Online newsletters and ezines are one of the most cost-effective tools you can use to market your business. Customers and prospects who subscribe to your newsletter mailing list are giving you the opportunity to establish a relationship with them. That is very important.  It gives you the opportunity to develop a relationship with them. Once they opt-in to receive your newsletter by email, you can build that relationship, establish trust, and nail down sales by sending the newsletter regularly. The more subscribers you get the more sales you’ll land.

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.

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Here are some ideas for growing your email list so that you can be in constant communication with your prospects and customers.

Email, when used properly, is really a great way to increase your sales and profits. A single email sent to a list of people who have asked to be on your mailing list can bring in business immediately, either through your online shopping cart (if you have an online store), or through phone calls or email inquiries about services you provide, if you are in a service business.

If you don’t have an online presence, the email may help more people to find their way to your establishment, especially when you have an inducement to visit your place of business.

The more targeted prospects you have on your email list, will result in more business being done by them, with your business. When I say targeted customers or prospects, I mean individuals who have asked to be on your mailing list.  It doesn’t mean emails you have because someone gave you a business card.

Have an email signup form on every page of your website. Make it prominent on the page. If it’s buried on the bottom of one page on your site, few will see it.  Make sure you offer something for free for them to sign up.  If you don’t have a free product to offer, you could use one of my e-books (after getting my permission), or even use a coupon for a discount they can use when they purchase from you.

If you don’t have a website here are some further suggestions:

1.  If your place of business is a physical store or clinic setting, ask customers if they’d like to receive emails from you notifying them of special offers. Have forms available or some other mechanism to immediately capture their email address.

2.  Produce an informational newsletter that appeals to your customers and prospects. Print up one issue and mail it the traditional way, being sure to include a prominent ad telling readers how to get the newsletter delivered to them regularly in email.

3.  In addition to sending the printed copy through the postal system, if the newsletter you produce is informative, talk to local libraries and other community resources to see if they would make it available to their patrons.

4. Give out your printed newsletter at your booth at local trade shows. Encourage visitors to take an extra copy to hand out to others who might be interested in the information you provide.

5.  This last method is one that I see very rarely used effectively…include a flier promoting your free newsletter or promotional mailings in every package you ship, or in every bag you pack in your retail store.

So go to it and use these ideas to grow your business and create more customers. I’m sure over a period of time that you can think of many other ways to get your customers to ask to be on your mailing list.

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