|
Cooler Tips #49 |
Grow Your Email List: Five No-Nonsense Tips
Hello CoolerEmail Subscriber!
A productive email list is one that's continually growing. That takes a little effort. Here are five tips to help you identify where your subscribers are coming from and how you can increase the size of your opt-in subscriber list.
Get them to your website
People that visit your website are natural candidates to subscribe to your list. Keep track of the number of visitors that you're getting on your website and the number of subscriptions. This is your newsletter signup 'conversion rate'.
An average conversion rate is about 5%. A very good conversion rate is around 15%. But you should assume that you can always do better. One simple thing to help boost that rate is to be sure that there is a sign-up form on every page of
your website and that it's easy to find. I know a lot of companies that are have had great success with pop-up or pop-under subscription forms. These make sure that before your visitor leaves your site, they've had the opportunity to sign
up for your mailing. It's a little in-your-face, but it does work.
Contests
These can be a double-edged sword, but it may be worth a try. When you run a contest or sweepstakes of some kind, you can really get an influx of subscribers. But they may not all be 'qualified' subscribers. Some people only subscribe to
a list to get in on the contest and then immediately unsubscribe. They're not really interested in your services or products. So keep track of what happens to your list after the contest. If you're getting too many unsubscribes, this may
not be a worthwhile avenue for you. On the other hand, contest can be a great way of increasing your visibility to those who are on the fence. It may be just the thing that draws them in and gets them interested in what you've got to
offer. So experiment with this and see what works for you.
Get Some Online Advertising
The more visible your site - and your newsletters - is the greater the possibility that you'll get subscribers. The cool thing about online advertising is that you don't need to sell them on your services immediately. You just need to
pique their interest enough to sign up for your newsletter. Then you can let your newsletter sell to them (discretely) over time as you build a relationship.
Do a web search for possible 'partner' organizations that you can approach about putting a link or a subscribe form on their sites. If you're in a similar - but non competing field - they might be interested in expanding their offerings to
their visitors. Also, check out Overture's pay-per-click services to help get your site listed higher in the search ratings. You can start out for as little as $50, but get one of their consultants to help you at first. They're good at
brainstorming possible search terms to help get your site a better ranking. You then place a bid for each search term. You get to see what other sites are bidding on that search term, so you can bid higher if you'd like.
Check Your Abandonment Rate
If you've got a separate newsletter sign-up page, check to see how many people are coming to it but leaving before they subscribe. If you've got your subscribe form on every page, these two tips will work for you too.
1. Request less information. Seeing an long list of 'required' items that need to be filled out just to subscribe to a newsletter can be a turn off. Limit the amount of information you're gathering to 5-7 items and don't make them all
required.
2. Get rid of intrusive questions. Items like race, religion, weight, income, and so on really shouldn't be on a subscribe form. Your job is to make your form as 'friendly' as possible. Don't try to exclude subscribers. That can really
backfire. The right customers will naturally select themselves through the process of reading your newsletter.
Use CoolerEmail's CoolerTracks to see how your visitors are moving around your site and interacticing with your email. CoolerTracks can give you some clues as to which pages are more popular with visitors. By tuning into their interests
and delivering related content, you'll be able to reduce your abandon rate. Another useful tool in CoolerEmail's arsenal is Hot Prospects. This feature will let you know who keeps coming back to your emails for multiple reads. It can help
give you a clue to what your readers are thinking and fine tune your content to match.
Now Keep Going
Growing your email lists - as with developing any relationship - takes effort and some time. Chances are that you'll need a mix of the above tactics. Try each one individually to start and measure the results. Other things to test are your
copy, design, sign-up form placement, and different offers. Map out a test pattern and keep experimenting. Discard what definitely doesn't work and fine tune those things that do.
This article was written by Barbara Saunders, noted marketing collateral designer and owner of Newsletter Associates, a complete newsletter service helping small businesses grow client relationships. For more
information, visit
www.newsletters-inc.com. Pump up your marketing in 2004. All right reserved. (c) 2004 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Cooler Bytes |
Send e-commerce enabled emails?
Increase your sales by allowing for "impulse buys" directly from an email campaign. Leveraging off CoolerEmail's secure email deployment system, you can offer your customers the ability to purchase goods and services (or make donations, in
the case of fundraising organizations) directly from your CoolerEmail campaigns.
First, you'll need a web-enabled merchant account. Most banks offer this service, as well as third-party vendors like
Authorize.net.
Paypal is particularly simple. Once your account is set up, creating your 'buy now' code takes only a minute. You then simply copy and paste this code into the body of your email. The code is encrypted so your readers can be assured
that it's safe.
When someone makes a purchase, you receive and email to let you know funds have been deposited into your PayPal account. PayPal even has their own debit card now, so you have immediate access to your funds. Give it a try on your next email
campaign.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you ... |
We are always striving to make CoolerEmail even better. Customer requests for feature enhancements are responsible for many additions. If you have feedback or suggestions, please send them to
suggest@cooleremail.com.
And as always.... be cool!
The CoolerTeam---
|
|
|
|
|
|
|