Just about every website in the world was created with the goal of generating money in some way. If you have an e-commerce site, you’re trying to sell products – and if you have a content site, you’re probably trying to earn revenue through affiliate links or display ads. Either way, you’re engaged in marketing in some form.
When you look for advice about online marketing, one of the first things you’ll usually read is that you need to have a mailing list. The benefits of having a mailing list are potentially quite significant.
- A mailing list allows you to communicate directly with your customers or followers and notify them about new content, new products or upcoming sales.
- A mailing list is also a way to drive traffic to your website, which can help to smooth out the normal volatility in search engine rankings.
- Both of those things can have a positive impact on your website’s revenue.
Here’s the Problem…
Upon learning about mailing lists, you probably added a Mailchimp form to your WordPress site and waited. Most likely, though, you found the response extremely underwhelming. It’s even possible that your mailing list generated no signups at all.
If you think about this problem realistically, it shouldn’t surprise you that people aren’t exactly rushing to join your mailing list. When you subscribe to a mailing list, you know you’re going to receive advertisements. How many times have you done that willingly? Probably not too many.
To solve this problem and get people to join your list, you need to offer something of value in return. A simple offer like “Get exclusive offers sent to your inbox” isn’t going to cut it.
So, how do you offer value and drive mailing list signups with your WordPress site? Here are some actionable examples that you can implement right away.
Offer a Personalized Instant Coupon
One of the easiest ways to encourage someone to sign up for your mailing list is by generating a personalized coupon and sending it to the new subscriber as an instant reward. Creating coupons with WooCommerce is a simple process, and you’ll get used to it quickly.
Many e-commerce sites do this already, though, so it’s important to try different offers and see which one performs best. For example, you might try customizing the offer for the product currently being viewed with a message like “Thinking about this Funky Republic vape? Enter your email address and get it for 25% off instantly!”
When you offer an instant coupon to a new mailing list subscriber, it’s possible that the initial sale will end up being unprofitable. It’s even possible that you’ll lose a little money, although you may find that the cost of acquiring new customers this way is less than what you’re paying to advertise on Google Ads. Gaining a new customer, though, gives you an opportunity to provide a great experience and make that person want to come back in the future.
Offer Instant Access to Exclusive Content
Using your WordPress site to drive mailing list signups doesn’t have to cost money. It’s entirely possible to give something away that’s completely free for you but still makes people want to subscribe. The way to do this is by offering instant access to exclusive content that the user wants to see and can’t get any other way. This technique was nicknamed the “content upgrade” by Brian Dean of backlinko.com. It works especially well for content-based sites or businesses that sell non-tangible products such as consultations or services.
Here are a few practical examples of how the content upgrade technique can work.
- Suppose you’re running a printing service. As part of your content marketing strategy, you’ve published a blog post about the best fonts for product brochures. You could source some public-domain fonts and display an offer like “Download the fonts for our five favorite typography schemes right now.”
- Suppose you have a home remodeling service, and you’ve published a blog post about how to install a new kitchen sink. In this blog post, you could display an offer like “Get instant access to our step-by-step video series showing exactly how we transformed this customer’s kitchen.” Most of the people who view the video series will decide that they’re not really qualified for kitchen remodeling, and they’ll end up hiring you if they’re impressed by your work.
- Suppose you have a sports blog, and you publish advice for people who run fantasy teams. You could offer instant access to a private database with research or statistics that aren’t published anywhere else.
The point of the content upgrade is essentially to entice people who like your content to sign up and receive instant access to even more of it. To do this, you need to understand what your users want and make it clear that subscribing to your mailing list is the only way to get it.
Hold Random Drawings for Free Products
Everybody loves free stuff, so offering something free in return is often a great way to generate mailing list signups. Giving a free product to every new subscriber is probably cost prohibitive, but there is something that you can do instead – you can hold weekly or monthly giveaways. The prize could be something like a free product that’s really nice, or it could be a bundle of smaller products. It could even be a gift card. The better the prize is, the more likely it’ll be that people will want to sign up for it.
To encourage subscribers to remain on your mailing list, consider letting people know that all subscribers are always eligible to win all of your giveaways – so anyone could win at any time. You might also consider proving that the offer is legitimate by including a picture of a previous winner.
Link Your Mailing List to Your Customer Loyalty Program
If you have a brick-and-mortar store, there’s a good chance that you’ve launched a customer loyalty program as a way to encourage repeat business. If you’re going to have a loyalty program, you’ll need a way to identify your customers. That’s a great opportunity to gather email addresses. You can also use your loyalty program as a way to collect phone numbers for SMS marketing.
Promise Value and Actually Deliver It
The last thing to consider as you plan your email marketing strategy is that collecting subscribers is just the first step. Your mailing list will only generate revenue if people read the messages and act on them. If you can promise value and actually deliver it, you don’t need to give anything away at all.
Consider this mailing list signup form from Digg.com founder Kevin Rose. The form is extremely simple, only stating that the list has more than 80,000 subscribers and a 70-percent open rate. If you deliver so much value that the majority of your subscribers read every word you send, you don’t need to offer anything else.
Here are two more examples of how you can promise value to new mailing list subscribers.
- If you have an e-commerce site, you can display a message like, “We sold (product) for just (price) last week, and only our subscribers knew about it. Sign up for our mailing list now.”
- Suppose you have a blog that publishes investment advice. You could display a message like, “If you bought our stock picks last year, you would have beaten the S&P 500 by 25%. Don’t miss the next bull run. Sign up for our mailing list now.”
If you’re going to promise value to your subscribers, remember that you actually have to deliver. Getting people excited about joining a mailing list is a rare feat. If you don’t meet your subscribers’ expectations, though, they’ll unsubscribe just as quickly as they joined.
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