5 Effective Ways To Gain More Email Subscribers
Last week I provided a step-by-step tutorial on how to setup your email subscriber list and today I’m going to review a few best practices to keep in mind when growing your e-mail list.
Promote using social media
I know this may seem like a “Duh” moment, but you’d be surprised by the number of people who don’t promote their email newsletter on their social media channels.
When was is the last time you’ve asked your Instagram followers to subscribe to your newsletter? Or Facebook? Or Twitter? Brittany does especially well with e-mail subscriber sign-ups when she talks about how to sign up to her list on Snapchat, so I recommend trying that as well.
Obviously do it in moderation, but as you continue to gain new followers, you need to let them know you have an email newsletter. Don’t forget to mention why they should sign up when promoting on social media… what’s the value you’ll be providing by having them sign up? Make sure to convey that.
Pop-ups
My initial thought….Wouldn’t Brittany’s visitors get annoyed??
It’s funny because we may think a certain way on what an outcome could be, but essentially we are biased based on our own likes and dislikes. After reading a handful of tutorials and case studies, pop-ups actually increase subscriptions… by quite a bit!
And if you’re still not convinced, TEST IT!
Also run multiple split tests to see which pop-ups have a higher conversion rate.
Use different:
– text
– colors
– pictures
– informational fields (First Name, Last Name, Email, etc.)
See which one does consistently better and use that going forward. Currently Brittany doesn’t have a pop up, it’s something we may want to test again going forward but right now she’s doing well with Lead Magnets so we’re going to continue to focus on that. Which brings me to my next point:
Lead Magnets
To dramatically increase your email subscriptions, you need to offer something more than just email updates to entice readers to subscribe. They may want to read your content, but they don’t see the need to sign up immediately.
This “lead magnet” needs to solve a problem your visitor has or offers a value that they can instantly receive once subscribing.
For example, Brittany would always get the question: “What filters do you use to edit your photos?”
People wanted to know how Brittany edited her photos, so I created the PDF below. To this day, it is still our highest converting Lead Magnet.
Identify the problem/need and provide the solution instantly. Give your subscriber immediate gratification.
Content Upgrades
A content upgrade provides more value within the post that can be obtained once someone subscribes. For example, Brittany wrote a post about Instagram and had people sign up within the post to receive a PDF with the most frequent hashtags she uses. The hashtag list wasn’t part of the post but it was an extra added-value available to those who wanted to subscribe and took that step.
Content upgrades offer more value to the individual post it’s on. Lead magnets don’t necessarily need to have that same correlation.
The lead magnet example of a PDF on how Brittany edits her pictures was also a content upgrade to the post “How to Grow Your Instagram Following”. As you can see, it’s her highest read post.
Go to your Google Analytics (which I hope you have installed, if not, get on that immediately) and see what your popular posts are.
My Top 5
1. How to Grow Your Instagram Following
2. How I Started My Blog in 5 Steps
3. Top 10 Instagram FAQs
4. Top 5 Minimalist Fashion Blogger Instagrams
5. Photography Tips on Taking Your Blog Photos
Possible content upgrades for each post:
1. A step-by-step PDF on how I edit my Instagram photos (already implemented)
2. A list with various blogging niches that haven’t been utilized and offer potential.
3. PDF of the post to make it easier for people to reference.
4. A list of an additional 20 bloggers that you should also follow.
5. YouTube instructional video
Each of these examples would provide additional content and value to the post in return for an email address. Content upgrades are something we’ll be focusing on heavily moving forward as well.
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstein
An email address is personable and a direct contact, you really need to provide value for someone willing to exchange for it.
Email Segmentation
This is not so much on how to gain, but how to keep email subscribers.
If you were to subscribe to this blog, you would receive a welcome email. In that email there is a section explaining the diversity of her audience and how she tries to tailor each email based on her audience’s interest (email segmentation).
We decided to do this to prevent sending out emails certain subscriber segments don’t want to read and possibly have them unsubscribe.
We don’t send out daily emails to subscribers only wanting weekly…or blogging tip emails to those wanting outfit shots. One email does not fit all with her subscribers.
As you start to build your email list, really try to identify segments in order to provide the best possible value and prevent a high unsubscribing rate.
Let me know which method you want to try in building your e-mail list or if you have any suggestions for Brittany’s e-mails (if your’e a subscriber of course) in the comments below!
-Anthony
