I've been going through some past issues of email newsletters and promotional EDMs which I've collected over the years. It then dawned on me that many email marketers had taken for granted, something that should've fundamentally been there in the first place.
The lack of a "Subscribe" button.
Its really a curious find. Perhaps due to the short-sightedness of some email marketers, having their email campaign forwarded is already an achievement in their context. However, such hit-and-run tactics have little long term benefits. Why pass on any (every) opportunity to grow your mailing list?
I've posted some tips previously on creating good newsletters. In essence, good email newsletters should provide value and information of interest to your recipient. Now if recipient, John, feels that Jane shares a similar interest and might be keen on this month's edition of your email newsletter, John would hit the "forward-a-friend" button. That's free, bonus targeted marketing for you. Now why stop there? Let Jane subscribe directly so that she can receive future email newsletters from you, which have topics of interest to her. One more valuable permission-based addition to your mailing list. Nice.
Ditto for ad-hoc promotional campaigns. If John thinks Jane might be interested in ABC Inc's latest promotional offering, he'd forward it to her, just to spread the love around. Allowing Jane to subscribe from the email campaign means she's willing and keen to receive more in future.
Yep, allowing your recipients to unsubscribe easily is important. But creating an opportunity for a targeted lead to opt-in is equally as important and provides long-term benefits. Go on, call your designer now and re-look into that email newsletter template. You'll may even be pleasantly surprised that each email campaign you conduct might actually generate more addresses for your mailing list.
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