Building a Responsive Newsletter List (You Know, The Kind That Likes to Buy Stuff)

Note: The following article originally appeared in the WC News - a printed newspaper just for work at home moms....delivered to your snail mail box each and every month. Get your subscription by clicking here.

Most of us create email newsletters so that we can make more money by selling our products or products of other companies through affiliate programs. If you’re interested in making more money from your newsletters, I encourage you to start working on building a more responsive mailing list and creating a relationship with your subscribers.

Sounds kind of airy-fairy doesn’t it? If we have lists with thousands of names, how can we build relationships with each and every one of them? Well, you can and here just a few of the tips that I have shared with in my “Internet Marketing Sweetie” course to have your subscribers on the edge of their seat waiting for your email to arrive!

Growing Your Mailing List

- Make it easy for your website visitors to subscribe. Have a sign up box on every page. Also, don’t just say “Join our mailing list”. You need to have a more compelling reason than that. You may want to include some free gifts with their subscription, like a coupon, free ebook, free audio or something your target market would be interested in. Just make sure the little “bribe” is valuable and highly targeted to your audience and your newsletter’s content.

- Encourage your subscribers to share your newsletter with their friends. Some mailing list servers even include a “forward to a friend” feature to make it easier for your subscribers to pass them on. You can’t ask for more than a friend’s recommendation – it’s priceless!

- Make a single page to promote your newsletter. That way, your visitors won’t be distracted by everything else on your website. This page should be on its own domain so that you can use that URL in your promotions, including print media, press releases, articles and other advertising. The money is in your list, so invest a little extra in having this special site made to get plenty of subscribers.

- Distribute articles with an invitation to subscribe to your newsletter in your byline, so they can receive more tips and get to know you better.

- Write a free ebook that others can distribute that promotes your newsletter as a place for further resources. To give others incentive to give it away, you can allow distributors to include their affiliate link to your product or to replace any of your affiliate links with their own.

- Make archives of your previous issues so people know what they’re getting into when they give you their email address. Some people may worry that this will decrease subscriber rates if they can read it online, but if people like your material, they will usually sign up so they can receive it by email. It can also increase your traffic by having this content available to search engines.

- Instead of trying to sell products in your signature line, promote your newsletter. It’s easier to get a higher response rate when you offer something for free in your signature and once you have an email address, you can communicate with that person forever (or until they unsubscribe, of course).

Building a Relationship with Your Subscribers

- Write your newsletter as you are writing to just one person and one person only. Don’t say, “all of you” (in reference to your subscribers) or anything like that. It’s always “you” in the singular sense. Imagine you’re writing a letter to just one of your subscribers. This is a very small, but highly effective tip.

- Ask your subscribers what they’d like to learn about and deliver that content. This has the added bonus of saving you time on choosing your own topics.

- Ask for feedback on the information you present to them. People love giving their opinions…listen to them.

- Allow them to submit stories, photos, success stories, etc. Get your subscribers involved what you’re doing.

- Stay in touch with them on a regular basis. You’ll need to test the optimum schedule for your list, but try for at least a short email once per week or at the most, every two weeks.

Making your subscribers more responsive.

When I say “responsive”, I’m strictly talking about selling more products to them. Here are some ideas:

- Educate your readers on the need for certain products. Does it save time? Does it save money?

- Show proof – Show, in detail, how products have worked for you or your customers.

- Give them little perks when they buy stuff from you. If you sell products through an affiliate link, consider offering “bonus” items if they buy through your link. Make sure the bonus is directly related and beneficial to your subscribers.

- Arrange for discounts, samples, etc. that you don’t offer elsewhere. They can be for your own products or products you promote through an affiliate link.

- Do interviews with product creators, authors. This gives your subscribers can have extra “insider” information on different topics and products.

I’ve given you a big list of things to work on, but you don’t have to do them all today. Start successfully implementing these ideas one-by-one and you’ll start seeing a difference in your subscriber numbers and to your bottom line.

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Article by: Alice Seba is the owner of InternetBasedMoms.com an Internet marketing information center and community for work at home moms.

This article was original published in the WC News - a printed newspaper just for work at home moms....delivered to your snail mail box each and every month. Get your subscription by clicking here.