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How to Get More Email Newsletter Subscribers
Discover actionable steps to grow your audience
Kanishka Kumawat
February 12th, 2024
Email marketing is one of the most powerful ways to market on the Internet.
According to Statista, email marketing drives an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, outperforming any other marketing channel.
But the question remains: how do you build a robust and engaged email subscriber base from scratch?
Take the case of Marcus Ramsey, founder and CEO of The Brink. Ramsey built a following of 14,000 subscribers just one month after he launched his newsletter. How exactly do you replicate this feat?
The following tips will guide you in constructing a high-quality email list in record time—from strategic content creation to leveraging tools like beehiiv.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways:
Create compelling offers like free webinars or ebooks to entice readers to sign up.
Simplify the sign-up process, ideally requiring only an email address.
Leverage social media platforms for targeted ads and engaging content to draw subscribers.
Implement exit-intent pop-ups on your website to capture potential subscribers before they leave.
Continuously test and adjust your strategies. Focus on landing page optimization for higher conversion rates.
For e-commerce websites, use thank you pages post-purchase or interaction to encourage newsletter sign-ups.
1. Create an Appealing Offer or a Lead Magnet
What you offer is what makes someone want to subscribe to your newsletter.
An effective lead magnet is an offer too good to pass up, providing specific value to a prospect simply for providing their contact information.
You must show the reader why they should give you their email.
For example, if they are in beehiiv’s blog reading a post on “How to Maximize Your Email List Growth With These 6 Tactics," a fitting lead magnet could be a guide titled "The Ultimate Checklist for Email List Optimization."
This directly complements the content they are already interested in and offers additional, deeper insight.
Your lead magnet should provide immediate value and address a specific need or interest of your audience.
For instance, if your audience comprises small business owners looking to improve their marketing, a valuable lead magnet might be a free webinar on "Innovative Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses."
2. Optimize Your Sign-Up Process
The first rule of optimizing your sign-up process is to make sure the newsletter sign-up process is simple and streamlined.
According to Heap, when people can sign up with one click using a service they already use, like Google or Slack, signup rates improve by 8.2% points.
This is the power of convenience and ease in the subscription process.
When designing your sign-up form, ask for only the email address at first. The rationale here is the fewer barriers to entry, the better.
Each additional field, like asking for a first name, deters potential subscribers.
You might argue that personalization is valuable, but it's not always necessary at the initial point of contact.
You can gather more details later, when the subscriber is more engaged with your content, perhaps through a welcome email or a subscriber profile update request.
Another thing is don’t overwhelm your readers. If your sign-up prompt is on a blog post, ensure there's only one clear call to action.
Multiple sign-up options or different calls-to-action will confuse readers and dilute their attention, leading to lower conversion rates. The goal is to guide your reader to a single, simple action — subscribing to your newsletter.
There are 4.95 billion social media users worldwide, and the average user uses seven social networks monthly.
How do you get a chunk of these 4 billion people?
The first way is to invest in targeted social media ads. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer targeting options that let you reach specific demographics that are most likely to be interested in your newsletter content.
You can direct these ads to your newsletter sign-up page or the social media-specific landing page. So, ensure you have a dedicated landing page for your social media audience.
Second, the average internet user spends 151 minutes daily on social media. This is a significant opportunity to engage with potential subscribers through valuable content.
Create social media posts or threads that provide immediate value to your followers. This could be in the form of tips, insights, latest industry news, quick how-to guides, or answers to common questions.
Once you have provided value and captured your audience's attention, include a call-to-action (CTA) inviting them to subscribe to your newsletter for more in-depth information.
For example, in the above image, notice how the author cleverly integrates a call-to-action (CTA) to sign up for their newsletter at the very outset of the thread.
Ensure that the offer in your CTA is directly related to the content of the post.
For example, if you post a series of tips on social media marketing, your CTA could be an invitation to subscribe to your newsletter for more comprehensive guides and case studies on the subject.
More ways to use social media to grow your newsletter include:
Host Social Media Contests or Giveaways: Run contests or giveaways on your social media platforms where entry requires subscribing to your newsletter. Make sure the prize is relevant and enticing to your target audience. For example, if you run a fitness blog, give away a fitness tracker or a free personal training session.
Share Testimonials and Success Stories: Regularly share testimonials from happy subscribers or success stories related to your newsletter content.
Utilize Interactive Features: Engage with your audience using interactive features like polls, Q&As, or live videos. During these interactions, subtly promote your newsletter and highlight what subscribers gain by signing up. During an Instagram Live session, you could discuss a topic briefly and then direct viewers to your newsletter for more in-depth coverage.
4. Utilize Exit-Intent Pop-Ups
Exit-intent pop-ups differ from regular pop-ups in terms of when and how they are triggered.
Standard pop-ups appear according to a set time or action within a page. Exit-intent pop-ups appear precisely when a user is about to leave your website.
This technology relies on tracking the user's mouse movements and velocity, detecting when the cursor moves toward the browser's close button or address bar, indicating an intent to exit.
On desktops, this technology is quite advanced, accurately predicting when a user is about to leave the page.
For mobile devices, exit-intent technology uses scrolling behavior or inactivity as indicators that the user might be leaving.
Statistics show that exit messages have higher conversion rates than other kinds of pop-ups, typically converting an additional 2 to 4% of website visitors.
Regular pop-ups are seen as intrusive, appearing while a reader is actively engaged with the content. With the attention span at an all-time low, this disruption in the reading experience often leads to irritation or pop-up blindness, where users automatically close pop-ups without reading them.
In contrast, exit-intent pop-ups are less intrusive, appearing only when the user is already disengaging from the site.
This timing makes the user more receptive to a final message or offer. You can also use exit-intent pop-ups strategically to present a compelling offer or message that gives users a reason to reconsider their decision to leave, such as a discount code, a free download, or a newsletter sign-up reminder.
5. Regularly Do A/B Testing and Tweak Your Strategies
Most advice focuses on tweaking the design or copy of your sign-up forms. However, consider testing different types of lead magnets.
For instance, compare the effectiveness of a free webinar versus a downloadable ebook. Track which lead magnet garners more sign-ups and which one leads to more engaged subscribers over time.
One of the best things to test is the landing page. Why? Landing pages have a 160% higher conversion rate than other signup forms.
Initially, create two or more distinctly different landing pages. These variations include different value propositions, images, page layouts, and call-to-action (CTA) placements.
One version could be minimalist with a single CTA, while another could be more detailed, featuring testimonials and in-depth explanations of the newsletter benefits. Monitor which version achieves a higher conversion rate in terms of newsletter sign-ups.
Once you’ve identified the more successful landing page, make smaller adjustments.
For example, add social proof, like subscriber counts or testimonials, to a one-page version and compare its performance. You can also experiment with different headlines, CTA button colors, or form fields. The goal is to continuously refine the page based on the data from these tests.
Google Analytics provides tools to help you conduct A/B testing, known as experiments.
In Google Analytics, create a new experiment under the 'Behavior' section. Name your experiment and select the objective you want to improve, such as newsletter sign-ups.
Input the URLs of the different landing pages you've created as variants in the experiment.
Decide how much traffic you want to direct to each variant. You can split it evenly or allocate a different percentage based on your testing needs.
Launch the experiment, and Google Analytics will start directing traffic to your landing page variants accordingly.
Google Analytics will collect data on how each variant performs in terms of your defined objective. Regularly check this data to see which landing page is more effective in driving newsletter sign-ups.
Also, rather than general A/B testing, segment your audience based on their behavior or demographics and test different strategies with each group.
For instance, test one sign-up strategy with new visitors and another with returning visitors. This helps in understanding what works best for different types of users.
For insightful A/B testing strategies, the Three A/B Testing Examples You Can Copy Today blog post offers practical examples you can implement. This article dives deeper into email testing, offering valuable best practices that you can use to further refine your strategies.
92% of consumers trust referrals or recommendations from people they know.
Integrate social media share buttons or a “Forward to a Friend” link in your newsletter.
Place these buttons prominently. Make sure that the sharing process is seamless. Clicking the share button should automatically generate a post with a preview of your newsletter and a link to the sign-up page.
Don’t forget to craft content within your newsletter that is shareable. Consider insightful articles, useful tips, engaging infographics, or exclusive offers.
The more valuable and unique your content, the more likely it is to be shared. You can create specific sections or items in your newsletter designed for sharing, like a quotable insight or a weekly challenge.
You can offer incentives for sharing your newsletter. For example, you could run a referral program where subscribers get access to exclusive content, discounts, or entries into contests if they refer a certain number of new subscribers.
Clearly communicate these incentives in your newsletter and make the referral process as straightforward as possible.
Ensure that when someone receives your newsletter through a share, it’s easy for them to subscribe. Include a clear and compelling call-to-action for subscription, ideally at the top and bottom of your newsletter.
The path from reading a shared newsletter to becoming a subscriber should be straightforward and require minimal effort.
The more eyeballs you get on your content, the higher the likelihood of converting viewers into newsletter subscribers.
It's about casting a wide net and then drawing these viewers in.
Post your content on platforms like Reddit, Medium, or industry-specific forums. These sites are frequented by people actively seeking information and can significantly boost your content's visibility.
Here are more ways to make sure you reach as many people as possible:
Email/Author Signature Marketing: Promote your newsletter subtly by including a link in your email signature. At the end of your articles, where you write about the author, include a link to your newsletter in your bio.
Repurpose Content for Different Formats: Convert your newsletter content into different media formats such as videos, infographics, or podcasts.
Collaborate with Other Content Creators: Partner with influencers, bloggers, or other businesses in your niche. You can also contact other industry leaders to see if they can include your newsletter in their content.
When your content reaches as many relevant viewers as possible, you increase the chances of growing your newsletter subscriber base.
8. Your Home Page Should be a Dedicated Newsletter Sign-Up Page
Making your home page a dedicated newsletter sign-up page significantly enhances your subscription rates by minimizing distractions and focusing user attention.
When visitors land on your homepage, their attention isn't divided. They're presented with a clear, singular action to take: subscribing to your newsletter.
With a dedicated sign-up page, you can effectively showcase your newsletter's value proposition. This could include highlighting what subscribers will receive (exclusive content, discounts, insights, etc.) and why your newsletter is unique.
Take the example of Milk Road. They successfully got 250,000 subscribers in 10 months using beehiiv.
They use their homepage as a dedicated newsletter sign-up page. They also include social proof on this page: “Join 250,000+ subscribers and get our 5-minute daily newsletter on what matters in crypto.”
Milk Road's strategy uses simplicity and directness.
They make the newsletter the focal point of the homepage. This streamlines the path to subscription and maximizes their sign-up rates.
When visitors arrive at Milk Road's homepage, they are greeted with a compelling sign-up option without additional navigational choices or content distractions.
9. Ask Visitors to Subscribe to Get Access to Gated Content
Gated content refers to exclusive, high-value material accessible only after a visitor provides certain information.
This strategy leverages the principle of exclusivity and perceived value.
Identify or create valuable content for which visitors will exchange their email information.
This could be in-depth guides, comprehensive reports, exclusive videos, or detailed case studies. The content should be highly relevant and offer significant value beyond what is freely available on your site.
Then, actively promote your gated content across your marketing channels. Use teasers or snippets of the content to pique interest and drive traffic to the landing page.
Expert Tip: You should balance gated content with ungated content. Too much-gated content deters visitors and diminishes your site’s SEO effectiveness.
10. Use Thank You Pages
Let’s say you have an e-commerce website. A thank you page appears after a customer completes a purchase.
You can invite the customer to subscribe to your newsletter at this stage.
Since they've already engaged with your brand, they're more likely to be interested in staying updated with future products, offers, and company news.
Also, offer an immediate incentive. For instance, you could provide a 20% discount on their next purchase if they sign up for your newsletter.
The thank you page can serve a similar purpose if you have a service-oriented website. After a user signs up for a service or downloads content, the thank you page can suggest they subscribe to your newsletter for updates, tips, or related content.
A thank you page can be useful even if your site focuses on content, like blogs or those with contact forms. After a user leaves a comment or submits a query, use the thank you page to invite them to subscribe for more content or updates.
11. Build a Community Through Newsletters
When subscribers feel like a part of the community, they’re more likely to remain engaged, recommend your newsletter to others, and contribute to a growing subscriber base.
This strategy involves creating an interactive and personalized experience that resonates with your audience.
You can incorporate interactive elements such as polls, surveys, or Q&A sections in your newsletter.
For example, BuzzFeed often uses quizzes and interactive polls in their emails, which increases engagement and encourages readers to share the content with their network. Interactive content makes subscribers feel heard and valued, increasing their likelihood of staying subscribed and recommending your newsletter to others.
Featuring stories or contributions from your subscribers can also create a strong sense of community.
For instance, if you have a travel newsletter, you might include subscriber-submitted travel tips or photos. This approach validates and celebrates your subscribers and encourages other readers to contribute and stay engaged, potentially attracting their peers to subscribe.
Finally, use subscriber data to tailor content based on their interests and behaviors. Take an example of a newsletter that covers a broad topic, like health and wellness. Segment its content to cater to fitness, nutrition, or mental health. Personalized content feels more relevant, which will lead to higher engagement and word-of-mouth referrals.
12. Overcome Common Challenges in Growing a Subscriber List
Overcoming the common handles that people face helps you retain your current subscriber base and makes your newsletter more appealing to potential new subscribers.
You must be aware of where and what you need to address.
One of the challenges that many people face is a high unsubscribe rate and low engagement. So you find yourself stagnated. This often stems from content that isn’t resonating with your audience or an overwhelming frequency of emails.
The solution? Regularly analyze engagement metrics to understand subscriber preferences. A/B test different content types and email frequencies to reveal what works best. Then tailor your approach based on these insights to reduce unsubscribe rates and boost overall engagement.
Also, regularly remove inactive subscribers and correct invalid email addresses to avoid hard bounce rates. This will improve your engagement rates and enhance the overall health of your email marketing campaigns.
Final Thoughts: Use beehiiv to Expand Your Newsletter Subscribers
Growing your email newsletter subscriber base requires strategic planning, creativity, and consistent effort.
Each step plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining subscribers.
As you implement these strategies, having the right tools at your disposal makes a significant difference.
For example, Jack Raines, founder of the Young Money newsletter, already successfully got newsletter subscribers. He had 2,000 subscribers in just six months.
However, using beehiiv, he grew his subscriber base from 2,000 to 25,000 within the year.
With beehiiv, you can streamline your email marketing efforts, gain deeper insights into subscriber behavior, and continuously optimize your strategies for better results.
Get started with beehiiv today. We offer a 30-day free trial—no credit card is required.
The ideal frequency varies based on your audience and content, but a general guideline is once a week. This keeps your audience engaged without overwhelming them.
Use tools like beehiiv to monitor subscriber engagement and adjust accordingly. Remember always to prioritize quality and relevance over frequency.
What are effective ways to segment an email list for targeted content?
Use demographics like age, gender, location, or occupation to tailor your content. Behavioral data, such as purchase history, website activity, and email interaction patterns, also provide insights for segmentation. Another effective strategy is grouping subscribers based on their expressed interests or engagement with specific content types.
Additionally, differentiate between highly engaged and less active users to tailor your communication appropriately.
How can businesses measure the success of their email newsletters?
You should look into these key metrics to measure if you’re having success with email newsletters:
Open Rate: The percentage of subscribers who open the email. It shows your headline is compelling.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of readers who clicked on one or more links within the email.
Conversion Rate: This is the percentage of subscribers who take a desired action (like purchasing) after clicking a link in the email.
Unsubscribe Rate: The rate at which people opt out of your email list, helping assess the long-term appeal of your content.
beehiiv synergizes well with the strategies we have discussed above. Our platform offers a cohesive and user-friendly platform that streamlines the process of creating, managing, and expanding your newsletter.
beehiiv integrates various aspects of newsletter management into a single platform.
Here's how you can use beehiiv's features to support your newsletter growth efforts:
Powerful Editing and Design Tools: beehiiv's advanced editing tools let you create visually appealing and engaging newsletters. This is important for capturing and retaining subscriber interest.
Publishing Tools with AI Assistance: You can simplify your newsletter creation process with our user-friendly publishing tools, including a text editor and AI assistance. Your content will be compelling and error-free.
Growth Tools Including Referral Programs: We have growth tools like referral programs, subscribe forms, and pop-ups to organically increase your subscriber base by incentivizing current subscribers to bring in new ones.
Robust Analytics for Tracking ROI: We have seen how important it is to track data on your subscribers. beehiiv will provide you with detailed analytics, allowing you to track the ROI of your newsletter and make data-driven decisions for further growth.
Incorporating beehiiv into your strategy for growing email newsletter subscribers gives you the tools and insights needed for success. Get started with our 30-day free trial.
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