One way you can use to get more subscribers to your email list is to invite your current subscribers to recommend you to their friends. There are a number of ways you can do this:
- Set up a referral form where your subscribers enter their email along with the emails of up to 5 friends. Send these friends an introductory email about your busines and newsletter and invite them to sign up. Make sure in the email you say their friend has recommended them, and reassure then that they have not been added to your list, until they go to a form and sign up themselves. There are “refer a friend” programs you can use to set this up.
- With your newsletter, include a “forward to a friend” link. Some email programs have code you can enter to track this for you, including whether or not the friend signs up.
You may want to run this as a referral drive and offer a gift or free postage to any current subscriber who gets 5 friends (or more) to sign up.
With both of these ideas, don’t automatically add these people to your list. They have not given you permission to add them as their friends are referring them. It would also be a good idea to include a note explaining to your subscribers what you will send their friends, maybe include a copy of the email you will send them. Reassure your current subscribers that you will not automatically add their friends to your email list.
When a friend of a subscriber signs up, be sure to send your subscriber a thank you note for recommending you to their friends.
Do you have any other ideas to encourage people to refer your newsletter to their friends?
