6 Ways To Increase Email Subscribers

“The money’s in the list.” 

That’s the mantra in the illustrious world of email marketing.

And while all the new-fangled technology might have you thinking that email marketing has gone the way of bell bottoms and perms, it’s still extremely effective.

In fact, a majority of marketers have found that doing the work of crafting personalized messages for their audiences results in exceptional rewards. 

As such, they say they’re planning to increase their upcoming email marketing budgets. So there.

Grow Your Email Subscriber List

It’s so absolutely worth the time and agony effort to do so. Here are eight ways to go about doing it. 

1. Minimize Clicks to Subscribe

If you’ve got your opt-in form placed firmly on the home page of your site, you should be good to go.

You should be. But you’re not. Because if a viewer lands on another page and likes what s/he sees, s/he may not be willing to take the extra time to go to your home page to subscribe. Especially if some other shiny distraction beckons.

So be sure that opt-in form shows up on every page.

2. Offer a Little Something Extra to New Subscribers

Give them more than a simple “thanks for subscribing!” note. It’s so insincere. 

We’re not suggesting you up-sell here. You’re really just demonstrating your value to potential subscribers. For example, if you offer grooming services, you could include a 10% off their first groom on that thank you page. But not a puppy. That’d be overkill. And inhumane. 

This one simple edit to your thank you page could post a significant increase in profits.

3. Give Them A Content Upgrade

In the same spirit as offering something to new subscribers,

a free e-book is a nice idea. But unless it guarantees eternal health, there’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all e-book. 

You aren’t going to be able to create a lead magnet that resonates with everyone. 

Ask yourself this - What are the most popular posts on my site? Google Analytics can tell you. 

Take that information and figure out how you can enhance the informational value to those posts by including a content upgrade at the end. The extended information is offered in exchange for contact info. See what you did there? 

Plus, the contact info you get will be from people who are truly interested in what you’re saying/speaking/selling. It’s a great way to grow your list.

4. Cross Promote

Cross promote is another way of saying “get people from someone else’s subscriber list.”

It's not cheating. 

The idea here is to make a list of other companies who serve a similar demographic, but who are not your competitors. For example, if you sell workout clothes, you could reach out to gyms, yoga studios or the creators of Squat Magic™. 

Contact those companies to see if you can come up with a mutually beneficial agreement where you recommend each other’s products and services to your own lists.

They’ll wonder, “What’s in it for me?” So be sure to mention that you want to promote their products to your list at no charge. You can ask for something in return later. 

5. Make Your Submit Button Interact with the User

Once upon a time, a marketer decided to test a submit button with a red border that changed to green when the mouse was moved over it. It might be that red and green stirred nostalgic holiday memories for him. We’re not discounting that possibility.

But it turns out that, holidays aside, this conversion test resulted in a 40%+ opt in rate. 

That’s because color is a strong motivator. Think for a moment now. Where else do you commonly see red and green? If you said they’re the dominant colors of your chalet room, then good for you. Mostly for having a chalet room. But that’s not where we were heading.

Traffic lights. The color change from red to green visually and subconsciously moves the user from “stop” to “go,” motivating them to make that click.

Give the user a real connection. 

6. Let the User Be in Control 

Okay, we realize that this post is about getting email subscribers. But keeping them is part of the game too. So let them be in control of not only of what they receive, but when they receive it. 

Regardless of the psychology behind it, this isn’t as much about control issues as it is about sheer exhaustion from purging one’s inbox every twenty minutes. 

If you’re getting a bunch of “unsubscribes,” don’t automatically assume that they’re just not that into you. They just might no be able to keep up with you. 

So instead of asking, “Why are you leaving?” with obvious desperation, simply ask them if they’d rather change the frequency of emails or types of messages they get. It gives them a chance to say, “It’s not you, it’s me.” 

And it establishes you as a trusted sender who only wants to send information that’s relevant to them. 

One More Thing…

Not to completely negate what we said above about “the

money’s in the list,” but there’s something to be said for the quality of the list too.

Yeah, it’s the old quality versus quantity argument.

Because the reality is, lists with a few hundred dedicated customers can outperform lists of 10,000+ when they focus on building relationships rather than just connecting with freebie-seekers.

Certainly another angle to consider as you’re building those connections. 

Question of the Week: What is Native Advertising?

In a nut shell?

Native advertising refers to ads that have a similar look or feel to the content or design that surrounds it. This can include its color, shape, formatting, tone, location and/or contextual relevance.

Native Advertising Fits in with the Existing User Experience

And it’s available for advertisers to purchase at scale. The

only thing that makes it stand out is that it’s marked as “promoted” or “sponsored.” (Which you often don’t notice until that split second after you’ve clicked on it.)

As to what can be defined as native advertising and what isn’t, there is some debate. But when humans are involved, when isn’t there debate? Seriously. 

At any rate, the following sit under the wide spanning umbrella of what’s considered, to many, to be native advertising:

1. Sponsored Articles

If you’ve ever been on the hunt for content, you’ve likely been fooled by one of these. A sponsored article is one where an informational article is sponsored by a brand, but it doesn’t promote that specific brand.

For example, this article from the Onion entitled “Pile Of Dirty Clothes On Bedroom Floor Starting To Mix With Pile Of Clean Clothes On Bedroom Floor” could have been sponsored by the Institute to Promote Laundry and Eradicate Procrastination.

If it had been, the Institute would not be mentioned by name in the article. But you would have seen their logo next to the words “Sponsored Post” so that you’d immediately make the connection.

Your reaction might sound something like this: “I really need to do a load of laundry. Like, yesterday.” 

And then maybe you’d do it tomorrow before heading to the Institute.  

2. In-Feed Programmatic Native

These ads are unobtrusive in that they appear in-feed or in-stream as you scroll through organic content. Kind of like sitting by a babbling fresh water stream in Alaska and watching a piranha casually swim past.

And that’s the main criticism. The publishers of these ads will tinker some with the look and feel of these ads, but not so much that they completely fit in with the surrounding content. So yeah, they stand out a little. 

These ads are bought/sold through programmatic channels like Facebook, the Audience Network and other native ad OpenRTB exchanges. 

3. Integrated Native

The integrated native ad is more akin to the salmon in that Alaskan stream. It matches the look of the surrounding content (i.e. other salmon). Furthermore, it provides value through contextual relevance. 

These ads are employed by user-first brands like Facebook,Yelp and others with or without hugely recognizable names. And these native platforms are usually built in-house rather than using a network.

4. Content Recommendation Widgets

Those involved in the heated native advertising debate might want to turn a blind eye to content recommendation widgets as native advertising. 

These are the “Around the Web” rectangular ads on news and media sites that are visually and topically similar to the article you just read. But many consider them spammy. 

Plus, there are other issues with appropriateness. For instance, it’s pretty horrible to have a well-researched article on eating disorders be accompanied by a promotion for “10 Foods to Make You Skinny” at the bottom of the page.

As such, publications like The New Yorker has removed them from its website altogether.

5. Advertorials

Those involved in the even more super heated native advertising debate would ban the advertorial from donning the native advertising moniker altogether. And let’s face it - it’s a shifty poseur with a bad rap.  

You’ve seen one. It looks and reads like an objective editorial, but all the while, it’s really promoting a specific

product. So just when you are drawn into that editorial about dysfunction and feel at one with the world in knowing that you’re not alone, you’re being bamboozled into buying a product to fix it. 

Shameless. And that’s why a lot of publications have pulled these too.

So What’s the Value of Native Advertising?  

In cases where it looks authentic and is not involved in back-handed, dark alley trickery, people tend to trust it. Some people even like being drawn to a product or service hand-picked just for them.

It also increases the brand value of the advertiser, since it’s put on platforms which people are likely to trust.

Is it something you should use? Maybe. As long as you have advertising professionals to guide you and keep your trustworthiness in tact.  

Otherwise, you could be doing egregious things with piranhas. And nobody wants that.

Question of the Week: Does Mobile Advertising Work Better Than Desktop Advertising?

Yep.

And here's why.

Decision-Making Is A Built-In Element of Being Mobile 

When we’re mobile, we have to decide where we’re going, how we’re getting there, whether to run the yellow light to get there faster, what we’re going to buy when we get there, etc. 

There’s no other medium that has us so steeped in choices that require immediate action. Meanwhile, desktop decision-making is often resting on a search bar. Or downright sleeping.

Consider this.

Mobile Advertising Is of Higher Quality

It has to be. Because mobile users will not tolerate advertising blocking any content on their screens that could

be vital to their enlightenment or current social plans. 

Mobile advertising has to be more about quality than volume. It has to be engaging without being needy. Less is more, and all that good stuff. 

Otherwise, it’s going to serve only to irritate users and will soon be blocked with true Gary "The Glove" Payton mastery.

Mobile Advertising Is More Cost Effective

It’s true. 

Back in 2012, venture capitalist, former Wall Street analyst and internet maven Mary Meeker researched the numbers and came up with this: 

The effective cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for desktop web ads is about $3.50, while the CPM for mobile ads is just $0.75.

Another mobile ad platform broke down the numbers even further for mobile ads by device. They found that the iPhone has the highest average CPM for mobile ads of any smartphone. Not shocking. But at $2.85, it still falls short of that CPM for web ads on a desktop. 

On a completely unrelated note, print ads can command rates of as much as $100 per thousand impressions. Yeah. Ouch.

Mobile Advertising Is Just More Relevant

We’re gonna go out on a limb and assume you don’t take your desktop computer with you wherever you go. (But if you do, no judgment.) So location specific targeting is not an option with desktop advertising. 

Obviously, the more accurately you can target your advertising and the more engaging the experience, the more effective the advertising will be. 

For example, imagine this:

You’re in Paducah, Kentucky. Why? Let’s just say because the National Quilt Museum is there and you’re really into national quilts.

Anyhow, it’s late afternoon and you’re walking up Jefferson Street after a long stroll on the Riverwalk. You decide to look for a place to grab some chow. 

You search your phone for “restaurant" and you immediately see an ad for Paducah’s hottest happy hour spot, which happens to be two blocks away on the left and has a very hip patio. Based on where you are, the time of the day and the fact that it’s a gorgeous day, it sounds perfect. It must be kismet!

Or maybe it’s more that your phone is seriously savvy. It knows where you are, knows that the weather where you are is patio-worthy, and knows that it’s happy hour where you are. As another big plus, the ad offers a discount code for one free national quilt replica if you spend $10.00 or more. 

Okay, dynamic mobile ads haven’t hit quite this level of sophistication yet. But they’re pretty close.

The Caveat of Mobile Advertising

There is a responsibility on the part of advertisers to be mindful of customers’ privacy. This is especially true when it comes to formats like SMS, social networks and location-based mobile advertising. They’re still potential customers, not your BFFs. 

The reality is, it's almost unfair to measure mobile advertising against desktop advertising because it's a DIFFERENT form of advertising. Mobile devices are considered more personal. And since there is less real estate available, it raises the stakes for which disruptions mobile users are willing to accept.

Mobile advertising gives marketers opportunities to reach audiences in a meaningful way like never before. 

And creative advertisers will take this and fly with it. (Or drive with it. Or walk with it...)

Old-School Marketing Methods That Still Work

Every industry is inundated with (and yes, riddled by) new technology. Advertising and marketing are no different. Many

of the classic marketing methods have gone by the wayside.

Of course there’s much to be said for the Internet and social media and their vast contributions to one’s marketing efforts. After all, it’s essential to target advertising to those digital natives, otherwise know as the millennials. 

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) promises a shiny space-aged future with automated programs and robots that will rocket advertising/marketing to new heights. (All the while rendering our jobs - and eventually us - obsolete.) 

Yep. Marketing and advertising continue to move forward. Big wheels keep on turning.

Even so, there still remain several wheels that need no reinventing.

Classic Marketing Methods That Continue to Be Effective 

Obviously, advertisers need to be cognizant of generational wants and needs. And yeah, they want to appeal to the younger generation by being trustworthy rather than just aw brand.

But they also know when a good thing works - no matter how outdated. 

It’s like your great great uncle who insists that his divining rod puts “your gall-danged BPS to shame” when it comes to locating water. Obviously he meant GPS. But it doesn’t matter because that divining rod still does a bang-up job at finding those underground water sources. Certainly better than your GPS.

And the following marketing methods still work their magic too:

Jingles

If you’re over 40, you can probably sing a jingle from your childhood on command. It could for some huge and looming corporate entity. Or it might be for Crazy Eddie’s Chair Emporium. But we bet something’s going through your head right now.

The jingle, as well as its melodically-challenged cousin the slogan, relies on human psychology and our shared capacity for language. And that’s why it’s still effective. 

Some catchy tune or phrase can seed itself in your brain and thrive there - leaving you, for example, with the eternal knowledge that Nationwide is, in fact, on your side. 

Promotional Gifts 

Picture it. Milan, Italy. 1470.

A young and enterprising Leonardo da Vinci decides to set up shop selling portraits. But since he’s relatively unknown, he decides to offer a  promotional hilarious caricature for each person who sits for him. It’s an extra expense for him in terms of time, paper and charcoal but those Renaissance folks sure do love a good laugh! Who’d have guessed? Soon, word gets out about Leo. 

Until one day, Lisa Gherardini walks in and, well, the rest is

history. 

Yeah, okay. That didn’t really happen. 

But there’s something to be said for adding in a little “thank you” gift to someone who is purchasing your product or service - like a free baseball with the purchase of a bat, or a free bat house with the purchase of the other kind of bat. Either way, it’s cost-effective and makes a lasting impression on a potential customer. 

Mailers and Coupons

The big plus of these is the ability to target specific demographics in certain zip codes and/or neighborhoods. 

Mailers and coupons are especially effective for service companies. That’s why you’re far more likely to find a coupon in your mailbox or on your front porch for roofing services if you live in a house rather than an apartment. Or a yurt. 

And if the service company specializes in a single service - such as high-end garage repair or lining pools with gold - being able to identify and target their best potential customers means no wasted money on sending out a mass mailing to places with, say, regular garages and inflatable pools. 

Sign Spinning

We’re not talking about those slowly turning signs that were popular in the 1950s-70s. We’re referring to the folks to whom Justin Timberlake so poignantly paid tribute in his role on SNL as a singing and dancing slab of tofu. 

It’s the woman who stands in the sun on a 90-degree day and dances around, spinning a sign for the car wash or nail salon in the strip mall. Or it’s the man who dons the Statue of Liberty garb each year in January and stands in the bitter cold waving his fireless torch while spinning a sign in front of the tax preparation place. 

These are the real heroes of advertising. Or maybe they just really need the extra money (which isn’t much). Because that’s some pretty grueling and thankless work for them.

But not for the businesses for whom they perform. It turns out that this specific brand of theatricality does manage to catch the eyes of those passing by and pull in people who would have otherwise drifted past.  

Humans are suckers for a good show. Or at least a strange one.

Human Nature Dictates Old School Marketing 

And that’s the main reason these old methods still work. They mostly rely on human nature. 

So unless we quickly become cyborgs in a robot nation, it seems unlikely these methods are going any where any time soon. 

Which, if nothing else, is comforting.

Question of the Week: What is Cloud-Based Advertising?

It’s not when you’re at an outdoor concert and see planes pulling banner ads across the sky. And it’s not sky writing either.

So now that we’ve established what it isn’t, let’s address what it is. 

The Gartner IT Glossary defines it as this:

“Cloud advertising are cloud-based services that support the selection, transaction and delivery of advertising and ad-related data in which content and price are determined at the time of end-user access, usually by an auction mechanism that matches bidders with advertising impressions as they become available. This applies to search, display, mobile, social and video ad formats.”

Huh? What does this mean? And why does Gartner sound like such a buzz kill? 

Let’s whittle it down to this instead:

Cloud-Based Advertising Actually Refers to Products and Services

From there, it deals with how they relate to online advertising.  

Typically, online advertising consists of traditional display ads with a static or moving image and some CTA (call to action) text. It’s essentially like old school advertising - in appearance at least - but online.

Cloud-based advertising, on the other hand, pulls in the ever-important social and real-time aspects of the web. (No plane required.) 

This is important because like pretty much all technology, the technology to deliver ads has advanced. Programmatic advertising and advanced analytics are like ruthless task masters demanding better ad production and more creativity.   

Enter Cloud-Based Ad Production Services

This cloud-based component allows you to program display

ads with content management systems, video servers and APIs. That way you can update or swap out components like lead generation forms or white papers based on what’s  trending. 

And what’s trending is almost as important in social media marketing as it was in junior high. 

Plus, if you need to change your ad message for whatever reason (a change of weather, or an unfortunate PR incident which doesn’t bear repeating here), it can be done by updating the ad on the platform so it will instantly roll out across all publisher websites. 

What does this really mean?

No more hassle of having to submit the new creative assets and ad tags to each publisher while waiting for them to upload the changes and everything that follows. First world problems, to be sure. But still important in this context.

The bottom line is this:

Cloud-Based Advertising Equals More Flexibility and Control over Your Brand

And that ain’t too shabby. Especially for a cloud.