How many times have you seen the words “sign up to our newsletter” on a website and completely ignored it?
The truth is – unless you have celebrity status, no one really cares about your news updates. They only care about what you can do to help them. Whether that’s through teaching, inspiring, or simply providing opportunities to save money, it’s critical that subscribers actually gain something when they sign up to your email list.
Now I’m not saying don’t start a mailing list altogether, because it's a great way to build relationships with your target audience, but shifting the focus away from talking about your business to helping your subscribers will pay dividends.
As we spend so much time in our businesses, it's sometimes easy to get caught up and think our messaging needs to revolve around us. But in reality, the opposite is true. You will stand a much better chance of attracting subscribers (and clients), when your messaging is focused on your target audience and improving their situation.
So if you’re thinking about building a mailing list to communicate with your ideal clients, start with them in mind and create the value proposition from the ground up. Think about the goals they have and the challenges they face, and then reverse engineer your mailing list content to reflect something that’s important to them.
For expertise-driven businesses, providing insights and tips related to your area of expertise is probably your best opportunity to give the most value.
And once you have started a mailing list, here are some of the best ways to encourage sign ups:
- Feature the sign up form in your website footer.
- Have a lead magnet on your website e.g. a resource that people get in exchange for signing up to your list. This could take many forms such as a guide, template, or even an email/video course.
- Speak with people in your target audience 1-on-1 (both online and offline). Once you have built trust and provided them with value, asking them if they want to sign up should be a relatively easy ‘pitch’.
- Post valuable content on social media that invites people to sign up in order to receive future advice straight to their inbox.
