I just started a curated newsletter about personal finance for millennials. Each issue includes 10 curated articles from various sources about investing, budgeting, paying off loans, and etc. I do not have any subscribers yet.
I would seriously consider launching a blog and posting content of the same type to the blog, in abundance. Then add a popup box to the blog to collect email addresses. Post daily blog posts about topics related to your blog and your newsletter. If you do this consistently, over time, you will build up traffic to your blog and also get people entering their email into your popup. This is the free way to do it...
To build a massive email list, if you play the game that everyone else is playing, you’ll never win.
Create contents. Solve your audience's problems, tell stories that happened to you, and so on.
But most importantly, remember that quality beats quantity.
While everybody is out there pushing shallow contents like “10 Ways to Be More Successful.”
You have the advantage to stand out by creating remarkable material.
Is it hard? Of course, but it’s that kind of strategy that will ask you for more work up front, and will give you disproportionate results once running, like the great often Ramit Sethi teaches.
Once you have your content to stand out, don’t be frazzled.
Instead of chasing tactics, build systems to promote them.
Do you know Gary Vee?
When he was starting out he was spending 20-minutes to create his videos (10%),
and then the rest of the days promoting them, replying tweets, and so on.
Same for Jon Westenberg, very well-known on Medium.
He now has thousands of readers, but once told that he started out by
reaching out to people on Facebook with a personalized and
a not-spammy message, telling them about his new content.
Same for James Altucher, who create and then repurpose his remarkable contents through his blog, Q&A sites, and so on.
He has a system in place for being omnipresent where his audience/target market spends his time.
Choose 1 or 2 tactics to create and promote your contents,
(Guest posting is one of the best when starting out)
Once you have it, stick to them.
Trust the system, and enjoy the progress, remember that slow and steady wins the race.
First, congratulations on launching your curated newsletter! That's an amazing step, and you should pat yourself on the back.
There are a few different tactics you can take to get people to subscribe to your newsletter. I recommend applying all of them and seeing what sticks.
1. Locking an enticing, enriching piece of content and requiring sign-up for access to the doc.
2. Engaging with your target audience on social media — consistency is key here.
3. Publishing for online magazines that fit your ideal reader to broaden your reach on wider platforms.
I would love to give you more insights about each of these tactics (especially the third). There are some definite "do's and don'ts" when pitching publications — I would be happy to offer you some insights during a call.
Well done - getting started.
Questions:
1 - Do you have a website?
2 - On your website how do you invite subscription?
3 - Have you got social profiles?
4 - On your social profiles, how do you invite subscriptions?
So you've guessed, you need to get people to visit a place on the web which you own (website / social profiles) and then invite them to join your newsletter. Consider what 'offer' you can make which is attractive to them in addition to getting the articles. Sumo.com has a good Wordpress plugin for subscriptions. Also check out Push Notifications as many sites prefer this as subscribers won't share their email address. I wrote this article about Notifications
http://creativeagencysecrets.com/push-notifications/
Things for you to GrowthHack test
1 - Is 10 articles too few / too may / just right?
2 - What offer can you make to subscribers?
3 - How are you monetising your newsletter?
4 - Which brands can you collaborate with to grow your list with theirs in a joint venture arrangement?
5 - what are your key metrics and ideal customer profile?
Good luck and keep up the good work.
Hi there,
I've experimented quite a bit with list building for my clients and I'm working on my own email list now. Through a lot of testing I have found a way that seems to work better than others.
Here is my "technique" that has consistently brought good results so far:
1. Use a tool that helps you in collecting leads and asking for them at the right time. I use Justuno for my clients. If you're using wordpress, you can try one of the plugins for it (icegram is a good option).
2. Integrate your lead capturing system with your email marketing tool (if you're using mailchimp, you can integrate it with wordpress and create forms that automatically send the information to the list you want).
3. Create some piece of information that your public would want. A 5-page whitepaper on how to start saving up money for millenials, for example. Offer that whitepaper in exchange for their email address. Never sell their email address or spam them, of course :)
You should use a 2-step registration, although it can cause some friction with new subscribers, you are more likely to get a quality list this way.
4. Create an automated flow for all subscribers. I typically use a
- welcome email, describe what they subscribed to, how they will get value out of it, etc. (this gets sent instantly when they subscribe).
- valuable information email (something that would show your new subscribers that they made a good choice when they subscribed)
- consistent newsletter, they will be expecting an email every week, every two weeks, depends on your formula and content 100%.
Good luck with your newsletter! I hope this information helps.
I love it! I just came across a blog just on that topic! I love the effort and love the topic. Congratulations on launching a new baby - if done right you should be committing a lot of time in the near future. Possibly some financial resources as well.
I really like Rebecca's and Andra's responses:
My name is Humberto, I'm an inbound digital marketer and have helped countless entrepreneurs, coaches, startups, and fortune 500 companies - heck, even other marketers! I run www.unthink.me - a digital marketing agency that brings big-business marketing and tools to small growing companies.
I recently wrote answer for a coach, I suggest you read that because you fall under the same hurdle and potential model as well, https://clarity.fm/questions/4917/if-you-a-5-credit-on-fiverr-which-type-of-expert-would-you-choose-to-get .
What you need to figure out is your niche, you target millenials who are interested in their future. Under what specific situations? Female? Recent college grads? those want kids, no kids.. create a person as detailed as what type of beer they drink and if they were in your city, what bar would they most likely go to... etc - this gives you insight into what to write, how to write your content/insights/anecdotes, examples, etc. and where and how to promote to reach them.
On social media, what hashtags you would use are also determined by your niche persona, their interests, etc.
down to the image you use.
On your website:
Invest your time on SEO best practices, don't have more than 3 keyword variations on any given blog post, and don't repeat them each more than 5 times per post.
Read this post in our blog: http://blog.unthink.me/100-incredibly-easy-ways-to-have-better-seo
How are you hosting? if hosting on Wordpress for example there are a lot of good plugins that let you check traffic and SEO progress.
I also agree with them, is important to have modal popups on specific pages that promote certain value propositions, be very specific on this offers as most people won't jump into the 'Subscribe to our blog' offer! Don't be afraid to target with things like "this blog is specifically for _____, not so much for ____"
Don't be afraid of joining FB groups, sharing on twitter, Google+,etc and trying different title descriptions on each share. According to Hubspot, is ok and common to share the same post multiple times each with different titles and value props.
I just shared a note on Facebook, with more ways to increase traffic - it's all a numbers game - you approach, timing, etc, dictates the number of visitors you need for each 1 subscriber. That ratio will dictate whether or not you can rely on organic or if you'd have to pay for traffic through Google Ads.
https://business.facebook.com/notes/unthink-affordable-marketing/40-ways-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-website/670690866458211/
At the end of the day, there is no secret formula, it just takes consistency, patience, and focus. - keep at it.
If this was helpful, all I ask is that next time you know of someone who needs marketing or web design needs that you think Unthink and refer us ;)
- www.Unthink.me
This is a great topic for a defined audience! You have received lots of good suggestions from these other experts who are responding to your question. What I might add is figure out who are top bloggers in your topic niche and contact them to see if they accept guest posts. If so, write an original post for them with a link in your bio that directs readers to you, ideally to a landing page on your own site that provides an opt-in opportunity. Connecting with influencers is one of the many ways to build your newsletter subscriber list. Best of luck, and I would be delighted to help you further if you wish to contact me here on Clarity.
The most reliable way to drive sign-ups is to run ads to a landing page with a strong content offer. The positioning of the offer - title, content, core message - being the key to success.
There are many other potential tactics, as described below, but they are extremely time intensive and often have sporadic and unpredictable returns.
Paying for the traffic and optimizing over time will be your most reliable and predictable path to progress.
1. Have a sweepstakes/giveaway (product specific to the audience you want). It will be slow from the start but once you start posting winners from your giveaway it will set the ball into motion and create a network effect with everyone sharing the event (use facebook or google connect for one click registration to your sweepstakes)
2. Have an event. allow users who signup via email to your event to come for free.
The easiest way for you to do this, especially that you are targeting millennials, is to use social media advertising linking to a free ebook or webinar about something relevant to your newsletter. The key here though is to require an email opt-in to your newsletter. You'll also have to use some good click bait on your advertising with a title like "Millennials not doing this one SIMPLE thing are missing out on thousands of dollars". You can build a website with an email opt in pretty easy on clickfunnels. You should also start building a brand up on facebook, youtube, and instagram to start getting some organic growth without paying for ads
Promise value. No one will subscribe to your newsletter as a favour to you — they need to know what is in it for them. Your newsletter’s description must express a clear value proposition to give people a reason to subscribe. Asking people to subscribe to your newsletter solely to get a reminder about your future creations is not really providing value to them — it is about providing value to you. That is why people rarely subscribe to those kinds of newsletters. They will not. Be explicit, be obvious, and do not be shy about asking them to subscribe. If you are proud of your newsletter — and you better be, or it will never work — then there is no reason to be hesitant to ask people to check it out. Feel uncomfortable about it? Then go learn how to get over your fear of self-promotion. Showcase your signup form or call to action. This seems obvious, but apparently, it is not. Make your newsletter impossible to miss. Build trust. Because so many people and companies abuse the privilege of having access to their audience’s inbox, trust is more important than ever. People are sceptical when you ask for their email, so the only way to get someone to subscribe to your newsletter is if you first get their trust. The way to get an audience’s trust is to consistently deliver what you promise, show them you care about them, and provide legitimate value in your interactions. If you struggle to get your audience to subscribe to your newsletter, it is often a sign they do not trust you yet.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
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