Once you?ve created your strategy for newsletters in terms of compelling content and writing, you need to have a plan to ensure people are actually going to read it.  Here are a few ideas to help grow your newsletter subscription database.

1. Make a subscription form a prominent feature of your website. The more visible your sign-up box is, the more subscribers you’ll get.   As most people scan a web page, and don?t often read ?below the fold? make sure your sign-up box is at the top of each newsletter page.  This will increase the chances of them acting on it.
2. Use social media. This is the perfect platform to share and promote your newsletter.  Write and share a ?post? or update on Facebook and LinkedIn whenever your newsletter goes out, with a link to the actual newsletter.  Tweet to your followers when it?s published, again with a link to it.  Include a teaser line before the link highlighting why someone should read it.  Add your newsletter signup page in the links in social media profiles where possible, too. However, don’t spam groups or message boards.
3. Use word of mouth – one of the oldest and still most effective marketing methods.  Remind your readers to spread the word about you by asking them to do so.  Ask them in the newsletter intro to forward it to anyone else who?d find it interesting.  People do this, and that?s how you get to ?speak? to people you wouldn?t normally be able to.
4. Promote your newsletter at seminars and talks. If you give seminars or talks on your area of expertise, be sure to let your audiences know that you have a newsletter and what the benefits of subscribing to the newsletter are.   And don’t forget to include your newsletter subscription link in your handouts and on your business cards.
5. Offer a free gift to those who sign up to the newsletter.  Give them something they wouldn?t be able to get any other way.  Or create a competition – the 100^th subscriber will win a bottle of champagne for example.  Be sure to name the winner in one of the issues, and on your website to validate it.
6. Add a link to your email signature – with a teaser line such as ours at Appletree:  Need help promoting your business? Scribbles  is a free monthly email newsletter packed full of marketing ideas. Click here to sign up.