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Ask HN: Trying to grow a newsletter subscriber base

25 points by allsystemsgo ↗ HN
Hello!

My wife is trying to grow her newsletter subscriber base. We are running Google AdWords and have about a 1% click through rate. With her current growth rate, it looks like she has a long road ahead of her.

I'm considering hosting a giveaway on her newsletter. I've done a giveaway in the past to gain subscribers and usually the link to the giveaway just gets passed around to fake accounts or to users who follow the #AmazonGiveaway hashtag. I want to offer a giveaway but still keep up the engagement of my subscribers.

Thanks for your help. We're open to any ideas.

9 comments

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gk1
If you want subscribers who care about your content and engage, and not just people (or bots) who signed up for free things, then earn their subscription by sharing interesting and helpful content.
OJFord
Agreed, but presumably OP is looking for a way to aid the discovery of the newsletter to prospective readers.
allsystemsgo
That's correct. The content seems to be engaging (we've gotten some good user feedback so far and about 40% of our users open the newsletter).
Overtonwindow
I work for a small nonprofit that publishes a newsletter, and it's been very hard to convince people to subscribe. We're trying to think beyond email, and more mobile. Then again ours is free. I wish you the best of luck.
wj
Have you considered incentives for new subscribers? My experience is that there is no shortcut to growing subscriber base but you can slowly do it by offering a short educational email course, a PDF of 10 tips, or an ebook (which has the additional benefit of helping establish her as an authority--particularly if you self-publish to Amazon through Createspace. "Newsletter name by the author of Book About Topic".)

Create a separate landing page for each. Here are some free landing page templates you can use:

https://www.leadpages.net/the-ultimate-list-of-free-landing-...

Here is a blog post on the ebook option:

http://blog.engagetactics.com/the-step-by-step-guide-to-crea...

pan69
Like others have already pointed out, I'm also not sure if giveaways are the best option since it might not attract genuine interest, which I assume is what you're after.

Even though you might have the most insightful newsletter, getting awareness about this with a target audience can be tough. I'm not sure what the subject on your wife's newsletter is but, if she's not already, she should be active in the community targeting this audience. E.g. if there are discussion forums regarding the newsletter's subject then your wife should participate as an insightful and active member of this community and be viewed as an authority on the subject. Then having a newsletter sign up link in your public profile of these communities might then help in getting genuine subscribers.

codezero
What's the newsletter about? Likely the best approach to attracting subscribers will depend heavily on the target demographic.
saluki
To build a real audience I would shy away from adwords and giveaways. Focus on publishing good content often instead that will get people signed up who are truly interested.

Depending on the audience, spend time answering questions in discussion groups, engage with your existing audience through emails and her website.

Instead of a giveaway provide value to signups through an ebook or a drip set of emails with small helpful pdfs that provide them value and will keep them interested and coming back.

Look in to doing guest posts/interviews and/or sponsoring popular blogs and podcasts in her niche.

Good luck building the list it can be a long road.