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I think it really goes without saying that a newsletter is a powerful marketing tool. Any promotions that you send to your customers and subscribers in the future will be that much more successful because with your newsletter you will have…

• established your credibility,
• developed a reputation as an industry expert,
• cultivated a relationship with your subscribers,
• inspired customer loyalty,
• and maintained regular contact.

Regularly give your subscribers useful or entertaining information that they will benefit from, and they will come to trust you, respect you, and buy from you.

Sounds great, right? But now you’re probably left wondering, “How do I get people to subscribe?” After all, you can write hundreds of newsletters, but if you only have a handful of subscribers, it can be a lot of work for little reward.

The big mistake I see a lot of e-business owners making is thinking that simply posting a “subscribe today” box on their web sites — and then forgetting about it — is going to attract subscribers by the thousands. Even if your web site is highly trafficked, this is going to produce disappointing results.

You need to be prepared to actively promote your newsletter, much the same way you would promote any other product or service online.

Step #1:    Promote Your Newsletter On Your Web Site!
Yes. Definitely promote your newsletter on your web site. But the keyword here is “promote.” How motivating is it for a visitor to give you his or her name and e-mail address when presented with a subscribe box titled, “Subscribe to my free newsletter”?

Why? Why should I subscribe? How will I benefit from subscribing? What am I going to get? Just because your newsletter is “free,” doesn’t mean I want it. There are plenty of free newsletters out there I could subscribe to. What makes yours different or special?

You really need to “sell” your free newsletter to potential subscribers. In one or two short, exciting sentences clearly state the benefits of subscribing to your newsletter. For example, if your web site was golf related, you might say something like, “Subscribe to the Free ‘Golf Tips’ Newsletter and receive monthly tips and advice from Pro Golfers. Improve your swing, hear about world renowned golf courses, learn which clubs the experts prefer, plus much more!”
It sounds a lot more interesting than “Subscribe to my free newsletter,” don’t you think? Visitors to your web site will think so, too!

The other tip I’d like to share is about where you should place your newsletter subscription box on your web site. First of all, don’t hide it. Your goal should be to make sure that everyone who visits your web site is offered the opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter at least once, if not twice.

Your newsletter subscription box should appear “above the fold” (i.e., it should be immediately visible on the first screen) of your homepage. This is where you’ll get the best response — and the most subscribers!

Step #2:    Offer Existing Customers A Subscription
Have you offered your existing customers a subscription to your newsletter? If you haven’t, you should e-mail them an offer like this as soon as possible! This is an easy way to get a flood of new subscriptions.

And be sure to add a subscription offer to your “thank you for ordering” page or e-mail. If someone is interested enough in your product or service to purchase it, you can be sure they’ll want to subscribe to your newsletter. Don’t miss this opportunity to maintain contact with existing customers!

If you’ve offered a free subscription to your customers but received a poor response, consider making things a little more interesting by offering them a “special gift” like a free article or eBook when they subscribe. This extra incentive should dramatically boost the number of new subscriptions you receive.

Step #3:     Promote Your Newsletter In Your E-mail Signatures
An electronic signature – also referred to as a “sig file” – is a three to six line footer that you can attach to the bottom of your e-mail messages and public forum postings. And it’s a prime spot to advertise your newsletter!

Unlike a lot of other blatant advertisements, a sig file is universally accepted, so take advantage of this perfect opportunity to plug your newsletter! Anyone who receives an e-mail from you will also receive your invitation to subscribe to your newsletter.

Chances are, if you’re e-mailing them, they already have a direct interest in your industry or niche, so take advantage of this and offer them a free subscription right at the bottom of any e-mail you send!

Step #4:    Ad Swap With Other Newsletters & E-zines
A great trick for increasing your subscriber base involves contacting other newsletters that relate to your target market and offering to swap ads with them. Tell the newsletter owners that you’ll promote their newsletter to your subscriber base if they’ll return the favor. This is a great way for both of you to increase your readership!

Subscribers will appreciate the recommendation of another source of quality information, and as long as the sites you swap with are complementary and not competitive, it’s not going to hurt your business at all.

Step #5:    Promote Your Newsletter In Newsgroups, Discussion Lists, and Forum Postings
Another good place to promote your newsletter and locate targeted potential subscribers is in newsgroups, discussion lists, and forums that relate directly to your industry or niche. Simply post a brief description of your newsletter and a link to your subscription page.

Step #6:    Offer Subscribers The Opportunity To Give Gift Subscriptions
Offer or announce “gift subscriptions” in your newsletter that encourage your current subscribers to send gift subscriptions to friends. You can automate your web site to send the gift subscription with a little blurb stating whom the gift is from and what they will be receiving (and the opportunity to unsubscribe, of course!).

A friend of mine has built most of his mailing list doing this alone. He went from 5,000 subscribers to over 16,000 subscribers in less than a year just using this one technique.

Step #7:     Renting Opt-in E-mail Lists
Renting e-mail addresses from third-party list providers is a route that some new newsletter owners choose because you are given quick access to a list of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have “opted” to receive e-mail on topics that interest them.

You can usually expect to be charged 5 to 20 cents per deliverable message, and you should expect any e-mail addresses that are “bad” or that “bounce” to be replaced by addresses that are current.

If you decide to use a service like this, it’s absolutely critical that you find out how the e-mail addresses were obtained. You want e-mail addresses that have been collected ethically and responsibly, and this means that you want the e-mail addresses of people who (a) are directly interested in your product, industry, or field of expertise, and (b) have given their permission and “opted-in” to the list.

Important Note: If you buy lists of e-mail addresses that have been “harvested” from newsgroups, classified ad sites, online services, etc., you’ll be accused of spamming! These people have NOT given you permission to contact them, and you can get into a LOT of trouble this way. Again, I can’t overstate the importance of making sure that the e-mail addresses you rent have been collected ethically and responsibly!

Buying or renting e-mail addresses this way can get very expensive, so you need to be sure that your entire sales process (i.e., your web site, your sales copy, your ordering system) has been tested and tweaked before you roll out an e-mail campaign like this in full force. Do some tests using a few thousand addresses and you should get a fairly accurate picture of how successful you’re going to be.

Final Thoughts:
Ultimately, your goal should be to develop a relationship with your subscribers through quality articles in your newsletter before you even consider trying to sell them anything. Give them quality information that they will benefit from to establish your credibility and develop a rapport with them.
Remember that the true value lies in the relationship that you develop with the person who owns the e-mail address… not in the e-mail address itself. It will be the relationship that you develop with your subscribers that will result in big sales both now and in the future — an important point to keep in mind no matter how many new subscribers you attract.

Providing a newsletter for your opt-in list subscribers provides many benefits in terms of driving traffic into your site as well as boosting the sales and profits of your site and company. This is a marketing ploy that will not hugely dent your marketing budget and will not also require many man-hours in developing this project.

With a newsletter, you can inform the public about your company and products as well as services. You can keep them posted and updated about what’s going-on with your company as well as many of your promotions and offerings. With these, you keep on reminding your subscribers that you are still here and is willing to offer them good deals and services.

Newsletters also allow you to impress your subscribers. It can show your expertise and knowledge about the topic at hand and the many benefits you can offer them. When you impress people, they will become potential customers and another great thing is that they can recommend you to their friends, colleagues and family. All of them could very well be customers in the future.

If you do not have a newsletter or publishing one for your site, then you may have to consider about researching and be well informed on how to publish one. It is not as easy as it seems but if and when you get the right idea and process, it will be smooth sailing from there on. Try to take the time to learn what you need to learn and get that newsletter ready and good to attract subscribers to your newsletter as well as traffic to your site.

In the next few paragraphs, I will provide you with some things to reflect on when you decide to start your own newsletter for your site. Here are five things to consider when publishing a newsletter.

1) Make sure that the content of your newsletter pertains to and closely associated with your business or the theme of your site. Do not dwell too far on what could be regarded as your field of expertise. You have started a site and your theme for your site will always be something you are knowledgeable about. For example; if you have a site that sells auto car parts, your newsletter must contain articles or content like photos that pertain to cars, auto parts and such. You may also include content about your company and your staff.

Remember that visitors of a certain site are there because they are interested in what the site has to offer. If they sign up for an opt-in list or for a newsletter this means that they want to be updated for that certain theme or subject. Be sure that when you publish your newsletter you are providing for the need of the subscriber as well as their interests.

2) Ensure that you have well written, information riddled and content rich articles. You articles will be the body of your newsletter and that they should be able to excite your readers as well as provide information. Articles should be well written and checked for errors such as spelling and grammatical errors for it to look professional and believable. The trust of your client to you and newsletter is at stake here.

3) Fact-check your articles. Make sure that you provide true facts and figures so that your reputation as an expert and knowledgeable in that field is not questioned. If you lose the trust of your subscribers these may persuade them to unsubscribe to your newsletter. You will lose many potential sales this way.

4) Provide fresh and new articles that can provide new information to your subscribers. If you publish stale and old news in your newsletter, there is a tendency that people or your subscribers already have read and known about them. This will lose their interest in your newsletter and they wont get to read what is most important, your ads. They may not open or read any of your succeeding newsletters losing your intention in writing and publishing newsletters, to get them to visit your site and make a purchase.

5) Never use copyrighted materials such as photos and articles. This is outright plagiarism, you may get into a lot of trouble for this. You can lose your business and get sued over copyright infringement. If you do not have the time to write your own articles, there are many willing and able professional article writers that can do it for you for a reasonable fee. All your investment in writing and publishing articles will be well worth it when you see your list build up and your traffic increasing.