7 Easy-To-Do Action Steps For Attracting Hundreds Of New Subscribers And Growing Your Opt-in E-mail List

I think it really goes without saying that a newsletter is a
POWERFUL MARKETING TOOL. Any promotions that you send to
your customers and subscribers in the future will be that
much more successful because with your newsletter, you will
have...

- established your credibility,
- developed a reputation as an industry expert,
- cultivated a relationship with your subscribers,
- inspired customer loyalty,
- and maintained regular contact.

Regularly give your subscribers useful or entertaining
information that they will benefit from, and they will come
to trust you, respect you, AND BUY FROM YOU!

Sounds great, right?

But now you’re probably left wondering, "How do I get
people to subscribe?" After all, you can write hundreds of
newsletters, but if you only have a handful of subscribers,
it can be a lot of work for little reward.

The BIG MISTAKE I see a lot of e-business owners making is
thinking that simply posting a "subscribe today" box on
their web sites -- and then forgetting about it -- is going
to attract subscribers by the thousands.

Even if your web site is highly trafficked, this is going
to produce disappointing results.

You need to be prepared to ACTIVELY PROMOTE YOUR NEWSLETTER,
much the same way you would promote any other product or
service online.

STEP #1: Promote Your Newsletter On Your Web Site!

Yes. Definitely promote your newsletter on your web site.
But the keyword here is "promote."

How motivating is it for a visitor to give you his or her
name and e-mail address when presented with a subscribe box
titled, "Subscribe to my free newsletter"?

Why? Why should I subscribe? How will I benefit from
subscribing? What am I going to get?

Just because your newsletter is "free," doesn’t mean I want
it. There are plenty of free newsletters out there I could
subscribe to. What makes yours different or special?

You really need to "sell" your free newsletter to potential
subscribers. In one or two short, exciting sentences CLEARLY
STATE THE BENEFITS OF SUBSCRIBING to your newsletter. For
example, if your web site was golf related, you might say
something like,

"Subscribe to the FREE 'Golf Tips' Newsletter and receive
monthly tips and advice from Pro Golfers. Improve your
swing, hear about world renowned golf courses, learn
which clubs the experts prefer, PLUS MUCH MORE!"

It sounds a lot more interesting than "Subscribe to my free
newsletter," don't you think? Visitors to your web site will
think so, too!

The other tip I’d like to share is about WHERE you should
place your newsletter subscription box on your web site.

First of all, DON'T HIDE IT! Your goal should be to make
sure that everyone who visits your web site is offered the
opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter at least once,
if not twice.

Your newsletter subscription box should appear "above the
fold" (i.e., it should be immediately visible on the first
screen) of your homepage. This is where you’ll GET THE BEST
RESPONSE -- and the most subscribers!

STEP #2: Offer Existing Customers A Subscription

Have you offered your existing customers a subscription to
your newsletter? If you haven’t, you should e-mail them an
offer like this as soon as possible! This is an easy way to
GET A FLOOD OF NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS.

And be sure to add a subscription offer to your "thank you
for ordering" page or e-mail. If someone is interested
enough in your product or service to purchase it, you can
be sure they’ll want to subscribe to your newsletter.

Don’t miss this opportunity to MAINTAIN CONTACT WITH
EXISTING CUSTOMERS!

If you’ve offered a free subscription to your customers but
received a poor response, consider making things a little
more interesting by offering them a "special gift" like a
free article or eBook when they subscribe.

This EXTRA INCENTIVE should dramatically boost the number
of new subscriptions you receive.

STEP #3: Promote Your Newsletter In Your E-mail Signatures

An electronic signature -- also referred to as a "sig file"
-- is a three to six line footer that you can attach to the
bottom of your e-mail messages and public forum postings.

And it's a PRIME SPOT to advertise your newsletter!

Unlike a lot of other blatant advertisements, a sig file is
universally accepted, so take advantage of this perfect
opportunity to plug your newsletter! Anyone who receives an
e-mail from you will also receive your invitation to
subscribe to your newsletter.

Chances are, if you’re e-mailing them, they already have a
DIRECT INTEREST in your industry or niche, so take advantage
of this and offer them a free subscription right at the
bottom of any e-mail you send!

STEP #4: Ad Swap With Other Newsletters & E-zines

A great trick for increasing your subscriber base involves
contacting other newsletters that relate to your target
market and offering to swap ads with them.

Tell the newsletter owners that you'll promote their
newsletter to your subscriber base if they'll return the
favor. This is a great way for both of you to INCREASE
YOUR READERSHIP!

Subscribers will appreciate the recommendation of another
source of QUALITY INFORMATION, and as long as the sites you
swap with are complementary and not competitive, it's not
going to hurt your business at all.

STEP #5: Promote Your Newsletter In Newsgroups, Discussion
Lists, and Forum Postings

Another good place to promote your newsletter and locate
targeted potential subscribers is in newsgroups, discussion
lists, and forums that relate directly to your industry or
niche. Simply post a brief description of your newsletter
and a link to your subscription page.

STEP #6: Offer Subscribers The Opportunity To Give Gift
Subscriptions

Offer or announce "gift subscriptions" in your newsletter
that encourage your current subscribers to send gift
subscriptions to friends.

You can automate your web site to send the gift subscription
with a little blurb stating whom the gift is from and what
they will be receiving (and the opportunity to unsubscribe,
of course!).

A friend of mine has built most of his mailing list doing
this alone. He went from 5,000 subscribers to over 16,000
subscribers in less than a year just using this one
technique.

STEP #7: Renting Opt-in E-mail Lists

Renting e-mail addresses from third-party list providers is
a route that some new newsletter owners choose because you
are given QUICK ACCESS to a list of hundreds, if not
thousands, of people who have "opted" to receive e-mail on
topics that interest them.

You can usually expect to be charged 5 to 20 cents per
deliverable message, and you should expect any e-mail
addresses that are "bad" or that "bounce" to be replaced by
addresses that are current.

If you decide to use a service like this, it's ABSOLUTELY
CRITICAL that you find out how the e-mail addresses were
obtained.

You want e-mail addresses that have been collected ethically
and responsibly, and this means that you want the e-mail
addresses of people who:

a) are directly interested in your product, industry, or
field of expertise, and

b) have given their permission and "opted-in" to the list.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you buy lists of e-mail addresses that
have been "harvested" from newsgroups, classified ad sites,
online services, etc., you’ll be accused of spamming!

These people have NOT given you permission to contact them,
and you can get into a LOT of trouble this way. Again, I
can’t overstate the importance of making sure that the
e-mail addresses you rent have been collected ethically and
responsibly!

A few reputable third-party list providers who offer
targeted opt-in e-mail lists are:

Postmaster Direct http://www.postmasterdirect.com
YesMail http://www.yesmail.com
E-Target http://www.e-target.com
Targ-it http://www.targ-it.com
Focalex http://www.focalex.com
TargitMail http://www.targitmail.com

Buying or renting e-mail addresses this way can get very
expensive, so you need to be sure that your entire sales
process (i.e., your web site, your sales copy, your ordering
system) has been tested and tweaked before you roll out an
e-mail campaign like this in full force.

Do some tests using a few thousand addresses and you should
get a fairly accurate picture of how successful you're going
to be.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Ultimately, your goal should be to develop a relationship
with your subscribers through quality articles in your
newsletter before you even *consider* trying to sell them
anything.

Give them quality information that they will benefit from
in order to establish your credibility and develop a rapport
with them.

Remember that the true value lies in the RELATIONSHIP that
you develop with the person who owns the e-mail address --
not in the e-mail address itself.

It will be the relationship that you develop with your
subscribers that will result in big sales both now and in
the future -- an important point to keep in mind no matter
how many new subscribers you attract.