Guest post by Stephan Hovnanian
You know that your email list is the most important marketing asset you have, even more so than your website (coming from a web designer that’s a big statement, but I believe it to be true).

Let’s say you agree, and let’s say that you have a really awesome email newsletter yourself. In this era where everybody under the sun is telling you to ditch the email newsletter in favor of social, how do you grow that list? I have some ideas for you…

Best practices

An important thing to remember when incorporating any new marketing idea is to test, test, test. But before you start testing, you should have the foundation of best practices in place. This way, as you test, you know that your newsletter, signup forms, and other fundamental pieces of your email strategy are rock-solid and will be there to help close the deal as you promote your list.

1. Make your email awesome

If your newsletter stinks, no amount of promotion is going to hold a subscriber for long. Be sure to have the entire signup process set up properly, with your welcome email, a clean,mobile-friendly design, and most importantly, content that will keep your subscribers wanting more.

2. Have a standalone signup page

Nearly all of us use a signup form on our websites, either in the sidebar, a pop-up (we’ll talk about that in a minute) or near the bottom of our web pages. But those forms are all “passive intent”, meaning the visitor came to that page for another reason (the content itself) and decided after the fact to sign up for your newsletter. Why not have a “sales page” dedicated to capturing signups?

3. Use your signup page as a funnel

The sidebar/footer/pop-up form is great to have, and important, but you should include links in your copy dedicated to drive people to that signup page, where you can make a better pitch. You can also track conversions this way.

4. Put a subscribe link in the email itself

If your email is forwarded or shared, the new set of eyes viewing it has no way of signing up for their own copy of awesomeness…unless you have a link in your email to that dedicated signup page.

5. Include social sharing buttons (if appropriate for the message) in the email. 

They’ll link to your web version which, you guessed it, includes a signup link to your newsletter!

Boost your signup form’s visibility

Now that you have the essentials in place, it’s time to drive traffic and messaging to your email list signup page. Here are some ideas to test out:

1. Pop-ups, pop-overs, pull-downs oh my!

Love ’em or hate ’em, those pop-ups that ask visitors to sign up for your email list work. Instead of giving you research and examples, I’ll point you to this blog post by email marketing consultant DJ Waldow who already did the work for me here.

2. Post teasers before your newsletter drops, with a signup link

Give your followers a heads-up that you have some exclusive content coming out in about 60 minutes (then 30, then 15), with a link to your signup form. On Facebook and Google+, post an attention-grabbing photo that announces your upcoming newsletter.

3. Set your list to “send last campaign” after your newsletter drops, then tweet/post the link

IMPORTANT: Don’t post a link to the actual newsletter on social, then you give your audience no incentive to sign up. You also dilute the exclusivity for your existing subscribers, who have given you their email address, only to find you posted the newsletter to everyone on the Internet. Not cool.

Instead, ask your Email Service Provider (ESP) if you can set your list to send the last campaign (your newsletter) to new signups, then you can promote the heck out of the fact your newsletter just dropped.

4. Do a Vine, Instagram or YouTube video about why people should sign up 

Video can invoke a level of trust for people who are hesitant to give out their email address, because we see people “face to face” and can read their human emotion in the video. Talking about what their email address means to you as a marketer is a fantastic way to bridge that gap, plus you’re taking advantage of a very hot part of online marketing today: VIDEO!

5. Create a pin on Pinterest that promotes exclusive content and links to your signup page 

Pinterest is fantastic for driving traffic to websites, and pins have a long life span compared to other posts that get pushed “down stream” in your followers’ news feeds. Bonus points: pin your YouTube video! 

6. Encourage audience participation 

DJ Waldow does a fantastic job with this (I’m a fan, what can I say). In his weekly newsletter, he has calls to action to tell him you’re interacting with his email (check out an example). This does three things: first, it makes the email fun and deepens his relationships with his subscribers. Second, it gives him valuable data to use when evaluating his campaign’s performance. Third, he can use those tweets and shout-outs to cross-promote his subscriber list AND his signup page.

Always Be Testing

Hopefully you’ll get some cool ways to boost the visibility of your email list. Some might work, some might bomb. But you’ll only know if you test! If you use any, I want to hear about them, so tweet me @stephanhov or +mention me on Google+.

Have you tried different online marketing strategies…but your results keep coming up short? As the old saying goes “there are many different ways to skin a cat”.

One of the least known, but highest-payback, business models for online success is hosting your own ongoing expert interview series. No matter what market you serve…if you have a passion for a subject area…then you probably have what it takes to host your own interview series. And – it’s easier than you think!

Cathy Demers, host of the popular expert interview series “The Business Success Cafe” explains…

“You’ve heard it said ‘the gold is in your list’ so it’s no surprise that you need to implement strategies that can help you quickly build your list of targeted prospects.

But…that’s not enough.

You also need a really good ‘shovel’ so you can effectively mine your list…and turn those prospects into gold nuggets. By hosting your own ongoing expert interview series you can do both – at the same time!”

According to Cathy (with over 80 “Cafe” interviews under her belt – she’s an undisputed expert in applying this strategy), there are 8 BIG benefits to hosting your own expert interview series.

You should seriously consider hosting your own expert interview series if you want to:

Build your list of targeted prospects who want really want to hear from you. When you host an ongoing series you will quickly build a list of followers who are in your target market, who are hungry for information, and who are expecting you to provide it on a regular and continual basis. That’s the just the kind of list you want, isn’t it?

Gain visibility and credibility in ANY market. When you seek out, partner with, and then interview the experts in your field… you automatically elevate your own status and perceived expertise…just by being a gracious host and allowing others to share valuable information with your hungry market. No special skills or expertise required – it’s a beautiful thing.

Make More Money from Multiple Revenue Sources. No matter what target market you serve, there are several (often surprising) ways to monetize an expert interview series…even if you give the interviews away for free! For example, you can charge for replays, collect the interviews into bundles for resale, publish them as products, earn affiliate revenues from your experts, attract advertisers and sponsors…the list goes on and on. You don’t even have to pick just one.

On March 13…and Cathy Demers and I are going dive deep into the 8 Big benefits of hosting your own ongoing expert interview series. It’s going to be live and interactive (and free!) …so bring your questions – you’ll get the answers. Register Here.

Oh…and just so you don’t think hosting your own series is always a “bed of roses” (nothing is!) Cathy has promised to share some of the downsides and “gottcha’s” you will want to avoid when you host your own series. After 2 years hosting the Business Success Cafe…she’s earned her stripes…and a few scrapes and scratches along the way.

This interview is going to be illuminating, enlightening, inspiring, practical and useful…register here so you don’t miss it.

When you want to get the attention of your ideal client, email marketing trumps everything else, including social media.

Think about it.

• Email is ubiquitous…everyone has at least one email account. 
• Despite how much people say they hate email, it’s a good bet they check their email at least once a day, if not a lot more.
• There is no competition for your reader’s attention when they’re reading email: there are no distracting status updates constantly being refreshed in the newsfeed, there are no tweets flashing by.

[Read more…]

I'm frequently asked this question… “what is the best way to get more blog subscribers?”

You probably already know having great content with compelling headlines, published frequently will help you increase the number of people who subscribe to your blog.

And there's a lot more you can do.

You may also know using email in conjunction with your blog is one of the best ways to get people to come back to your blog over and over again. If they love what you're writing about and it solves their problems, they'll subscribe to get your updates and return to read your articles. The biggest challenge though, is moving readers to become subscribers.

When I do blog audits, there are typically two big mistakes I see bloggers make:

1) They bury the subscription form too low on the blog's sidebar so few people see it

2) They don't ASK readers to subscribe

How to correct these two mistakes and increase your blog subscriber numbers:

1. Put the email subscription form at or near the top of your sidebar so it's visible when the reader lands on your site. If you do nothing else, do this. You want the optin form visible “above the fold” and in a spot where eyes naturally move as your reader scans the page.
2. Include a call to action with your optin form with a compelling reason to subscribe, like a free gift (see this post for ideas). Merely saying “Join my list” or “Subscribe to get updates” doesn’t cut it. Offer an incentive that’s too good for your reader to ignore.

Bonus tip for boosting your subscriber numbers

If your blog is built on WordPress, you can use a simple plugin called "What Would Seth Godin Do" to include a call to action on every blog post. The plugin displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and an alternate message to returning visitors. Use this plugin to invite new visitors to subscribe to get blog updates and to welcome back returning visitors, encouraging them to subscribe (if they haven’t already), comment and share your post.

You can customize each message and set how many times a visitor sees the "new visitor" message before it switches to the "returning visitors" message.

You can also set the location of the messages: at the top of the post or the bottom. I put it at the bottom (you can see it in action below) since I believe readers are more inclined to subscribe once they have read your content and determined it’s valuable enough to show up in their sacred inbox.

Since adding this plugin, I’ve seen a 15% increase in new blog subscribers. It takes a couple of minutes to install and customize and then you're good to go.

Remember…a highly visible email optin form and a compelling offer will increase the number of subscribers to your blog.

There are at least seven ways to optimize your blog to attract more subscribers. If you’d like to learn how to generate more leads and build your list with your blog, I have a special invitation for you. Join me for a 90-minute live webinar training program on how to optimize your blog to convert more readers to subscribers.  Learn more and register now. 

The number one skill most everyone wants to perfect is list building. Not just building a list, but building what is known as a responsive list.

I am here to tell you it's possible!

The truth is you really CAN build a responsive, money-making subscriber list once and for all.

If you know where to get the right information you can build your list in record time. A list of people who are responsive and spend money.

Isn't that what everyone online wants to do? I know I do.

I have conversations with my clients nearly every day about how they can build responsive lists. [You know who you are!] After all it's futile to make an offer for your products and