Sometimes, because of the type of business you run, it is easy for you to use your email marketing campaigns to send out coupons and special promotional messages – which can be incentive enough for your happy customers. If you make your emails enticing enough, your customers may also forward these emails to their friends (generating more word of mouth for your business).
However, how do you incentive other people to join your mailing list?
First, assuming you made your email enticing enough so that some of your recipients forwarded your email to their friends, be sure to include an “opt in” option on your email newsletter itself so these new readers can easily add their email address to your list. Make it obvious and easy for them to find, and be sure to tell them that by adding their name to your list, they will receive more coupons or promotion announcements. In other words, give them the reason to sign up. Compel them!
Secondly, you can always give something away – a freebie – for anyone who signs up. Then, simply advertise your give-away on your website or your email newsletters. For some businesses, this can be a free white paper, ebook or other special offer that they cannot get (for free or otherwise) anywhere else except by signing up for your newsletter. You can write the white paper or ebook yourself, but we know that is not possible for all business owners. However, you can talk to someone who is a writer or author and work out an arrangement whereby you distribute their work to people who sign up for your newsletter. They get promotion on your website, as well as the credit in the white paper or ebook.
Here is a sample from OddPodz:
So what kinds of freebies can you think of for your business? If you are a restaurant, how about a small cookbook with some of your favorite recipes? If you are a dog groomer, how about a dog-owners guide to grooming at home between visits. I believe if you put your creative hat on, you can come up with several freebies that would be attractive to your target customer base. Then, simply create the freebie yourself or run a Google-search to find someone who has something you can distribute for them (for free).
Remember, the point of incentiving someone to sign up for your email newsletters are:
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To stay “top of mind” with your customers (loyalty, repeat business)
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To inform your customers of important news (new products, sales, events, etc.)
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To encourage your customers to spread the word about your business
So if you choose to go the route with a “freebie” incentive to grow your email mailing list, be sure to think about incentives that your current customer base will want AND hopefully will want to share with their friends. Use your email marketing campaign to drive repeat business and attract great new business through “word of mouth”!
