Are you struggling to add new leads to your email marketing list?
You’re not alone. It’s not uncommon for marketers and small business owners to wonder why getting more newsletter subscribers is difficult. The good news is that it’s not as hard as you might think.
It simply takes a willingness to learn new strategies that help website visitors and social media followers see why your newsletter is their best option.
In this article, you’ll learn new ways to get more subscribers to your email marketing list.
Why Some Business Owners Struggle to Get Subscribers
Getting new subscribers for your email marketing list is a matter of getting website visitors and social media followers to see the value in receiving regular updates from you.
Many business owners, solopreneurs, and marketers struggle to add people to their list to fail to solve problems. Your audience won’t see value in giving away their email address information if they don’t see that you can solve a tangible problem for them.
Ask yourself the first small problem you can help them solve that would lead them to buy your main product or service.
For example, if you’re a freelance graphic designer, your newsletter might offer ways to reduce the amount of time it takes to find quality photos for social media posts. Or, if you’re a new restaurant owner, you might send out recipes that feature your specialty dishes.
You’ll build trust with your audience when you solve problems instead of pitching them harder.
Create a Winning Lead Magnet
Once you understand the problem you’ll solve to entice new subscribers, you then need to create a lead magnet to give away. A lead magnet is a downloadable piece of content that gives website visitors or social media followers the solution to their problem.
It’s also referred to as an opt-in bribe because people must provide their email information to receive it. The best lead magnets are timely, unique, or exclusive content that people would have difficulty finding on their own.
For example, if you’re an accountant who helps clients reduce their taxes, you might send new subscribers a helpful checklist that allows them get organized before the annual tax filing deadline.
If you’re a fitness professional who helps people get in shape for spring break, your lead magnet could end up as a 10-day clean eating plan.
Do you see how the two lead magnets solve a tangible problem for the target market audience?
Create an Opt-in Landing Page
Your opt-in page is where website visitors and social media followers enter their email address in exchange for your lead magnet.
The best way to create a landing page is with a tool like Leadpages or Instapage. These tools allow you to create landing pages and opt-in forms that seamlessly integrate with your email service provider.
To create an eye-catching design for your opt-in page, use custom images and videos as well as simple copy that explains the value of joining your newsletter.
Another option to help you collect email addresses is Upscribe. It lets you create custom embeddable signup forms for your website. You can also use it to segment your list and send out newsletter content to your growing list.
Strategically Place Opt-in Landing Page Links
Once you’ve created your opt-in landing page, you then need to decide where to put it as you work on website conversion methods.
The best place for a link is on the pages of your website, where you encourage people to sign up for your newsletter. For example, you might place a prominent subscribe button in every landing page’s header or footer section.
Another option is to create a blog post that teaches something valuable and include an opt-in link in the post’s content. A technique like this helps you give people something useful immediately after they’ve enjoyed your free content.
In addition, you might consider placing subscribe buttons on social media posts.
Strategically Place Your Embeddable Opt-In Forms
If you use Upscribe, for example, to create embeddable opt-in forms, look for the best areas to place them for subscribers to find.
Here are great places to embed opt-in forms on your website.
- The top header area of your website
- Your sidebar area
- Footer of each blog post
- At beginning of blog post content
- In the middle of blog posts
- Underneath blog post content
Use Opt-In Popups
Popups offer a quality way to attract more email newsletter subscribers. Several popup forms exist.
- Timed popups
- Slider popups
- Popups that appear halfway down the page
- Exit-intent popups
A timed popup appears at a specific time within a few seconds of someone visiting your website. Slider popups appear as a window swiping across the screen from left to right or up and down. They usually appear after people spend several minutes on your website.
You can also set up popups that trigger after a website visitor reads a certain percentage of your blog post. Test how well these do after a reader reaches the halfway point of a post, for instance.
Another way to convert more visitors into subscribers is with exit-intent popup forms. These appear after someone visits a landing page on your website and tries to leave without subscribing.
Visitors that leave your website rarely visit again. An exit-intent popup lets you capture a percentage of these people so you can follow up over time with your newsletter.
Use Partnerships
Try one or more of the following partnership opportunities.
- Podcast interviews
- Partner webinars
- Facebook Lives to partner audiences
- Guest posts
- Lead magnet swaps
Podcast Interviews
Reach out to podcasts in your niche and get yourself scheduled for an interview. Let them know upfront that you want to discuss how the podcast listeners can benefit from your newsletter.
You can set up a short promo code or link to include in your interview to bring people over to sign up for your email marketing list. If you’re thinking of starting your own podcast, speak to our friends at Zorbiant.
Partner Webinars
Create a free webinar and reach out to potential partners. Ask them if you can run your webinar to their email list. Imagine partnering with people who already have lists of 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 subscribers, or more.
Focus on delivering free tips for their audience. Your partners struggle every month to create more content to please their large lists. You can step in as the knight in shining armor. Tell your partner they simply need to introduce your webinar to the list, and you’ll do all the work.
Look for partners who have your target audience but don’t compete with your product or service.
For example, if you sell Facebook ad training to entrepreneurs, partner with a software tool that helps that target audience build landing pages for ad campaigns.
Sell your partner on the idea that they’ll sell more software if you help their subscribers understand how to structure their ad campaigns more effectively.
Facebook Live Partnerships
You can partner with others in your niche via free Facebook Live sessions by either promoting their session or getting them to promote yours. You can also do the same thing with partners who have large audiences on YouTube or Instagram.
Guest Posts
Many people who write guest posts for authority websites struggle to gain subscribers while pitching ideas to editors.
However, pitching an idea for a guest post that includes how your newsletter can benefit their audience will get many more requests approved. You can even offer to make it a joint guest post that both of you can then promote to your newsletter lists.
Lead Magnet Swaps
A lead magnet swap is simple and nets instant new email subscribers. You mail your partner’s lead magnet to your list. Your partner mails your lead magnet to their list. You both will instantly get newsletter subscribers from the swap.
Run a Paid Ad Campaign
Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook, and YouTube all offer robust ad campaign opportunities.
Choose one of these platforms to start with. Set up a campaign and start running your ads to gather new subscribers. There are two main methods to consider when beginning a paid ad campaign.
- Run traffic to blog posts
- Run traffic to opt-in landing pages
Tips When Running Paid Traffic to Blog Posts
The best way to see email opt-in success here is by making sure your blog post is set up with prominent opt-in opportunities. Use the popup forms discussed above, such as a timed popup and an exit-intent popup.
Include a link to your landing page opt-in page in the blog post’s header area. Place an embeddable opt-in form near the top of the post, along with a text link inside the post’s written copy.
Use additional embeddable forms and text links throughout the post to entice visitors from your ad campaign to become newsletter subscribers.
Tips When Running Paid Traffic to Opt-In Landing Pages
When running paid traffic to an opt-in landing page, make sure your core offer is top-notch. You must have a compelling reason for readers to join your newsletter list. If you don’t, they’ll bounce back to the ad platform and not convert.
You’ll need a good headline that makes the benefits of joining the list clear. The headline should relate to the ad but include an idea that entices visitors to click through.
The body copy of the landing page must explain why readers should opt-in and how they’ll benefit from joining your email list. Make sure your opt-in form is prominent, easy to find, and front-and-center for new subscribers.
Encourage New Subscribers to Share Your Newsletter
Your target market knows other people in your target market. Encourage them to share your newsletter with their friends. Make this an easy call to action on subscription thank you pages, in follow-up emails, and within your newsletter itself.
You can also set up viral thank you pages using a tool like GoViral. It allows you to give brand new subscribers an extra gift if they share your opt-in landing page on their Facebook, Twitter, or other social media accounts.
Use a Giveaway Campaign
Social media giveaways are a great way to boost your email subscriber count. Social media followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms all love free stuff.
Give away a digital product like an ebook or report in exchange for subscribers to your newsletter list. Several social media giveaway software tools exist for running contests on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or your website.
RaffleCopter
Rafflecopter offers a customizable web widget embedded into your website or blog to help drive more social media followers and newsletter subscribers. Users enter their contact information to receive a notification when the giveaway begins.
Shortstack
ShortStack is a Facebook and blog contest app that allows you to set up social media contests easily. Its free package offers unlimited photo contest entries, automated bonus entry reminders, and more.
Agorapulse
Agorapulse is a social media management suite that allows you to run photo contests on Facebook and Twitter. It also helps you instantly track all the data of your contest’s performance right from your dashboard, allowing you to optimize future campaigns.
Run an Instagram Contest
Instagram is perhaps one of the most underutilized social media platforms for gathering email newsletter subscribers.
Tools like Rafflecopter let you quickly set up contests with free giveaways in exchange for email addresses.
You can also run a contest entirely through your Instagram account’s DMs (direct messages). Reach out to your Instagram followers one by one. Tell them about the contest and ask that they send you their email address in a direct message exchange.
Conclusion
Are you excited to start putting these ideas to use as you work toward building a larger newsletter list?
The best way to attack this is to pick one or two ideas. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Get one or two strategies working well. Then, add more methods to your email marketing campaign over time.
