Find out how to grow your e-newsletter subscriber list and increase your brand awareness
The electronic newsletter provides a chance for you to communicate directly with a large group of people in one go and can become one of your most important marketing channels.
Need to know
Creating an audience for newsletter can be challenging. It takes time to build up a quality list of subscribers – those that open the newsletter and click through to your site. By carefully targeting current and potential customers, your newsletter is in a good position to build brand loyalty, increase traffic to your website and, ultimately, drive sales.
What next
There is a range of ways you can keep acquiring new subscribers to your newsletter list. These include:
Researching your audience:
• Aim to identify as closely as you can the audience you want to target with your newsletter.
• Make use of various events or shows by encouraging attendees to opt in to your email list.
Improving the quality of your subscriber list:
• An e-newsletter can only be sent out to a list of people who have opted in, where their IP address, datestamp and unique code are recorded, to receive them. It may be worth including a double opt-in confirmation process to screen subscribers to your newsletter. This way only those really interested in your company will respond to the confirmation email that you send out.
• Make sure your newsletter can be read easily over a variety of applications such as on mobile phones, iPads and potentially even e-readers.
• It is a good idea to allow users to access your newsletter through your website and make sure that you use keywords to boost its search engine optimisation (SEO). Make sure the keywords you choose work for the audience you are targeting. The more focused your keywords, the better quality of traffic will be directed to your site, which will hopefully lead to increased newsletter subscriptions.
• Take the time to data clean your newsletter list regularly. This way you can remove old email addresses that have become inactive or not given any positive feedback in a long time.
List development:
• Create a very simple newsletter subscription form that is easy to fill-in and follow.
• Personalise any newsletter invitations you send by email. This will make potential subscribers more likely to take notice.
• To encourage new sign-ups, incentivise potential subscribers by offering promotions or prizes such as discounts or free products.
• Include the option to opt in to your newsletter as part of the transactional process, if you sell products online. That way, you’re targeting your customers, who are likely to be engaged with your brand
• Promote your newsletter through advertising on your own website and through collaboration with other companies offering services likely to interest your target audience.
Top tips
Creating and increasing your subscriber list can be beneficial to your business, if done well. Think quality not quantity and be persistent with your marketing strategies as building a newsletter list takes time.