Tim Bossie.com

Copywriting is all about action.

The words you put on the webpage, sales letter, direct mail, even resume all have a goal. You want the person reading to be emotionally driven to do something. Preferably what you want them to do. On the web that could mean a variety of things.

You could want your website visitor to watch a video, click a link, sign up for your newsletter or autoresponder series, buy something, or even leave a comment. Whatever your angle is, that’s what you write for.

One of those things that we want online is to get people to sign up for your email list. It could be you want subscribers for a weekly ezine, an autoresponder series, or a special list for updates to your website. Your mailing list is a big part of your online business and you need subscribers. Active subscribers.

Copywriting Tips For More Subscribers

There are two schools of thought where subscribers are concerned. The first is that the more the better. The other is active subscribers is better. I like them both. I think a large list of active subscribers is what we should all be striving for. How do we do that?

Be intentional about it. Don’t beat around the bush. I often tell my clients that while they do want to sell products from their website, their main goal - especially where first time visitors is concerned - is to capture their email address. The usual way to do that is through a landing page, or a specific sign up page.

And don’t wait halfway through the page before asking them to sign up. Let the visitor know that you want them to sign up for your newsletter or email series.

Give a reason, or several reasons, to sign up. This is where a lot of people lose it. They might be upfront with wanting people to sign up, but they don’t tell them why. It’s usually something like, “Sign up for my weekly newsletter and you’ll receive a free ebook!”

While that might be an incentive it certainly doesn’t explain why. Treat your newsletter or email series like it’s a real, honest to goodness product. Because your list could make you more money than just your product alone. It’s important to give details of benefits of subscribing.

Provide short excerpts. This is something to both get the sign up and combat the ’sign up and never read it’ syndrome. Like I stated already, the combination of large and active list is what you want. To get that you have to provide some of what the subscriber will be receiving.

I tried this with a few new landing pages I wrote for a couple of clients. I put together a mammoth 20 part series for both of them and made it available on the landing page. The landing page was all about the autoresponder series. Nothing else. To sell people into signing up for another email list I provided short, relevant excerpts form the actual series. So far so good.

Always ask. Throughout the entire copy of the page continually ask the reader to subscribe. By the time they get to the end of the page, if they make it that far, they’ll do it just because it seems like they’ve seen it a hundred times.

I use to think that waiting to the end of the page was best. After all I just created a masterpiece of copywriting and I wanted them to read the whole thing. But, studies have shown that people are more likely to click on an action link near the beginning to the middle of the webpage. So, now I put an action link after every third paragraph.

Use bribes. I wholeheartedly endorse very liberal bribing. Providing one, or maybe two, ebooks, reports, mp3’s, videos, whatever… isn’t going to cut it anymore. Create an avalanche of stuff to give out. Combine all those things and more if you can. Bribe. Bribe. Bribe.

And while you’re listing all the goodies… tell the reader why they should want them!

I suggested that a client create a set of mp3’s, about 1 hour and 30 minutes total, to teach a few network marketing skills as a free incentive to subscribe to her email list. Not only that, but we provided transcripts, free report with more information, an interview with some of her downline, and a video showing about 20 minutes of her “working” at home. It was a great bundle that improved her conversion rate by 87%.

Get more subscribers

You need to constantly be growing your email list. I realize that RSS is up and coming but people really do prefer to stick with something they are comfortable with. For now that is email. Grow you list with great copywriting and you’ll see not only a large list but an active one.