A mailing list is an invaluable marketing tool and as a business or website owner you should be thinking about having one, if you don’t have one already. Having customers on a mailing list means that you can regularly show up in their inbox, which if used effectively can deliver a much better conversion rate than any other form of online marketing. It is often difficult to know where to start with a mailing list, so following tips should set you on the right path to get people to sign up and stay on your list.
1. Make it Easy to Sign Up
As consumers, we are not very keen on spending 10 minutes filling out irrelevant and personal information about ourselves. So, if that is what is required before they can sign up for your mailing list, the chances are very high that they won’t bother. Keep the information you ask them to a minimum. It’s not really necessary know their date of birth or what their favorite color is. Name, best email address, that’s it, you’re done.
2. Offer an Incentive
We all like something for nothing, or the thought that we are getting something that another person isn’t, so offer an incentive to people who are willing to sign up to your mailing list. It could be as simple as receiving information before anyone else or offering them access to an exclusive PDF or video. Or, try offering a discount off their next purchase if they are willing to sign up.
3. Make it Obvious
If you want people to join your mailing list then it doesn’t make much sense to place an almost invisible opt-in form in a hard to spot place on your website. Make it so that the opt-in form is prominent. Some websites and businesses choose to use pop-up opt-in forms to encourage signing up, but not everyone is in favor of this method. Pop-up opt-in forms can be perceived as annoying, but for a lot of audiences, they seem to work. Try out different types of pop-ups and see how they perform compared with just placing an opt-in form on your homepage.
4. Hold a Competition
Everybody loves the chance to win something, so organizing a competition can increase your opt-in rate. Offer a prize that your audience would love to win and that’s related to what your website offers (for example, if you own an online book store, give away the latest best-seller). Get readers to sign up for the competition by submitting their email address of course.
5. Produce a High-Quality Newsletter
When you have gone to all the trouble of encouraging your readers to sign up for your mailing list, you need to make sure that you offer them a high-quality newsletter. Make sure that the content is informative, interesting and attention-grabbing. Your customers should look forward to receiving your newsletters, and they should feel as though they would be missing out if they didn’t receive it. If your readers enjoy the perks of being on your mailing list, you are less likely to have them drop off the radar or ask that you unsubscribe them.
Don’t try to sell something in every email that you send out. Provide tons of free value before trying to sell. This will improve your credibility and you will see that your conversion rate will be much higher when you do actually offer something for sale.
Author: Zane Schwarzlose
Courtesy: www.screamingtips.com