Creating a form on your website that says “subscribe to my newsletter” is not enough to convince people that it’s worth giving their email over.
You see, it’s a transaction of value. The subscriber gives up their email, a very valuable resource, and expects to receive something worthwhile back.
So what are you promising them?
Your newsletter positioning
Let’s go back to the beginning of the process and look at why you decided to do a newsletter. (Step 1: Decision: should you do email marketing?)
The questions you should ask yourself at the beginning are:
What am I trying to get out of this?
Who am I going to talk to? i.e. who is your audience and what do they want?
What is the value I am going to share in my emails with my audience?
The questions can be split into two categories: (1) The business problem and (2) The consumer problem.
The business problem is what you are trying to get out of having a newsletter.
The consumer problem is effectively the bigger purpose of your business, it’s what you’re helping people with by providing your services.
The two sides interact in the middle through the common denominator:
The value you’re going to provide in your newsletter is what’s in between the two, connecting what you want with what the consumer wants.
Why did you decide to start a newsletter?
The business needs for starting a regular newsletter and other email marketing activities often are:
building an engaged following
be in control of your own marketing comms and not be at the mercy of the algorithms
to be able to communicate your business news and updates
grow your list of potential future clients
Whatever your reason, you understand the benefits of email marketing for your business and have decided to commit time and effort towards it.
But you’re not talking to yourself, you’re trying to attract your potential future clients to subscribe.
Why should people subscribe to your newsletter?
Because you have something they want that will help them overcome their problem.
That’s it.
It’s really simple in its essence, but often we get carried away thinking of our own business problems and not focusing on the customer problem we’re trying to solve.
So, what value are you offering? Why should your audience subscribe to your newsletter? What’s in it for them?
What is the value you’re providing to your audience in your newsletter?
You do need to think about your business needs and how your newsletter fits into the bigger picture of your revenue flows, but don’t be that friend that only talks about themselves when you catch up and never asks how you are.
Be a better friend.
Share useful resources and tips, don’t limit these to only the ones you’ve created, tell relevant stories, engage, invite to connect with you.. etc.
Remember, it is a privilege to be able to reach someone directly, 1 to 1, in their inbox. Use that privilege wisely.
Build excitement for your newsletter in your sign-up form
The sign-up form for your newsletter needs to identify your audience, explain what they’ll get when they subscribe, and make it exciting to subscribe.
Add your personality to it! No need to be all corporate, it’s your brand and your business, do whatever you want.
Experiment with different calls to action (CTAs) like: Sign up, I want that, Let me have it, Send it to me, etc.
Try to have the following three things in your sign-up form:
Audience: identify them by a group name
freelancers, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, single mums, working parents, plant geeks, etc.
Frequency: set expectations
weekly, monthly, regularly, few times a week etc.
Value: clearly explain what they’ll get
tips, resources, links, downloads, news, gifs and memes…
Don’t worry if something you have in place today isn’t working. The beauty of email marketing is that you can always change it, test it, and adapt it to find the right thing that works.
Next, I will discuss who should hire email marketing help (a freelancer like me) and who is better off DYI-ing. Some just like to learn how to do it themselves and that’s perfectly fine.