How
To Grow Your Newsletter List In 6 Easy
Steps
Teacher:
Jim Turner
Every newsletter publisher wants
more subscribers - and you are probably no different. The reason you
are publishing your newsletter is probably to build your
relationships with your subscribers to build familiarity, trust and
ultimately sales. And the more subscribers you have, the greater
number of sales.
Here is a way to increase the
number of your subscribers, quite quickly and without a whole lot of
work. It harnesses the power of joint venture marketing and
endorsements - key ingredients for internet marketers without huge
budgets but who still want results. And it catches the prospects when
they are very open to receiving new information.
Step 1
Identify other newsletters similar
to your own - that either provide information similar to yours, or
serve an audience which is likely to be interested in your newsletter
as well.You can find them in newsletter lists or directories listed
at www.ibizcenter.com/members/directory_list.htm
Look for:
Active newsletters with
increasing numbers of subscribers. Clues include subscription bases
over 1000 which have been in existence over 6 months.
Newsletter publishers who
appear to be attracting new subscribers at close to the same rate as
you are, as you will probably get the best response from them, as
compared with a newsletter that is getting grossly more per week than
you are.
The newsletter lists or directories
which show the number of subscribers to each newsletter on the list
are helpful here. The list of the sites with lists of newsletters
that arrange for ad swaps at "Getting
Advertisers for Your Newsletter"
is quite helpful there.
The sites that show publishers that
sell ad space usually contain updated subscriber number information
are also helpful, such as:
-The Directory of Ezines from
Lifestyles
Publishing -
$39.95/year
- Ezine
AdSource -
$99/year
Step 2
Subscribe to 15-20 of these
newsletters. Explore their newsletter archives if they
exist.
Quickly review the newsletters to
get a feel for them. See if they are of the quality with which you
would wish to be associated (and I am assuming that you are of the
quality that they would wish to be associated with).
Note:
*the topics covered by the
newsletter - (are they ones likely to attract the same target
audience as yours?).
*the attractiveness of the
layout.
*the spelling and
grammar.
*the tone (blatantly hype /
commercial versus professional).
*are the articles original, or
reprints of articles you see everywhere?
*the kind and numbers of
advertisers and sponsors of the list,
*how it is published (on a free
service, paid-for professional mailing list management service or by
a personal e-mail program).
For those that meet your selection
standards, add the publisher's name, contact e-mail address and
newsletter name to a spreadsheet, database or text file which
contains the following fields:
Publisher's name
E-mail address
Newsletter name
Date message sent
Date response received
Date follow up message is sent to the non-respondents
Response: Yes or No
Wording of the message to be added
Date their message is added to your welcome letter
Date your revised welcome letter is sent to the list owner,
requesting theirs in return
Date the list owner's welcome letter which includes your subscription
instructions is received.
Date follow up message is sent to those who have not sent their
revised welcome letter to you.
Date of latest monitoring unsubscribe - resubscribe
The more organized you are, the
easier it will be to keep track of what you have done and what you
still need to do. Follow up is critical to success.
Step 3
Contact the list owners, with a
courteous, brief, direct, to-the-point, e-mail message. Tell
them:
*who you are and what you
do
*you have subscribed to their
newsletter and like .......
(tailoring your letter to the
specific newsletter dramatically increases your response
rate)
*why you are writing this letter
and why their reading this letter will benefit THEM! Stress the
benefits to the list owner from your proposal.
*how big your list is. Don't
inflate the numbers of your subscribers or lie about
anything.
*how fast your list is
growing.
*what plans you have to expand it
further - but avoid hype.
*that your newsletter is free, and
that it is an "opt-in" list.
*that your new subscribers
automatically get a welcome message.
*how the joint venture would
work
*where they can view a sample of
your content - your newsletter archives on your web site or an
autoresponder where they can get a sample of your
newsletter.
A sample letter may be viewed on
the online version of this newsletter.
Step 4
Revise your welcome letter you send
out to new subscribers by adding the information from the list owners
who reply positively to your joint venture proposal. Do this
immediately as the favorable responses come in - at least daily.
Confirm with them by sending them a copy of your revised letter to
demonstrate your follow through. Request that they send you a copy of
their welcome letter with your information.
Step 5
Send a follow up letter to those
who did not respond. You can increase your total response
dramatically with a second request, and with very little extra work.
Simply pull up the original e-mail message and hit "Forward" and add
your reminder message to the top and "Send".
A sample reminder message is
included in the online version of this newsletter.
Step 6
Do this again with the next group
of 15 - 20 prospects. And again, and again.
These are the basics. The 6 step
process works great, just as it is. There are numerous refinements to
this tactic, however, that you will find in the online version of
this newsletter that dramatically increase the response.
Bottom line: think innovatively
about how you can work with others to benefit everyone - even
competitors. This is not a zero-sum game, where if one wins that
means others lose. By working together, we all can win more than if
we remain strictly independent.
About the teacher:
Jim Turner, Publishers
Only List
WebProfitSource
jim@webprofitsource.com |
