join your newsletter, they are “opting in” to your list.
If your content is already great, and you’re offering a great reason for people to join your list, then I would recommend you take a look at an awesome plugin that will absolutely help you increase the number of people that sign up to your email list. I can almost guarantee it.
The plugin is running on this website. Did you notice the first time you visited, a pop-up came up asking you to join my newsletter? That plugin works! It lets people join your list and focus on your message instantly without having to search for your sign-up box.
Another great thing about the plugin is that it works with all major email list services. I recommend Aweber, but it works with the others as well.
It is easy to use and easy to install. Check out the plugin right here and let me know if you install it, I’d love to hear about your experience with it. For me, it has increased signups by about 260% since I implemented it. And believe me, that’s hard to do!
