I can’t think of a better way to sell your products and
keep your readers coming back for more than publishing
a newsletter.
It’s worked for both online and offline businesses and
it continues to rank high among sales promotional tools.
From real estate agents and health experts to financial
wizards, newsletters are excellent tools to keep a business
in business.
The concept is simple. Provide quality, original, useful
information that builds trust. Once you’ve given someone
data they can use or information that has helped them solve
a problem you’ve just made it very easy to sell to them on
what you offer.
It’s also a great way to keep them coming back to your site.
Here are ten suggestions for delivering a newsletter that
pulls in and keeps subscribers:
1. Post a newsletter form on every page of your website.
Don’t miss out on subscriptions by posting your form only
on your home page. Visitors often come to subsequent
pages of your site. If your newsletter form is not there, you
could miss out.
2. Make it easy to subscribe.
Unless you’re doing extensive marketing research, all you
need to request on your form is a first name and email address.
If your subscribers have to fill in too much information, they’re
likely to skip the process.
3. Offer something free in return for their name and email.
Give away a free ebook or promotion from another site.
This is an excellent incentive for your readers to sign-up.
4. Always submit a thank you email when receiving a new
subscriber. If you like, construct your thank you in the form
of your newsletter. After thanking your subscriber, inform them
of how often your newsletter is published and include a taste
of what they can expect in future issues. Include information
that will get them excited about what they’ve just signed up for.
5. Use good structure and keep it consistent.
Start out with a table of contents. This lets your viewers
decide what they want to read first. Keep your articles
focused on your topic and keep your content relevant.
If you can, close your newsletter with a tease of what’s in
your next issue.
6. Always provide opt-out instructions.
Distributing your newsletter via the internet requires that
each and every newsletter provides opt-out instructions.
It’s not only required, it’s the law.
7. Publish Often
Try to publish your newsletter at least once a week.
People read a lot on the web and they often sign up for many
different things. If you wait too long between publications
readers may forget they signed up for your newsletter and
opt-out, or worse yet, scream ‘spam’. Keep your viewers
familiar with you and your publication by publishing often.
8. Write to your viewers as if they were your best friends.
Speak to them one on one. Use their name in the
subject line and in your introduction. Tell a story they
can relate to but don’t get too wordy. The idea here is
to make them feel that their best interest is at hand, that
you can relate to their wants and needs and above all,
you want to help.
9. Don’t get carried away with advertisements
Once your readers feel that you are selling them
instead of informing them, they’ll go elsewhere.
Advertisements are ok but keep them in line with
the topic of your newsletter.
10. Test, Test and Retest!
It’s always good to email a test newsletter to yourself.
Check for spelling and grammar errors and make sure all
your links work correctly. Nothing turns off readers faster
than poor spelling, grammar and formatting errors.