By Elmer on June 8, 2009

Even before we build our first newletter release, one major element that needs to be addressed is the quality and quantity of our mailing list. Quality is determined on how we source our subscribers. Are they permission based? Or are they bought from a company involved in an email harvesting and recycling activity? Obviously we want the first type but starting it out can be really tough experience especially if we are just starting out.

So how do we start building our newsletter mailing list? Here are some tips that helps us get moving:

1. Use a confirmed opt-in subscription form. Confirmed opt-in means every subscriber who signs up needs to click a link in a confirmation email. This method may build the mailing list at a slower pace than using the single opt-in, which simply asks for email address without confirmation, but no doubt the quality of email addresses is higher. That’s because single opt-in subscription method is prone to prank email submissions and wrongly spelled email addresses.

2. Place subscription forms at popular pages. Placement of email subscription form on homepage or any popular sections of the site definitely gathers more eyeballs and possible interest in subscribing to the mailing list. If I read a very informative article, I would think that the site itself is a good source of other informative articles. I would then be easily convinced to sign up.

3. Place checkbox on Contact Us page allowing visitors (who enter reply their email address) to subscribe to the mailing list. One of the reasons why visitors contact us through the Contact Us page form is to convey their appreciation. Because of their positive experience, these type of visitors are also likely to subscribe to our newsletters. Selecting the checkbox saves time entering email address twice.

4. Allow email forwarding and sharing to friends and colleagues. Best sales people for a business are clients and this is the same with an EDM campaigns. Happy subscribers are likely to share the goodness of our newsletter contents to their friends. When these friends get the same experience, they’ll also be glad to subscribe.

5. Create incentives for subscribers. When applicable, share white papers or create other incentives and make them available for exclusively to subscribers. This illustrates the difference between a subscriber and a non-subscriber. Maybe adding a birth date field allows us to send coupon or special offers on their birthdays.

6. Remind subscribers how they got into the mailing list. Sometimes it is necessary to remind our subscribers how they got into our mailing list. For example, if they purchased an item and clicked on “send me future product updates or related special offers” long time ago they may have forgotten that instance already. Reminding them about it may help them stay in the mailing list instead of look for the unsubscribe list.

7. Establish subscription partnerships with related services. If our business is about wedding photography, our partners may be event planners, flower shops or invitation cards. And if they are building their mailing list, our services may be interesting to their target audience. Therefore, it will be a good idea to create optional fields that allow target audience to consider subscribing to our newsletters. There are co-registration companies that perform this task for you.

8. Do SEO. Let’s make sure our website content is optimized for search engines. In this manner, people who have not heard about us, or read our articles get the chance to know what we offer. And if we are what they’re looking for or like what we write, they might sign up to our newsletters.

Photo credit: brokeneyeball

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