Why Aren’t People Signing Up For Our Email Newsletter?

Filed under: Online Marketing

You’ve got a nice website. People visit your website. And on your website you have a spot where those people can sign up for your email newsletters. Problem is — no one is signing up. Why??

Consider the following points:

  1. Are you providing any explanation as to why someone might want to sign up for your email newsletter . . . or are you just telling them to sign up? Not surprisingly, people are far less likely to give away their personal information/sign up for newsletters if they have no idea what they should expect after signing up. Make sure you’re clearly stating the benefits and value people can expect in return for subscribing.
  2. Is it easy, quick, and simple to sign up for your newsletter, or do you make people fill out a lengthy form just to subscribe? The longer the form and the more information you require site visitors to divulge just to sign up, the more likely those visitors will be heading elsewhere, thinking “No thanks, don’t have the time,” especially if they can’t determine the value your newsletter provides.
  3. Do you give site visitors an understanding of how often you send out your email newsletter? Some people avoid signing up for email newsletters due to concern they’ll start receiving daily communications from you when they’re already inundated with massive amounts of emails. Try to give your website visitors an idea about how often subscribers should expect to receive email communications from you.
  4. Lastly, do your email newsletters offer true value? Do they provide information that your target newsletter recipients would find genuinely interesting? This is the most important (and by far the most difficult) question you need to ask yourself.  Remember: content that’s absolutely fascinating and helpful to you may very well be boring and of no use to your target newsletter subscribers.  If you’re confident of your newsletter’s value, keep item #1 from above in mind: ensure you communicate your newsletter’s value to your site’s visitors.  After all, there’s no reason for anyone to subscribe to a newsletter that provides them with no value.  Though this is a simple, obvious concept, it can be challenging to remember and objectively apply to the content in your own newsletters.