I belong to a Yahoo Group that is focused on its member’s use of blogs as a business marketing and communications tool. A member asked the group for advice regarding the lack of success in getting sign-ups for her ezine (she’s averaging 1 sign-up/week). A subscription form is prominent on the upper left of her site and she incentivizes subscriptions by offering a free report (which she doesn’t name). These were my contribution to the topic thread. I think they’re pretty relevant for most bloggers and ezine publishers
- I agree, with the earlier comment about placing the actual title of the free report on your sign up form. But also, be sure that the report is of interest to the majority of your desired audience. I subscribed myself just to find out that your report is … 33 Do’s & Don’ts for Your Next Presentation. I don’t do presentations so the report was a bit of a disappointment to me. I’m sure that this report resonates with a lot of people but since your site is presented as a personal development resource, your visitors might be more inclined to subscribe to your ezine if the report you provide focuses more obviously on that topic, e.g., your post on “The Top 7 Ways to Improve Your Self Esteem“. You might create 2 or 3 reports and test which one provides the best response. Run each report for a couple of weeks and see if any one in particular offers a superior result.
- When I subscribed the email I received under your signature provided a link to your website but how about promoting your ezine – with a link to subscribe – in your signature line as well.
- Create a separate subscription page that ‘sells’ your ezine. Use this page to talk about the content and how it will benefit subscribers and provide access to an archive or sample issues.
- When you give speeches or training, develop a landing page — and promote it at the event — that encourages people to subscribe to your ezine as well as provides special product or service offers and/or ‘exclusive’ content. I do this for my clients on a routine basis and they will add from several to several dozen (and more depending upon the event size) subscribers to their ezine subscriber lists as a result.
- Use the back of your business card to promote your ezine (and blog). Include a link to the subscribe page…
- You incorporate all of the social bookmarking links (Digg, del.icio.us, etc.) in your blog posts. How about a tag line at the end of each post that provides a message along the lines of, “If you liked this post and want more depth, subscribe to my ezine (with a link).” I haven’t received your ezine yet but, if you aren’t, cross promote your blog in your ezine as well. I have several clients who provide links to their most recent blog posts to good effect.
- Don’t forget your blog. Use Feedblitz to allow people to subscribe to your blog via email. This is another great way to generate names that you can use to cross promote your ezine and other services. You don’t provide an obvious way for people to subscribe to your blog via either RSS or email. I like Feedblitz because it’s easier to track who’s subscribed. As far as RSS goes, I’d recommend a service such as Feedburner which allows a visitor to subscribe using their favorite RSS service.
- Finally, get more ‘juice’ from your free report. The header of your PDF report lists your website with the tag line, “Join EY Insider Community Today!” Great! But why not make that a live link to a page on your website that allows them to subscribe – in other words, give them an easy means to ‘Join Your Community’. And use the last page of your report to tout your business. You just end after tip #33. You’ve just spent 6 pages providing them valuable information. Now give them an opportunity to thank you by giving them the information – and access – they need to inquire about your products, services, ezine and blog. This is good stuff, assume that it’s going to be passed around. In fact, invite them to do so.
- Finally, Part II, in looking at your site, you have a bunch of info (most prominently, Audios) that say, “Coming Soon”. Get rid of those. If it’s not available now, remove the reference. When it becomes available, promote its availability as an ‘event’ which you can use to generate fresh interest in your site.
- Finally, as with everything else on the web, the better content you deliver the better results you’ll enjoy in increased subscribers, visitors and business.
Hope these help and good luck.
Regards,
Tom Gray
The Evolving Internet Marketer
