Overview:
Christine Holbert outlines practical strategies for news publishers to expand their email subscriber base ahead of year-end fundraising campaigns. Key tactics include optimizing on-site popups with concise messaging and bold call-to-action buttons, incorporating in-line signup forms within website content, and creating dedicated newsletter landing pages with minimal fields to reduce friction.
End of year campaigning is right around the corner, and there’s no better time to grow your email list before reaching out with year-end asks. Below, find ten of our top tactics for boosting email signups.
Optimize on-site popups
On-site popups are one of the most effective ways to generate new signups. Take a look at existing popups and see if there’s an opportunity to refresh them or improve them. Be concise with the wording, offering a quick value proposition for why readers should sign up. Try adding social proof, e.g. “Join 15,000 of your neighbors by signing up…” And, use bold colors on CTA buttons that contrast with the publication’s normal branding.
It’s best to ask readers for as little information as possible to encourage signing up—just an email address is ideal. To gather additional information, add a second step to the signup prompt, where readers can be asked for their name, zip code or interests to better segment them within an email list.
Use in-line signup forms
Another way to collect email addresses on your website is through in-line signup forms, which give readers the opportunity to sign up while they’re reading an article or scrolling through the homepage. Like on-site popups, use bold colors to differentiate your signup form from the rest of the page.
Have a newsletter signup landing page
A designated newsletter signup landing page provides a place to link to when promoting email signups across newsletters, on social channels or through partners. Include only one field, email address, unless absolutely necessary. Having only one field eliminates friction when readers decide to sign up.
Also include a call-to-action, a brief description of the newsletter — or newsletters — and sending frequency. Use a simple URL that can be easily shared or searched for, such as acmetimes.com/newsletters.
Incorporate opt-ins to content
If you’re publishing interactive content, like “Best Of” voting, giveaways, news quizzes or polls, ask readers to share their email address before they participate. You can also add opt-in language to topic-specific surveys created through a Google Form.
Use events to collect email addresses
Whenever you host an event, whether in-person or virtual, add newsletter opt-ins to the event registration pages or ticket sales pages. If you’re registering attendees at in-person community or newsroom events, collect email addresses with a smartphone, tablet or a QR code.
Use lead magnets
Identify high-value content and require readers to provide their email address to access it. This could be used for “Best Of” contest results, special section e-editions or reader guides (e.g. summer events guides, new resident guides, schools guide).
This strategy can even be automated in ActiveCampaign: Readers input their email address into an ActiveCampaign form, and the content can be delivered via an automation series.
Bonus: Tag those contacts! Lead magnets are rich sources of first-party data.
Promote newsletters on social media
Share your newsletter on your social channels to encourage newsletter signup, and update your social profiles to include a newsletter signup link. That link should go directly to your dedicated newsletter signup landing page.
Paid acquisition
Invest in top-of-funnel audience growth with paid acquisition on Facebook, Instagram and other digital channels. Lead ads promote newsletters and content and require users to enter their email before continuing on to content or the website. The cost per acquisition varies, but averages $1-2 per lead.
Forward to a friend
Ask your readers to promote your newsletter with their contacts! By adding a “Forward to a friend” button to your newsletter, your subscribers can easily share content with their own contacts. In ActiveCampaign, this can be accomplished using the personalization tag %FORWARD2FRIEND%, which then provides a popup readers can use to forward your newsletter.
For your forward to a friend section, make your CTA a line of text or an image. Below your CTA, we also recommend including a line that says, “Was this message forwarded to you? Subscribe here.”
Cross-promote newsletters
If you have more than one newsletter, cross-promote your newsletters. Feature CTAs and links to subscribe in each newsletter, and rotate if needed.
When possible, make the cross-promoted newsletter relevant: your weekly newsletter readers may want to up their reading habits to a daily newsletter.
Extra: List cleaning
While you’re growing your list, you always want to make sure the contacts already on your list are engaged. If subscribers are no longer reading your email, remove them from your list. But before you remove them, use a re-engagement automation to send a series of emails to the unengaged subscribers, and remove them after a stated time frame. This keeps your list active, engaged and accurate.
About BlueLena
BlueLena is a strategy consulting and audience management platform founded in 2020 to support the sustainability of independent local media. By combining cutting-edge technology with expert-driven services, BlueLena helps over 250 news organizations across North America develop and manage subscription, membership, and donation models. Its unique shared-resource management approach provides publishers, regardless of size, with access to enterprise-level tools and personalized support, enabling them to focus on high-quality journalism while building loyal, revenue-generating audiences.
BlueLena is majority employee-owned, and backed by investors including Automattic(the parent company of WordPress), the Local Media Association, and Old Town Media.