E-Newsletter Marketing - 7 Tips for Generating E-Newsletter Sign-Ups

By Megan Tsai

You spend hours each month writing and editing content for your e-newsletter. You spend another couple hours with your newsletter program making it look pretty. Then you send it out to your list... of 50 subscribers. Sound familiar?

To many marketers, a list of 50 - or even 500 - subscribers may seem like it's not worth all the effort they put into their e-newsletter. As a result, their newsletter gradually falters and eventually grinds to a halt, and they miss out on the valuable marketing potential it offers.

The remedy for this problem is simple: a constantly growing list of subscribers. After all, there's nothing like knowing you have 50 new newsletter subscribers this month to make you sit down at your desk and write the next issue.

These seven tips will help you market your e-newsletter to generate increased interest and additional sign-ups - putting new prospects in your hopper and keeping you motivated.

1. Call out the troops. Even if you work for a small company with 20 employees, each of those employees may send 50 emails a day. Your marketing department (even if that's just you) has the right to standardize your organization's email footers and mandate that every employee put a link to the newsletter sign-up in it. Instant exposure for your newsletter - and you don't have to lift a finger!

2. Promote the benefits. Your newsletter signup page is your chance to really sell your e-newsletter. Explain exactly how receiving your newsletter will help your prospects; bullet points calling out the newsletter benefits are a great way to do this.

3. Explain what to expect. The reason people are wary about turning over an email address is a fear of too much email or junk email. Explain exactly what you will - and won't - use their email address for and let them know how often you'll be sending email. In addition, mention that they can unsubscribe at any time.

4. Give them a bonus. People crave instant gratification, so consider giving them a bonus such as a white paper or e-book when they sign up for your newsletter. Simply include a link for the prospect to download the bonus content in the auto-response email they receive when they successfully sign up.

5. Don't miss an opportunity. Use every chance you can find to promote your newsletter, including every page on your company's website and your social media pages like Twitter, LinkedIN and Facebook.

6. Leverage conference contacts. When prospects drop their card in a fishbowl at a conference or hand it over to a sales representative, they're indicating their willingness to be contacted. While you never want to send unsolicited email, if you think about how the email addresses were obtained you may decide it's appropriate to add them to your e-newsletter list.

7. Be smart about sign-up. Keep your sign-up form simple and you'll lower the risk of scaring prospects away. Don't require prospects to fill out a dozen fields just to sign up for your e-newsletter, even if most of them are marked "optional". Instead, ask for the bare minimum you need to do your job successfully.

Megan Tsai is a seasoned communicator and award-winning writer. As a full-time freelancer, she provides business writing, copywriting and marketing communications for companies and advertising agencies.

Visit http://www.RedWagonWriting.com to learn more and sign up for the Red Wagon Writing monthly e-mail newsletter full of writing and marketing tips.

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