Laura Haley: [00:00:00] Hi, Travel Creators! Today, we are talking about one of my favorite topics, newsletter creation, but specifically how to increase your newsletter subscribers. Like most things in the creator world, there is a shit ton of advice, okay? On how to do these things, and how to go about gaining subscribers. There are so many videos, and blogs, and reels, and all the crap.
Laura Haley: And it can be really overwhelming. But, I don't believe it should be overcomplicated. As I mentioned in previous episodes, I recommend you choose one, just one of the things that I'm going to talk about, and do it first, and make good progress before starting on something else and kind of getting yourself into a snowball of too many projects.
Laura Haley: I am speaking from experience here. Alright, let's dive into the tips. One way to increase your email subscribers is, of course, to have a free offer that is made with your target audience in mind. So, you probably already [00:01:00] have one of these, but if you don't, you've definitely seen one before. It is those often little links or freebies you'll see in Instagram bios of creators.
Laura Haley: For example, mine is a free newsletter template. for travel creators as well as a guide on how to start repurposing your own content. By the way, both of these are in the show notes if you want to grab them. So these little freebies speak directly to my target audience. They are made specifically for travel creators.
Laura Haley: If you've had the same irresistible offer for a while, take this as a sign to give it a little refresh. It might be a good time to see if there's other pieces of content that you can turn into a freebie. Now, I'm going to break down for you some of the categories of freebies that you can create to entice new subscribers.
Laura Haley: So the first kind is unaware. You're going to want to get a pencil or a pencil, you're going to want to open your notes out. How about that? So the first kind is unaware. And this means that [00:02:00] through your freebie, your goal is to tell your target audience about a problem they might not even know that they have.
Laura Haley: It kind of sounds hard, but when you start thinking about it, you can think about the solutions that you offer to them. Anyway, okay, it all comes together. So the second is a problem aware freebie, and this means your target audience already knows they have a problem. And the goal of your freebie is to give them a result.
Laura Haley: Or at least lead them to hire you to give them the full result. The third type of freebie is based on solutions. So your target audience, they already know they have a problem. They just need to know why you are the solution to help them resolve that problem, and your freebie is going to give them that solution.
Laura Haley: Pretty similar to number two, but if you dive in deep, you can kind of see how they are less intertwined.
Laura Haley: That was kind of confusing, but basically the idea here is to really know your target audience and figure out what you can solve for them. What can you help them alleviate? That is their pain point. Another [00:03:00] thing you can do is a little newsletter swap with other creators. So if you're just starting out You can just ask to do a little guest segment on somebody else's newsletter.
Laura Haley: Now, here is the biggest and most helpful thing I've learned as a person who runs a business on the internet. 90 percent of people you will meet on the internet are good humans. And good humans attract good humans, so if you're a good human, keep putting that karma out there. The power of asking has single handedly helped me build a business.
Laura Haley: So, let's say you follow a creator who specializes in European budget travel, and you're a travel blogger who Just went to France and you spent time there and you created content about it or feel as though you could I would build a relationship with that creator who specializes in European budget travel and then slide into their DMS or Email or whatever that looks like it makes sense and ask [00:04:00] Ask if you could write a little guest segment in their newsletter now, you have to be genuine If you just get on Instagram and you scroll through comments, you can totally see, are people even paying attention to the piece of content that they are commenting on?
Laura Haley: It is so clear. To be able to tell how genuine people are, if you want this to work, you do have to be genuine. I'm not saying to just go and find people who you would like to work with and just bombard them with information. Don't do that. Don't do that You have to honestly work with them and expect to get nothing in return The worst thing they can say to you is no the answer before you even ask is already no So you might as well ask who knows don't let the fear of just starting your newsletter You Stop you from reaching out to creators to collaborate with.
Laura Haley: You never freaking know what they're going to say. I promise the power of asking is just life changing when it comes to being a creator on the internet. You, of course, should post about your newsletter if you want to increase subscribers. So if you're active on a [00:05:00] particular social media platform, that's the place you want to be grabbing people to subscribe.
Laura Haley: So every time my newsletter goes out into the world, I have a little story template already made. And I just pop into that template that week's content, and I share it on my story, and I tag anyone who maybe I talked about in that week's send, or highlighted, or featured, or something like that. Another thing that has worked for me, and has even caused me to get DMs from creators being like, Hey.
Laura Haley: I'm ready to sign up, that was awesome. I recorded a 30 second talking head of what subscribers can get out of my newsletter, if they decide to subscribe. So I just shared with them, here's who my newsletter is for, here's what you can get out of it. Here's why you should subscribe. People are only going to subscribe if they know what the heck they're getting into and that 30 second video got me a couple of new subscribers and it was a pretty easy lift on my end and that is an example of a piece of evergreen content you can just keep plugging into your content calendar.
Laura Haley: [00:06:00] And now I'm just going to do a couple Rapidfire tips that you can try out that are low lift but high result. So, you can put in the bottom of your newsletter a little line that says, Did a friend you? Subscribe here. And then of course, you know, you'll link it to a place where folks can actually subscribe.
Laura Haley: So that's great if you feel as though your community might be forwarding these emails to somebody else. Or you can even be more explicit and ask your subscribers to send this newsletter to someone who might enjoy it, because your goal is to increase your newsletter community. So you could just say something like, Hey, I'm trying to grow my newsletters.
Laura Haley: I value you as a subscriber and I want to create, you know, like a larger community of ex travelers or whatever your niche might be, and ask them to forward it to a friend.
Laura Haley: Now this next one comes down to content that you're sharing around your newsletter with the hopes of gaining new subscribers. So make sure every CTA piece of content you share pushes people to sign up to your newsletter. don't make me talk again about how you [00:07:00] don't own your social media content.
Laura Haley: Okay, You don't. And basically how an email list can save your little ass if your community was wiped out. Bye. The gods that are social media tech platforms. Don't tempt me to talk about this again because I definitely will. But I do have an entire episode dedicated to this topic about how you don't own your social media content and why you should be scared. Here's what you can do about it.
Laura Haley: So don't worry, after the little jump scare, I give you actionable tips on what you can do about it. Speaking of CTAs, here's mine. Every Tuesday. I send a newsletter to travel creators, highlighting another travel creator, I know, a little meta, who is crushing their content, and I share how they're crushing their content, what I think they did well, and how you can apply what they've done to your own niche and content.
Laura Haley: It is free, the link is in the show notes, and I guarantee you'll find something you love. Another thing you can do that I think is really powerful is to ask for testimonials from your current subscribers. [00:08:00] So this is a great thing to do that actually does a couple of things for you. So one, by asking for testimonials from your current subscribers, you can kind of learn what your subscribers are actually liking about your content.
Laura Haley: If you just ask them to write a couple of words, About their experience reading your newsletter or something without too many specific Prompting questions you might be surprised by what you get back in return rather than being like what did you like about X section? like they might just open your mind to different pieces of content or different ways that you can use your newsletter So I think in that regard asking for testimonials, you should try and be a little bit more open ended
Laura Haley: And, of course, if you get this testimonial, you can use it in your future sense, okay, this is one thing you can do, to show your other subscribers, hey, remember me, you still subscribe to me. Other people who subscribe are getting great value out of this piece of content. And of course, you should be using this testimonial to share on your other platforms to entice more people to subscribe.
Laura Haley: You could even, of course, [00:09:00] tag the people who gave you a testimonial, as you should be doing anyway. They might reshare it. Boom, there's another couple eyeballs on your newsletter.
Laura Haley: If you have affiliate links or offers or discount codes or whatever to share with your community, putting those in your newsletter is a great way to entice new people to join your list. So if you create a piece of content, with An affiliate link you can be like, all right, you know, here's this I have -the example I have in my head right now is so niche.
Laura Haley: I'm so sorry it is Almond butter and this is because I saw somebody just post an affiliate link about almond butter. So we're rolling with it here So if you make a little, you know, post about almond butter and you have an affiliate link, so you've made your cute little video and you post it and you're like, to get the link right now, it's only offered to my newsletter subscribers.
Laura Haley: If you sign up, I'll give you, you know, the extra 25 percent off your almond butter. It's so silly. but it works. People freaking love discounts. Okay. There's nothing that people [00:10:00] really won't do to get a discount. And most of the time, Giving their email away feels like a low effort, however, it means so much to the person who's getting their email, like that is so valuable.
Laura Haley: So go ahead and put those affiliate links in your newsletter and share on social media with your followers that they can only get the benefits of that link if they subscribe. Okay, I have indifferent feelings about this next suggestion, but for the sake of content creation, I will throw it at you. Please let me know what you think about this.
Laura Haley: I don't know. So if you're sharing a guide or guide based content on your Instagram, if that's like your jam, you can put half the guide on Instagram. Or maybe in the caption and then tell your followers that they're going to have to subscribe To get the other half of this. I don't know why I feel indifferent about it. I think it's because I don't love gatekeeping, but It is what it is, right?
Laura Haley: I don't know. So that's another great way to entice subscribers Of course, go ahead and put a CTA for your newsletter right at the top of your website. Yep, that's it. That's the [00:11:00] suggestion. And if you're wondering how do I keep subscribers, I have an entire episode dedicated to ways you can increase your newsletter open rates and those principles I share in that episode apply everywhere.
Laura Haley: In helping you keep your subscriber count because if you're posting or creating shitty content people are going to run away But if you're creating great content, they're going to stay and tell their friends. Alrighty creators. That is the list. I Want to know from you. So send me a message on instagram at @travelcontentwriting Let me know which one of these you would try Or if you have additional suggestions you want the world to know about, I can definitely share with them or make a follow up to this episode.
Laura Haley: I'm sure there will be a part two for this. So if you have questions or want me to add anything else, please let me know. As always, happy creating and I'll see you next week.
