Expanding newsletter distribution
Whitney Poulsen asked about strategies for "expanding our newsletter
database."
The first thing I would do is maximise your online sign-up. The sign-ups
from your site are likely to be of a higher quality than those from rented
lists, co regs and co-branding. A quick look at your site
http://www.cfdebt.com/ told me that you are not "selling" the benefits of
newsletter sign-up.
Develop a short value proposition on the benefits a consumer will gain from
signing up to your newsletter and include it on the sign-up form (which
incidentally is in the right place - in the first viewing area of the
browser).
Another good strategy is to include a link to an example copy of a recent
newsletter. If your newsletter is useful and helpful that will be an
incentive in itself. You could also consider providing an actual incentive
for newsletter sign-up - eg, a prize draw.
Don't ignore building your list offline. Make the request of an email
address and permission to email "mission critical" for every contact by
every person in your organisation and include a sign-up coupon (with the
value proposition you've developed for online use) in every printed
communication that your company issues. For more ideas on list building
online and offline there's a range of strategies included in my book "Web
Marketing in the Real World - A Practical Manual".
http://www.benlandwilson.com/ebooks.htm.
Douglas Wilson
Author of "Web Marketing in the Real World
A Practical Manual"
Web: http://www.benlandwilson.com
Email: douglas_at_benlandwilson.com
Received on Mon Oct 14 2002 - 19:40:10 CDT
