Building Your E-Mail Marketing Subscribers through Your Website

If you already have a website that has engaging content and decent traffic, building your e-mail marketing subscriber list won't be too difficult. However, visitors won't just sign up for your ezine because you give them an option to. There are ways to optimize your site for the purpose of building your subscriber list without compromising its current content and making it look like just another sales page. Consider the tips below to maximize your e-mail subscriber list.

Make Your Sign-Up Form Visible

The first step to getting sign ups for your ezine through your website is to let visitors know what you have to offer. Make your sign up form easy to find and position it in a way that it is visible no matter which part of your site the visitor is viewing. Keep it above the fold (i.e., so they don't have to scroll down the page to find it).

Provide Incentives to Subscribers

Due to the many ways e-mail addresses can be used for unfavorable activities, internet users have become wary of signing up for things and entering their e-mail addresses. This is why getting them to subscribe to your mailing list can bring up concerns for privacy. You'll need to give your website visitors powerful incentives to subscribe. A free gift is an excellent incentive. It can be an e-book, a how-to, or a top ten list. Statements like "Register to Receive Our Weekly Newsletter" or "Sign Up for More Information" will no longer be enough. You'll need to experiment with different statements and incentives to find exactly what will work for your specific target audience.

Minimize Required Fields

While getting as much information from a subscriber as you can is a great way to customize your e-mail marketing campaign, it also can be a drawback. Asking for too much information will turn people off and they'll refuse to sign up. Generally, all you really need to ask for is the subscriber's name and e-mail address.

Send an Email At Once

To manage expectations, immediately send e-mails to new subscribers. These e-mails should contain everything new subscribers can expect from your newsletter. The same e-mail should contain instructions that will allow new subscribers to confirm their e-mail addresses. This will help you make sure that all e-mail addresses in your mailing list are valid and all those who subscribed are actually interested in what you have to offer. Doing this will also help you avoid statistical nightmares when tracking the results of your e-mail marketing campaign.

Always remember that visitors won't subscribe to your newsletters just because you have a sign up form on your website. You need to wow them with incentives, entice them with proper communication strategies, and make it easy for them to subscribe! As long as you keep all these in mind, you can make good use of your website to gain subscribers for e-mail marketing.