This time last year I only had 100 newsletter subscribers, if that!  I had a sign up page on my website, but that was it.  I never promoted it or shared it much at all.  This year I decided to change that and one of my aims of 2016 was to increase my newsletter subscribers.  I rely heavily on Twitter for website sales, clients and website traffic, but I’m all too aware they could change their algorithm at any point (just like Facebook did) making it harder for small businesses to be seen.  I love Twitter and have faith that they don’t want to be anything like Facebook, so hopefully this will never be the case as it’s a fantastic platform for small businesses and marketing.

That being said, it’s always best to have more than one single way to reach customers and a newsletter is a really great idea.  It feels more personal receiving mail in your inbox, like a letter or special offer just for you!  It’s a fantastic way to send exclusive offers to customers who really love your products and want to know about them.

Just this year my newsletter subscribers have really boomed.  I now have over 2200 subscribers and counting.  Some days I get 20 new subscribers (woohoo) and at least 1 per day now.  I can’t remember the last day I didn’t get a new subscriber.  Of course people also unsubscribe, but I don’t get this every day and my list is growing so there are more subscribing than unsubscribing (which is obviously what you want).  I don’t really have a target number in mind at the moment, I thought 1000 would be impressive so I’m actually way over this now.  The only downside being I now have to pay for my Mailchimp account as I have over 2000 subscribers.  If you stay under this it’s free.

How to get newsletter subscribers every day

Here are the methods I’ve implemented to get more newsletter subscribers:

1. Put a sign up form at the bottom of every shop page.  This gives all customers a chance to sign up if they want to.  They may not click on my ‘newsletter’ menu item, but seeing the form as they’re browsing might encourage them to sign up.
2. Offer an incentive.  I have a monthly prize draw for my subscribers.  At the start of each month I export a list of my subscribers and randomly pick one to win a scarf of their choice.  Subscribers also receive an exclusive 15% discount code.
3. Offer exclusive deals.  I send regular newsletter only discount days which I don’t advertise anywhere else.  These are for my subscribers only.
4. Have a pop up sign up form.  OK so these can be super annoying when visiting websites as they all seem to have them now, but since installing mine I’ve really noticed subscribers increase.  It only takes a second to close the pop up and it won’t show again to a returning visitor on the same device unless they clear their cookies.
5. Promote the sign up page on social media.  I now share my newsletter sign up page on Twitter every day whilst letting people know they’ll be entered into the giveaway and receive exclusive discounts.
6. Donate stock for giveaways.  I have given items away to other businesses/bloggers for their own giveaways.  In return they have given me the emails of those who entered.  This must be explained in the T&Cs by the giveaway promoter so the people entering know their email may be used for marketing purposes by all brands involved.
7. Run a giveaway.  I’ve ran giveaways using Rafflecopter and stated in the T&Cs that entrants will be subscribed to my newsletter.  Rafflecopter have an option for you to export a list of the emails which you can then import to Mailchimp.  Since GDPR you may need to be more upfront with your intentions to add giveaway entrants to your newsletter, so I'd add it as a giveaway entry option instead so it becomes a choice and not a necessity to enter your giveaway.

There we have it!  That’s everything I’ve done so far to help increase my newsletter subscribers.