Getting People to Suscribe to your Email Newsletter

One of the most effective ways to build a database of clients (and prospects) is to offer them the chance to sign up for your newsletter via the homepage (indeed, on EVERY page) of your website.  I’m sure you’ll have seen plenty of websites with the words ‘sign up for my free newsletter’ displayed prominently on the page.  When someone signs up they obviously need to provide their email address.  Once they start receiving your emails, they should always be given the option to unsubscribe if they so wish.

Don’t forget to ask your existing customers if they’d like to be added to your list too! 

So Will People Actually Read My Emails?

A recent Email Consumer Survey published by US firm Return Path highlighted the elements that most influence consumers to open emails. The winning factors seem to be ‘know and trust the sender’ (56%) and ‘previously opened and thought valuable’ (51%). What does this tell us about email marketing?

Your email marketing campaigns should be based on building a relationship of trust between you and your clients. If a customer or prospect has signed up for your email newsletter they will recognise your company name when they receive the first email and if they enjoy reading the content, will be more likely to open and read future communications – 32% say they only open emails they recognise and would normally read.

Email newsletters should be sent out often enough to keep recipients aware of your presence, but not so often that they get tired of receiving too much information. Once or twice a month is the accepted norm, but checking statistics for click through and ‘open’ rates will give a clearer indication.