Turn Your Newsletter Subscribers into Clients

Having an Ezine or Newsletter is one of the easiest ways to turn your site visitors into clients. With a proper and well-made Ezine or Newsletter subscription process, the odds of creating clients from your web traffic will increase dramatically.

Even when there is an abundance of information, visitors may not purchase the service or product being advertised. In fact, most web-savvy consumers won’t usually purchase a product or service without knowing more about the business providing it, or comparing prices. As a result, providing a reason for visitors to remain interested in your business is essential. One of the best ways to do this is by offering an Ezine or newsletter— a free publication usually distributed by email or made available for download on your website. This may take the form of a newsletter, Ebook, video, teleseminar or any other type of useful information that may be of interest to the audience you are trying to attract.

Step 1 – Get the right visitors

In order to convert website traffic to clients, you should start with the right visitors. To attract the right visitors, you must ensure that you are using the right keywords within your site, and receiving links to your site from other sites or businesses that would be appropriate to your audience. If your page already exists, you can use Googlerankings to find the most likely keywords based on your site. If your page doesn’t exist, and you are looking for some good keywords to get you started, Wordtracker offers a keyword suggestion tool which will suggest RELATED KEYWORDS for any website with at least 1 keyword in mind.

Google Analytics, a free program, is an excellent tool for helping you see how much web traffic is landing on your website, and where that traffic is coming from. Its goal conversion materials can help you determine what is and what isn’t working in regards to your site set up.

It should be kept in mind that while web traffic is a vital part of your business success, word of mouth and traffic from referrals are more likely to develop into clients. This will require you to physically meet people and network, or gain their attention and attract traffic. Networking groups are a great opportunity to meet lots of people who are interested in hearing about your business, and they work well. If you are not a person-to-person type, you can attract and refer traffic to your website through articles, link trading, and guest blogging.

Tyler Dockery Suggests: Google Rankings

Step 2 – Do your visitors know what you want them to do?

Your homepage needs to have one of three functions: 1) Sell your main eCommerce item, 2) Focus on funneling visitors to the landing page with the information they want, 3) Be a one-page online brochure for your business. It is best to keep information and direction on your homepage simple, without confusing the visitor with too much information or too many choices. Include your OPT-IN subscriber box (Newsletter or Ezine signup) on your homepage. Use a strong and effective call to action tell your visitors to sign up for your Ezine or newsletter. Tell them what it is all about; whether it is a newsletter, Ebook, or other form of valuable information, and how soon they will receive it.

Tyler Dockery Suggests: Make Sure to Create Clear Opt-In Areas

Step 3 – Help your visitors to take action

You have valuable information to share with your visitors, but it won’t help if they can’t find it. Research tells us that the majority of visitors scan websites from the top left down. This valuable information therefore tells us to place your Logo, site name, and major branding Materials in the top lefthand corner of our page, and, your major content along the lefthand edge. In order to increase the visibility and usefulness of your Opt-In area, add your subscription box in the top right of your homepage, or in your right column for easy visibility. Place your Opt-in form on every page, increasing visibility regardless of what page traffic lands on. Be sure to also make your subscription form as effortless as possible. Consider having a form which requires only the most vital information for your business.

Step 4 – What’s In It For Your Visitors?

Most successful Ezines offer some kind of incentive to sign up. Whether you are giving away a newsletter, an Ebook, an audio file, a video, or an Ecourse, be sure to describe what the freebie is, and how it can add value to your visitors. How they will access the valuable information; can they download it, or will the information be emailed to them? Many people send their newsletter or ezine by email, but I would advise against that. Have your introductory offer (a whitepaper, previous Ezine, mp3 or audio download, or video) already available before you implement your Opt-In form, and then give your visitors a link to it when they subscribe.

Finally, make sure to tell subscribers that they will hear from you again and how often.

Step 5 – Put Your Visitors At Ease?

Subscribers to your Ezine or Newletter are providing you with valuable information – their personal information! Be sure to ease their minds by assuring them that you will not sell names and email addresses or allow their information to get into the wrong hands. Be sure to provide clear information surrounding your privacy policy and let them know that they can unsubscribe at any time. If it is your intention to sell or exchange people’s personal information as given to you: 1) Make sure to clearly reserve your rights in your privacy statement, and 2) Good luck avoiding a lawsuit, because that practice is illegal is many states.

If your website does not have a clearly stated privacy policy, you should download the Dockery Design mini-manual: The Privacy Policy Checklist

Step 6 – Do your subscribers know to the next steps?

Most subscriber services will allow you to customize your materials, messages, and redirects— so make sure to take advantage of that. Often times, Ezines subscriptions require confirmation once sign up is complete. When your visitor signs up, have your form redirect them to a thank you page. Remind subscribers right on the thank you page that they will need to confirm the email (or click the confirmation link) to receive the giveaway.

Step 7 – Tell Your Subscribers Who (and perhaps How) to White List

Many email programs send unknown senders straight to junk mail. In order to avoid getting tossed in the junk mail folder, you need to tell your subscribers to white list you. White listing is a method used to ensure an email program recognizes and accepts an address. Provide clear instructions and be as specific as possible when you tell them how to white list. Give the email address you will be delivering from, and make sure to include a link to send your message again. If possible, give the most detailed versions of whitelisting instructions you can.

Step 8 – Customize Your Confirmation Email

Customize your confirmation emails and brand them as you would your website, with live links to your web pages. This will help trigger people’s memory as to what they are subscribing to and who is sending it to them. Keep things consistent and clear. Don’t use generic language! When your confirmation link is clicked from within the email, have it automatically redirect their browser to a downloads page on your site. This should include the free offer they are requesting, but could also include other newsletters or downloads as an added bonus.

Step 9 – Deliver What You Promise

Resist from having subscribers wait for the Ezine or Newsletter. As soon as they receive the confirmation email and link, you should send them to a page that gives them the Ezine or Newsletter. Also be sure to provide clear instructions if necessary to download the materials. Make it easy for them. When your next Ezine or Newsletter is finished, send out a new email, and direct them to your site to pick it up. Keep the visitors returning to the site to download the newest materials. Keep them coming back for more, or sharing the links with their friends.

Step 10 – Thank Your Subscribers

Your thank you email should be clear, consistent and provide helpful information. Tell subscribers to your Ezine or Newsletter how they can contact you if they need help and send the download link again. It is also a great idea to tell them what they should expect next. If your newsletter is weekly or monthly, remind them and let them know often they will be hearing from you. If you have the ability, give them an area to forward the information to a friend, to add their commentary, to retweet the results, or point straight to your blog.

You should also let your subscribers know that they can unsubscribe anytime by clicking at the bottom of the email. As a side note, I would include a second link so that you emails say:

I am not interested in subscribing to this service, but send me one more newsletter.
Please unsubscribe me

The first unsubscribe link will probably get clicked first. This will send you a note that the visitor is thinking about dropping your services. Use that opportunity to send a special email next month, outlining all the benefits you can bring them, and what new things you are doing. If they still unsubscribe, at least you gave it the best shot that you could.

Make the process of signing up for your Ezine or Newsletter as simple as possible and continue to look for improvements in your contents and process. With each update, bring those subscribers back to your website, highlight the progress your service or product is making, and highlight those customers who are seeing a real difference because of how they used it. You will soon be well on your way to increasing web traffic and establishing a valuable client base.