How to Make Your Audience Subscribe to Your Newsletter (And Eventually Swear by It!)
It’s a data-backed nightmare—the average newsletter signup rate, according to Sumo, stands at a worrying 1.95%. That’s an incredibly high bounce rate by any standard. For those of us whose businesses depend on an effective email marketing strategy to make conversions and sales, this is bad, bad news.
But why are so many people online passing up the opportunity to become legit newsletter subscribers?
For starters, today’s email content is probably not interesting (or meaningful) enough. Think of all the clickbaits, recycled pop-ups, and bland email copy that we’re at war with.
But it makes counterintuitive sense: content made for humans will get human attention. And making content human—newsletter content included—means making it original and nutrient-dense. It needs to teach someone something or at the very least, offer irresistible value. Add a degree of entertainment to the mix, and you’ve got yourself an email marketing recipe of high value.
Easier said than done. How do you actually write and format a newsletter and deliver it to the right audience?
Here are six foolproof ways to reduce your bounce rate and make your target audience fall hook, line, and sinker for your email newsletter.
1. Create a Thoughtful Lead Magnet
First, an analogy:
Getting someone’s email address is like inviting that person over to your party. In the crazy internet-driven world that we’re in, where everyone is trying to get people to attend their parties, you want your invitation to stand out. You want to create the best, snazziest, most interesting invitation ever.
Now put yourself in the invitee’s shoes. Assuming you received a party invitation on a post note and another one on a gold-embossed scroll delivered by carrier pigeons, which party are you more likely to attend?
I’m willing to bet my bottom dollar that you’ll be strutting all the way to the second party (unless, of course, you have a thing for sticky notes)
The bottom line?
Opt-in lead magnets are a lot like party invitations. You’re inviting someone to your email subscriber list and you’re asking for precious space in their already suffocating inbox. You want them to know that they’re not going to regret giving you that space, so you need to make that invitation really freaking compelling.
Here’s exactly how you can pull that off:
- Offer something your target audience (ideally your blog readers) will perceive as irresistibly valuable—a nugget-packed eBook, a link to a sought-after seminar, or access to otherwise private video interviews (more on this below)
- Ensure the link to your lead magnet is featured prominently in any piece of email content you create—i.e. in the bio section of blog posts
- Whip in a catchy, pithy, drool-worthy title—instead of “A Guide to Growing Your Instagram”, try “The Easy, Tried-and-Tested Strategy for Gaining 10,000 New Instagram Followers”
Talking of lead magnets, your email newsletter sign form needs to be present in all of your landing pages. And it needs to have a minimal number of fields so your blog readers won’t cringe at first sight.
Engaged subscribers do not fall off trees—they are cultivated with great care and treated in line with GDPR regulations. This process starts right from the opt-in stage. Make sure your sign up forms seek user consent separately and at the earliest opportunity. Plus, they should always feature warm, inviting copy, something along the lines of: “Would you like to receive our monthly newsletter?” Even better, include a link to your company’s privacy policy to remove any doubts regarding third-party intrusions.
Here’s to more user-focused newsletter emails!
2. Tap Into the Incredible Enticing Power of Pop-ups
Much ink has been spilled on the art of writing email pop-ups for list building—and with good reason.
Beyond boasting a mind-blowing conversion rate of 3.09%, newsletter pop-ups attract all the right eyeballs, hook in the reader to dive deeper, and convey your most important points in seconds.
However, too many pop-ups go the wrong way. They’re self-focused, too salesy for their good (and their industry). The last thing your potential subscribers want is a naked pop-up showing up in a blogpost they’re so deeply engrossed in.
Here’s are a few pop-up best practices for a highly engaged subscriber list:
Leverage lightbox pop-ups: A sworn favorite, the lightbox pop-up works by fading the rest of your webpage and becomes the focal point. A cute one could send subscribers trooping to your email newsletter in droves—and the opposite is also true. Do your due diligence.
This newsletter pop-up by Gingiber is adorably cute and can bring in more leads. Guaranteed.
Source: Gingiber
Weave in a clever call-to-action: Use Hick’s Law of Psychology (read more about it here) to incorporate clear, actionable CTAs into your pop-ups.
Give your pop-ups a splash of context-fit, wow-worthy images: 94% of first impressions on websites are design related. Enough said.
Use limited input fields in the signup form: Too many input fields will ultimately scare away potential subscribers. It’s best to include a few or even a single input field on your newsletter pop-ups. Less is always more, remember?
3. Give Something (Valuable) Away
Who doesn’t love free stuff? I know I do.
Giveaways are a proven, timeless way for ramping up subscriber numbers. Unfortunately, most people fumble bigtime when it comes to picking out what to give away.
I personally think the bigger, the better—as long as the reward outweighs the cost. A bigger giveaway is more likely to draw attention and get you closer to your email marketing goals.
Still pondering what to give away for your next big email marketing campaign? Fret not—these ideas will have you on the front foot in no time at all:
Offer bestseller product set: In a world where everyone is miserly giving out a single product, set yourself apart by offering an entire product set. It’s even better if it’s a collection of bestsellers.
Here’s how Apto Skincare knocks this idea out of the park:
Source: ReallyGoodEmails
Give exclusive access to free samples of new products: This is pretty much self-explanatory. Just mind the margins.
Gift cards: Aah, gift cards. The name itself probably irks your ears at this point, but hey, Amazon or eBay gift cards are still great incentives for any marketing campaign—not just email.
Raffles/Sweepstakes: Who said raffles lost their mojo and allure? It’s 2022—not 2050, people! Potential subscribers, like everyone else, will certainly be enticed by the idea of winning a ruffle by doing nothing more than entering their email address. It’s too good a deal to pass up.
Remember, you can’t run an email giveaway campaign all on your own. Somebody has got to hold your hand and show you the ropes while you focus on brainstorming a kickass giveaway idea.
That someone is none other than an email marketing service provider. Email service providers let you collect the sender email address, so you can send your mailing list newsletters that pack a punch and, of course, promote your business while at it.
For instance, you can gain new email addresses via a:
- Constant Contact contest
- Mailchimp giveaway contest
- ConvertKit contest
- MailerLite giveaway
- And more
Here’s an incisive comparison of the best email marketing softwares to help you decide which platform is best for you.
4. Avoid Shallow Filler—Valuable, Helpful Content Always Wins
Email marketing is no cakewalk, and it’s tempting to take shortcuts. Saving time and money on content production by delegating it to interns or hogwash copywriters, for example, sounds like a good deal—right up until it yields no returns.
43% of email newsletter subscribers in the UK say irrelevant emails are the #1 reason why they unsubscribe. Without a laser-focused plan and emphasis on valuable content, your newsletter lacks depth and is unable to seriously grapple with readers’ burning questions or help them solve their pain points. And when that happens, existing subscribers are left with no option but to (prematurely) end what was once a beautiful relationship with your brand. Oops.
That said, certain type of content has been proven to work time and again, regardless of each contact’s history with your business:
Exclusive content: Exclusivity works because, frankly, people like to be in on the secret. Exclusivity makes people want something. If they can’t have it, they want it all the more. This couldn’t be truer for email campaigns. Thus, if you want to people to go gaga over your newsletter, treat them like VIPs. Provide them with exclusive content. Notify them first about new services and products. Some of the phrases that motivate people to sign up as VIPs include exclusive offers, become an insider, only available to subscribers, to name a few.
Anniversary bonuses: As with real life, an effective way to make your email audience fall in love with your newsletter is to acknowledge things like the anniversary of their email signups, their birthdays, and other important dates. A particularly warm touch on such a day is to offer bonuses and discounts. Before you know it, word will be out about how awesome and thoughtful your brand is. And you what that means? More and more email subscribers coming your way! (Can I hear a loud Amen from the back?)
Fresh content: Old, recycled email content stinks. If you want to keep your subscribers hooked, you’ll need to do more than that. Daily updates go a long way.
Subscriber discounts: Discounts are every customer’s weakness. In case you didn’t know, a whopping 42.3% of Americans subscribe to email lists for the sole reason of receiving savings and discounts. For every new subscriber, commit to offering a sizeable discount on the very first item they buy.
5. Let Your Subject Lines Dazzle and Delight
Crafted an edge-of-the-seat lead magnet? Check.
Lined up some quality email content for a month’s worth of daily updates? Check.
It’s surely time to fire up your email marketing campaign and see how many new subscribers it rakes in.
Eerm, not quite.
Your email subject line needs to look (and sound) the part as well. After all, you want people to actually open your newsletter, not spam or delete it immediately it lands in their email inbox.
As the tip of the spear, subject lines pierce your subscribers’ attention and create that critical opening for you to exert leverage.
As helpful signposts, subject lines guide darting eyes across the clear, navigable terrain of your email content.
Let’s set the stage:
Would you rather open an email titled “August Newsletter” or “August Already? Don’t Sweat What’s Ahead.”
Both emails have the same content, but the second subject line makes it seem more exciting, right?
A fun, resourceful email subject line ensures your email has a little more flavor and finesse and doesn’t get lost in the heap.
To go one step further, make sure the first line of the newsletter has that “wow” factor to it. The first line pops up in the preview, and if it’s good, email recipients will want to dive deeper in the content.
It all comes together beautifully. It all makes sense.
6. Get the Word Out—Social Media is Waiting
You’ve done all the heavy lifting so far—how about you let your subscribers do some of the work for you!
When appropriate, sprinkle in “Forward to your Friend” links in your email campaigns. Many email marketing platforms have the social sharing functionality built-in, so be sure to leverage it to the fullest.
Tools such as SendinBlue and AddThis are outright favorites in this regard, allowing recipients to share email content on their social media accounts at the click of a button.
Putting It All Together
At Zoey Writers, our copywriters combine all these best practices and more to craft email marketing campaigns that convert; campaigns that send your click-through rate through the roof in no time at all. At the end of the day, nothing beats the insights that come from experience.
Feel free to contact us or check out our content writing services to see how we can help you send clickable, irresistible email newsletters that bring in subscribers in their numbers. It’s all doable, in the right hands.
