Sending out a regular email newsletter can be a great companion to a blog that helps generate new and repeat sales. But once you start a newsletter, how do you get people to subscribe?
The CAN-SPAM Act requires that people sign up willingly for a newsletter, you can’t just add them to a list arbitrarily. How do you entice website visitors to do that so you’re not putting time and money into a newsletter that’s going to 5 people?
There are some time-tested tactics to encourage more subscribers to your MSP newsletter, and once you get these in motion, you’ll find that you have a pretty valuable way to generate new sales.
Proven Strategies for Encouraging More Newsletter Signups
Many MSP business owners miss out on a valuable marketing tool because they aren’t sure what to put in an email newsletter or how to keep one going out regularly.
The easiest way to have monthly content for a newsletter is to connect it to your entire content marketing engine. For example, if you put two new blogs per month up on your website, then you already have some main content to highlight. Then just add an introduction, perhaps a software spotlight, and any specials you want to run, and end with a call to action.
Once you get a framework in place, it makes it much easier to put out a newsletter each month yourself or with help from an MSP marketing service.
Why go to all that trouble and do a newsletter? Because email is one of the best marketing methods there is and has a lower ROI than just about everything else.
For each $1 spent on email marketing, the average ROI is $42.
Here are a few more statistics that show the importance of getting your message out regularly via email:
- 59% of B2B marketers say email is their top channel for revenue generation.
- 4.24% of email marketing traffic purchases, as compared to just 2.49% of search traffic.
- 86% of customers say they would like to receive a monthly promotional email from a company they do business with.
So, the challenge remains. How do you get people to sign up for your newsletter?
Here are several time-tested strategies to fill up your subscriber list fast.
Add a Checkbox for Newsletter Signup On Your Contact Forms
When people are contacting you through your website, it’s a perfect time to see if they’d also like your newsletter.
It’s easy to add an unchecked newsletter signup at the bottom of your contact form, right before the submit button.
For the user, it’s simple to check a box to get a newsletter, and since they’ve already entered their name and email into the contact form, they don’t need to enter it again.
Because of that simplicity, I’ve seen newsletter signups pick up considerably after a company deployed this tactic, from just a few a month to at least one or more every day.
Be creative when adding the text. The trick is to keep it short, but more enticing than just “Get newsletter.”
For example, you might try something like:
- Get awesome monthly tech tips!
- Sign up for important IT news.
- Enjoy monthly tech insights.
Use an Exit Popup
Another great method for capturing newsletter signups is an exit popup. Before you lose a site visitor, this gives you one more chance to convert them to a lead if they haven’t filled out your contact form or called.
Here’s an example of a nicely styled one below. It clearly lets the user know they’re signing up for a newsletter and has an eye catching graphic and simple, one-field form.
Exit popups have a conversion rate that averages 3.09% and can be as high as 10%. That’s equates to a decent number of new signups to your newsletter every month!
Add a Link to Your Newsletter Signup Page to You Email Signatures
You can let existing and new customers know that you have a helpful email newsletter by including a link to your newsletter signup page in your email signature.
Email newsletters are a great way to cross sell by letting current clients know about other services you offer. For example, you may have a client that uses your managed IT services but doesn’t realize you also do cloud security customization until they see it highlighted in one of your email newsletters.
By giving your current clients an opportunity to sign up whenever they get an email from you (invoice, helpdesk email, etc.), you can both nurture the relationship and cross sell for other needs they might have.
Offer a Lead Magnet (eBook, Checklist, etc.)
Lead magnets are designed with a single purpose in mind, to capture someone’s email for marketing and hopeful conversion to a sale in the future.
Lead magnets can be any type of helpful content, such as:
- eBook about work from home productivity
- HIPAA cybersecurity checklist
- Microsoft 365 tips and tricks
- Guide for doing cloud migrations properly
Here’s a great example from Magnify247.com, using both a lead magnet and exit popup:
Lead magnets are a win-win. You get a new newsletter subscriber, and your website visitor gets some valuable content.
Use Newsletter Signup as a Call-to-Action
Think about adding newsletter signup as a call to action on some of your blogs and webpages either as an alternative to another CTA or as a second option.
Giving someone a more attractive option if they’re not yet ready to sign up for your managed services plan can help you capture their email for lead nurturing and not just lose them because they’re not ready to make a decision.
For example, a common website visitor situation is:
- Interested in MSP services
- Looks around your site but doesn’t know if it’s in the budget
- Bookmarks the page to visit later
- Forgets where to find the site later when they’re ready to buy
If you offer them an alternate CTA to sign up for your newsletter, that situation can change to:
- Interested in MSP services
- Looks around your site but doesn’t know if it’s in the budget
- See’s that next to your “purchase” link you have “Not ready to buy? Stay connected through our monthly tech tips!”
- They sign up for your newsletter
- They remember you because every month they see your content in their inbox
- When ready to buy, they just click your newsletter link to contact you.
Advertise Your Newsletter Over Social Media
Keep a link to sign up for your newsletter in your regular social media rotation to capture more of those social followers as leads.
If you use DMs on Facebook, you could even ask people to just DM their name and email to sign up… Easy!
One way to advertise your newsletter on social media is when posting about some new content on your site, add at the end… “Want more great tips? Sign up here!”
Use a QR Code in Your Offline Marketing
A QR code is another great way to make it simple for someone to sign up for your MSP newsletter and it helps you capture those IRL (in real life) leads. These might be people that you send marketing postcards to or that come into your shop for computer repairs.
A QR code can be quickly scanned by a smartphone and take the user to your newsletter signup page. They don’t have to remember a URL or try to navigate to a newsletter signup form from your main site.
Many email services have the ability to share your signup form via QR code. Here’s an example from MailChimp.
Use a Tablet at Your Front Desk
If you have a lot of instore traffic from computer repairs or virus removals, then typically you’ll have a customer waiting at the front desk for a few minutes while their job is being checked on.
If you have a tablet open to your newsletter signup page on a stand at the front desk (freshly sanitized, of course!), you can capture more signups. Inviting someone to get coupons, tips, or just connect to the “geek community” while they’re waiting gives them something to do and can mean you’re able to cross sell to that break/fix customer through your monthly content.
Offer an Incentive
Many websites will offer a percentage off services or another incentive for signing up for their email newsletter. Think about offering 10% off the first 3 months of MSP service or $15 off a virus removal.
You can often entice more signups and more sales at the same time using this tactic. It gives someone a reason to give you their email address and gives you a much better chance of converting that site visitor to a lead in the future.
Add a Subscription Bar to the Top or Bottom of Your Website
Another effective way to entice people to subscribe to your newsletter is through an inline subscription bar at the top or bottom of your website. The bar gives you enough of a space to put a short teaser about why they should sign up and has just one or two fields, name and email address.
Plus, the nice thing about an inline bar form is that it doesn’t usually get in the way of other content and can be made to have a click-to-close X on the corner. According to Databox, the subscription bar is one of the highest converting tactics for capturing subscribers.
Graph Source: Databox
Take Advantage of Great ROI & Supercharge Your Newsletter List
Capturing newsletter subscribers in multiple ways drives more leads and sales, and helps you nurture your customer relationships over the months and years.
What’s your most successful way to capture newsletter subscribers? Share your recommendations in the comments!
