Marketers like you and I are turning down so much ‘free money’ with each campaign.

‘Free money’ is what I call the additional subscribers, and potential sales that come as a benefit of doing a good job of what you were doing anyway.

A well planned, relevant and good looking email campaign, social media promotion, or mobile program should be compelling enough that at least a portion of your customers are moved to forward it on or tell others about it.

If you don’t consider this from the planning stage and make it easy for them to do so, and for their friends to act, then you are turning your back on a very profitable bonus. Profitable because you have already spent the money on the campaign! If you can generate extra sales and attract prospects it’s your payday allover again.

Sound good? Even better, its easy.

First, the subscribe path. Make it very easy to subscribe to your database. Make sure every website page on your site links to the opt in page. Ensure the opt in page makes it a fair exchange by clearly listing the benefits of subscribing, and of course easy to find, clear and enticing, with examples of the emails on offer.
Importantly, check that it reassures privacy – I’ve seen studies that show a simple plain English reassurance can much improve the chance of a subscriber joining your list.
Consider this: if you need to change your email address for any reason, and want to keep receiving your favourite email updates then you are likely to find it considerably harder to find an ‘update my details’ link than you are to find the ubiquitous unsubscribe button. Is that the same for your emails? Are you giving readers no choice but to unsubscribe? Adding an update or preference centre is simple and enabling.

Next, the SWYN opportunity. Simply, make sure your website content, blog posts, and every email campaign (unless it’s members only) has easy to see Share This links. This way your readers can do their job, telling their boss about what you can offer their company, their colleagues about your great newsletter, or their mum about a great sale. Good email marketing software will have this functionality for you to use. We’ve had clients see their database double with good use of SWYN.

Effortless subscribing and sharing…  Two ways to ensure you pick up all the free money that your marketing efforts deserve.

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