Do you realize that it is Less than five months to Christmas Day, now is the time you should be growing your newsletter database as fast and effectively as possible.
After signing up on many online gift retailers newsletters here is what I would suggest.
- Make sure you newsletter sign-up above the fold
Many Eight companies buried their newsletter subscription boxes well below the fold. You are assuming far too much of visitors for them to scroll down to more than halfway. If you look at heat maps of most sites there is a drastic drop in how many visitors see a section of the site as you scroll frothier down. - Your home page should have your newsletter sign-up somewhere
Quite often retailers will only put there signup on there shopping pages or within a news area. The home page of your site normally gets the most users and therefor is a great place to put your newsletter sign-up. - Ask for more than their email address
Lots of retailers only ask for the email address. This makes it quick to sign up, but doesn’t let you personalize any of your messages. Even adding a second field for a first name wouldn’t take visitors long to fill in. - Send an immediate welcome email
Not only should you be sending the opt in email for can-spam act but a fallow up email which includes good current information as well as some type of incentive to shop right now like a 15% off code that is only good for 10 days or other type of incentives. - Tell them what they’ll receive for signing up
Many retailers’ newsletter sign-up boxes do not mention what you would get in return for giving them your contact details. I have seen sign up boxes that on signing up for the newsletter you will receive a 10% discount – 20% this is a good way to get people to subscribe. - Tell them how often they’ll hear from you
Almost all retailers never mention how frequently they will email you. It isn’t clear if you will get your first email from them within five minutes, on the 1st of every month, or when they had their next sale. Let them know the frequency. If you email thrice-weekly – let the customers know upfront so they don’t unsubscribe, feeling spammed. - Give them the option to adjust their preferences
Lots of retailers do not provide the option to change your subscriptions. Provided a preference centre so you don’t have to receive irrelevant special offers. It’s a battle to get customers to sign up in the first place – make sure they’re only getting the messages they want or all the work you did to get them to sign up want matter since they will just un-subscribe. This is an option you will need to look into when making the choice of what newsletter platform to use as not all provide this as an option.Good luck with getting those subscribers for the holiday.