How to Get and Retain More Subscribers to Your Newsletter

The money is in the list. Any internet marketer will swear by that, if he is even moderately successful in internet marketing. In fact, I was reading an ebook where an internet marketing guru was interviewed. The interviewer asked the question:

“If you were told that whatever you have will be taken away from you, including all your money, equity, home, office, bank balance, etc, but you were allowed to keep just one thing with you, what would it be?” He answered “My customer list. There is one important thing I have built besides the wealth you see, and that is the trust of my customers. If you would take away everything I had, I will build it back again in just a couple of years, if I have my customer list with me.”

I hope you are convinced enough that the money is, indeed, in the list. Let me rephrase that – “The money is in a responsive list”. This means that even if you had a list of 2 million, but if you had an open rate of one percent, and a click-through rate of half percent, don’t ever expect that it will be of much use to you. On the other hand, if you have a very responsive list of 20k and you have an open rate of 50% (some marketers do have that), and a click-through rate of 30%, you would certainly make money from it.

So, how do you get such a high conversion? By taking care of your subscribers! Treat them the same way you would expect others to treat you. Don’t bombard them with commercial offers all the time; give them useful and valuable information in your chosen niche regularly. Be so good to them that they would look forward to receive your newsletter, and not click the “delete” button instantly. Or worst still, if they click on the unsubscribe link, you’ve lost them for ever!

Your emails should contain at least 80% content and maximum 20% commercial pitch. You can adjust these figures but don’t adjust drastically. If you give enough good content regularly, they won’t mind a few pitches, at times. They’ll understand that you too have a living! Some gurus have managed to gain so much trust from their subscribers that they will buy almost anything that the gurus recommend! Those gurus who did not stick to the 80/20 rule find themselves losing the trust of their subscribers, and even being flamed in popular IM forums.

Having covered the most important issue of list management, let me give you a few more tips on getting more subscribers, keeping them, getting them to open your emails, and finally, to click on the links:

To get more people to signup to your newsletter, a good idea is to bait them with a free report or ebook that is not available anywhere else. Have the download link emailed to them instantly when they signup or confirm their subscription. Next, place the newsletter subscription box in a prominent manner on your web page. If it is a long page, sprinkle the “free signup” link throughout the page. Have a link to your privacy policy within the subscription box which also opens in a new window. Also make it very clear that you respect their privacy and you will not rent out or share their email address.

It also makes sense to create an autoresponder series which sends them emails at regular intervals with some nice content. Build your trust slowly and gradually. You can also use a tell-a-friend or viral inviter so that your subscribers can invite their friends and associates to join your newsletter.

To have a good open rate, use an enticing headline and some good interesting content in the first few lines of your email. This is because:

a) Your headline will determine if your subscriber opens it or not.

b) In most email providers (like gmail) you can read the first lines without opening the email.

The headline should preferable contain your subscribers first name. This feature should be inbuilt in your newsletter manager software. It should also preferable contain the most important benefit that the email content offers.

Your email should contain the URL of the link you want them to click at least 2 to 3 times, and once in the PS at the end. Make them to click as easily as you can, without scrolling up or down. A “PS” is very important, for the fact that time is valuable for everyone and most people who receive a lot of emails tend to skim through the email.

Warning: Don’t use hype (at least don’t overuse it), it will escalate your unsubscription rate. Be genuine, don’t promote other products unless you have tried them yourself and validated their worth. And don’t use a misleading headline. If it’s slightly controversial, ensure that the content backs up the purpose of it being so.

I hope you found my article useful and informative. If you would like to read more of my articles, do visit http://www.bharatbhasha.com/author.php/Nirjara%20Rustom. I also write on internet marketing, websites promotion, advertising, copy writing and other IT related stuff, besides others.