How can you get people to subscribe to your online mailing list? Better yet, how can you get a lot of people who don’t even know you yet to subscribe to your ezine, thereby asking you to send them information on a regular basis about your business? In my last blog article I gave you some ways to build that list. 

Here are several more ways that I thought of since, to accomplish that feat without spending bucket loads of money on marketing.

1.  Ask people to subscribe to your newsletter mailing list when they complete a purchase. This is done at the time of purchase.  You should train your sales people to ask for it.  Yesterday I had a hamburger for lunch at a restaurant called, “The Fox and The Hound.”  When I received the check, my waitress mentioned that they have a gift of $5.00 the next time I visit if I would complete a form and allow them to communicate with me via email. You can do the same thing. Just because someone bought a product from you once doesn’t mean they’ll remember to come back the next time they need something that you sell. To get that customer back again, be sure you capture the customer’s email address as part of the sale and include a checkbox on the form letting people indicate that they’d like to be included on your mailing list.

2. Ask current subscribers to forward your newsletter to their friends. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to grow your newsletter list. Remind your readers to spread the word about you by including a note in every newsletter asking them to please forward the newsletter to their friends who would be interested in reading it. Be, sure, too, that there’s a prominent link to your subscription page in every issue of your newsletter. I use a “Forward to a friend” link at the bottom of my Marketing Tip of The Week newsletter.  Sometimes I also ask you within the body of the newsletter, near the end of the article, to forward the newsletter to others.

3. Promote your newsletter at seminars and talks. If you give seminars or talks on your area of expertise, be sure to let your audiences know that you have a newsletter and what the benefits of subscribing to the newsletter are. And don’t forget to include your newsletter subscription link in your handouts. I do this whenever I speak at Chamber of Commerce’s in my state, and also whenever I speak at a seminar.

4. Promote your newsletter in your 30-second commercial. Many organizations, such as your Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Clubs, give members a few seconds at the beginning or end of meetings to introduce themselves and their businesses. End your "commercial" with an appeal to visit your website and sign up for your newsletter. Remember to tell them how valuable it is to them and how they will benefit from it.

5. Offer a free gift – If it’s on your website, make it downloadable of course, so you have no delivery charges — to those who sign up for your newsletter. To simplify the delivery process put a link to your freebie in the thank-you note you send to new subscribers. And, just in case any of those new subscribers pass on the link to their friends who haven’t subscribed, put a subscription box on your free offer page, too. Lead it off with a note that says "Not a subscriber yet? If a friend sent you a link to this page, sign up for your own copy of (your newsletter name.)" If your business is offline, you can also offer a coupon as an incentive for them to visit your establishment.

6. Get a friend in your industry to promote your newsletter to their mailing list — then promote the friend’s list in yours. This is called a JV, Joint Venture.  It works for both of you.

7. Send a postcard mailing to targeted mailing lists you’ve built from collecting business cards or from the newspaper. I have found post cards to be the lowest-cost way to build my list.  Use the mailing to solicit newsletter signups. To get the recipients to take action, offer a free gift (a downloadable product) to people who subscribe by a specific date, or offer a coupon for when they visit your establishment.

8. Never stop soliciting subscribers.  This is the most critical step of all.  I’ve found over the years that individuals quit too soon.  Keep at it and you will succeed. Also, email addresses change, and people’s email addresses become undeliverable. People’s information needs or product needs change, and they unsubscribe. Keep your list fresh and growing by continually promoting your mailings.

I hope these additional suggestions help you grow your list and make it very profitable.

Technorati Tags: build email list, customer list, grow email list, Growing your business, postcard marketing

We all know that direct mail, is one of the most effective advertising methods that is available to any business…large or small.  A way to make direct mail even more successful is to put your message on a postcard. 

I’ve used them in various stages of building my companies.  Here are a few reasons why I recommend them.

1. They are small enough, that your customers will keep them, especially if you give them a coupon or other discount.
2. They are easy to read. And since they are small in size, you are forced to rework your message, until it will fit in such a small space.
3. There isn’t an envelope to come in between you and your message, so your message will be read immediately.  You aren’t putting the individual in a position to have to open an envelope.
4. Since postage has been increasing over the years, marketing with postcards lowers your cost to reach a prospect or customer. Therefore your ROI is much higher.
5. Here’s the best reason.  They are personal. 

Here are some tips to have a successful Postcard Marketing Program.

1. Make sure that your postcards are to prospects and customers that are likely to be interested in your offer.
2. Create a postcard that looks like a personal message from a friend, instead of a printed ad.
3. Get to the point to capture the recipients attention immediately.
4. Try not to make it a sales pitch.  Remember that I always say to create a relationship with your prospect and/or customer.  So don’t try to sell them immediately.  Offer them something, so that they will respond.
5. Here’s something I learned by reading someone’s statistics.   Send the postcards so they arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Why?  Because the volume of mail that the post office is delivering those days is lighter and your postcard won’t have to compete with other mail.
6. Always send them First Class.  If your postcard is 3 ½ by 5 inches, it costs about half of what a regular first class envelope would cost.  If you make your postcard larger, than the cost will be higher.  There were times when it was very cost effective for me to send large postcards.   I did this to catch their attention. Sometimes I even created postcards that were not rectangular, but were round, or looked like characters. 

Experiment with Postcards.  Remember the prime objective is to get the individual to read it and respond to your offer. 

Technorati Tags: postcard marketing