Recipe for an Ezine: Ingredient #7: Attracting Subscribers

Of all the tasks that go into writing, formatting and publishing an ezine, getting people to subscribe can be most challenging and crucial. Without subscribers, you will be spending your energy for nothing. And, since open rates for emailed ezines are averaging around 25-40%, you need to grow your list all the time.

Getting people to sign up for your ezine is a problem because of overcrowded inboxes and information overload. Savvy professionals offer a reward (called an ethical bribe) to readers in exchange for their permission to email to them.

Here are several incentives that work for increasing sign ups:

1. A report, article, or white paper with valuable information readers can’t get elsewhere
2. Insider secrets or tips to professional resources
3. Exclusive results from a survey or poll
4. Participation in a drawing with valuable prizes, such as an iPod pre-loaded with your exclusive content
5. Entry in a contest, with free tuition or registration to a seminar or teleconference to the winners
6. Entry in a contest or drawing, with the opportunity to refer the most number of other friends or colleagues for additional prizes
7. If you are speaking at a conference and offer a raffle prize, when people give you their business cards for the drawing, tell them you will also give them a free subscription to your ezine, unless they specifically write on the back of the card “no email.”

You must reassure subscribers you will keep their email addresses private and not share, rent or sell your list. Be sure to include this privacy statement next to your sign up form and on your ezine subscription page.

Your subscription form should go at the top of every web page. Have a separate page for newsletter subscriptions and include a description of the ezine next to the form, clearly outlining the benefits to readers for signing up.