Investing energy and time into growing your newsletter is a good idea. In truth, you won’t find too many better ideas in marketing. A newsletter sets you apart, has a great ROI, and builds something that an algorithm change or third-party restriction won’t take away.But how to do it? I’ve tried everything possible, let’s take a look at the 11 things that have worked best for me.
1. Email footer
For all emails that make it relevant to tell people about the newsletter, add a link to sign up in your signature.
While we’re at it, feel free to add a link to your blog/web article to your signature as well. Seems like a small thing. And a little thing it is. But when you consider how many emails you send (not to mention the people who forward your emails), it’s definitely worth the minimal effort.
2. Create a lead magnet
A lead magnet is a “gift” that you offer your potential subscribers for signing up for your newsletter.
It can be
- free ebook
- webinar
- quick consultation
- pdf with 25 best resources…
Anything.
It’s not about having the best lead magnet in the world. It may be worth investing a ridiculous amount of time in it, but in the beginning it’s definitely true: no lead magnet & no lead magnet.
And believe me, even if you write 10 links to resources in Word and offer this document as a lead magnet, it will help your conversions substantially.
If you then add a Canva “cover” to it, followed by a mockup, your conversions can easily fly through the ceiling.
3. Promote a lead magnet
I’ve seen ridiculously good campaigns about Lead Magnet that have resulted in 12,500 subscribers to a person’s list after publishing a lead magnet. But I’ve also seen plenty of lead magnets (98%) that had no campaign at all.
You can’t find out about a lot of lead magnets except directly from the site they are offered on.
It’s not a bug, but it’s a shame.
On all networks where you are active, I highly recommend:
- Post about a lead magnet you are creating, what it will be about, what it will help people with…
- Publish a “promotional post” announcing the release of the leadmagnet once it is finished
There is no need to “create” any content. Nobody has time for that. Especially if they’re preparing a lead magnet. It’s all about “documenting.”
If it’s an ebook, you can show parts of the text, same for videos. It’s a bit of extra work, but you’ll see that this work will pay off handsomely the moment the lead magnet comes out.
4. Sending bonus content to articles
- See what articles on your blog are doing well
- Create some bonus material to go with the article (Checklict in Notion, PDF, short video…)
- Include a simple newsletter signup in the article, with those who sign up being sent that bonus content immediately
I recommend using Mailer Lite for this purpose, which can create just such an automation. It’s free.
For the login form, focus mainly on the wording of the “login sentence”. It should be as enticing as possible and contain a promise of what it will help the person solve.
You can also help yourself with mockups and graphics from Canva.
5. Offline
- Tell the person you have a newsletter
2. Ask him if he would be interested in subscribing
3. Write down his email and then manually add him to your subscriber list
You may have noticed and find it odd that we don’t send any links to the people in question, nor do we try to get them on the list online.
We take our highly valued time and spend it signing up and then manually adding subscribers to the list.
Why?
Because it’s incredibly worthwhile.
Whether you take as a proxy the classic (hard to verify) dictum that 1 subscriber = $1/month, or read the book Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday – you’ll find that it really is.
If you don’t believe me and the book hasn’t convinced you either, try it for 3 months on yourself and your list.
Let me know what your experience is. Although I would venture a guess as to the outcome :).
6. Put some of your content behind an email gateway
What does this mean?
Your visitors won’t see the full content unless they have it emailed to them/do not sign up for the newsletter.
In the case of this article, it might look like the first 7 tips would be classically publicly available. However, to get the other 4, you would have to have them emailed to you/subscribe to the newsletter.
This is a great strategy, you just need to use it artfully. Strike a balance between making sure people aren’t put off by writing “just for the email” (too much content behind the gate), but on the other hand they find the bonus of “signing up for the newsletter worth it” (not too little behind the gate).
Once you can strike that balance, you’ve won.
7. Quizzes, audits, measurements
As humans, we love to test, measure, compare.
We’re just like that.
If you have even the slightest ability to provide any of this on the web, do it.
- Quiz: 10 SEO questions that will reveal if you have what it takes to rank first on Google
- 5 English phrases that 98% of Czechs say wrong, are you one of them?
- Test: 3 primitive accounting questions that will reveal if you have what it takes to do accounting for a living.
You get the idea…
You can show people the results and offer the option of sending additional content in the mail (correct answers, tips on how to improve to succeed in the test, etc.).
You can also be less “friendly” and if people want to know the result, they have to enter the email you send it to.
You’ll get more emails, but at the cost of annoying a lot of people (I don’t want to give an email and I’ve wasted 3 minutes filling out something I won’t know the result of) and a lot of addresses won’t be of very high quality.
Anyway, I highly recommend giving the quiz tactic a try. You’ll be surprised how many answers (leads) you can get.
There are a variety of online options for creating quizzes, and you can find a list of free ones here.
8. The passive potential of social networks
Add a link to your newsletter sign-up page to your social networks as well.
- To the “about” sections of profiles
- On Facebook and Pinterest, newsletter signups can be set up directly so that people don’t even have to leave that social network’s page to sign up
- If you have a really high quality leadmagnet, you can feature them on forums (reddit + industry)
The possibilities are endless. In general, the more touchpoints (places where people can come across you/your newsletter), the better.
9. Add an opt-in form in the footer and on the “about us”
Self-explanatory.
These posts probably won’t bring you many subscribers, but considering how valuable each subscriber is, it’s definitely worth doing.
10. Use references for your newsletter too
If you already have a newsletter that someone reads, feel free to ask your fans for a “reference.”
You can then display these testimonials on the newsletter sign-up page.
Not too many are needed. Select the 3 best ones. If you can get a reference from someone industry relevant, all the better (these people will appreciate backlinks from the reference to their site).
Either way, references on newsletter sign-up pages definitely belong.
11. Give people a taste of the newsletter
This is best accomplished by giving people access to the last few issues (or all of them) without having to subscribe.
So you can add an archive to your newsletter signup page.
Another option is to publish part of the newsletter, or once in a while the whole newsletter, on other platforms
If your newsletter is good, you’ll see it work. Again, this is the kind of thing that can be achieved with a minimum investment of time.
Thanks for reading! And let me know in the comments which of the tips you’d like to try on your own site!
