Email is often the lifeblood of a business. After all, if someone visits a site and leaves then that company needs a way to get in touch with them. As such, you can provide a major service to a company by getting more people to sign up. So, how do you improve those sign-up rates?
As you already know, one of the reasons that copywriting is so valuable is that it can directly and immediately impact a business’s bottom line. You write great words and then people take the action the business wants them to take. In this case, you copy is going to get more people signed up for their email list.
What’s the Benefit for Signing Up?
The first thing to figure out is what the benefit is for someone of signing up for those emails. Many companies will offer a freebie in order to get people to sign up—something like a free e-book, a free audio program, or even a discount on their first purchase.
If that’s the case with your client, base your benefit on that freebie. A discount is an obvious benefit in and of itself, but in the case of an e-book or some other freebie, you can’t just tell people what the freebie is…you have to explain why it’s valuable.
For example, if your client is giving away an e-book called the “Top 5 Pro Tips for At-Home Brewing,” you can’t just rely on that title to excite people. What’s the benefit? Well, you have to know something about the e-book to be sure, but in this case it could be that it helps people brew better tasting, better quality beer. It may also help people avoid common brewing mistakes. Or it may help people to get started without making costly mistakes and purchasing the wrong items.
You can—and should—explore writing up versions with different benefits if there are more than one. Your client should test different lines.
What’s the Benefit of the Subscription?
Now, if your client isn’t giving away a freebie (and you can’t convince them to find or create one), you have to focus on the benefits of being on the newsletter list itself. So, what are they? Do people get tips and tools? Do they get special access to discounts or events? What will people get out of being on this list?
Now that you’ve got your benefit, let’s talk about where to put it. Since the action you want people to take is to sign up, this copy should be everywhere that your client has a sign up box and button. Write a headline that conveys the benefit.
Best Practices for Your Copy
You also need to make it clear that people are signing up for a newsletter list. In a two-step process, a process in which someone clicks on a button and a sign up box pops up, you can put that copy in that pop-up box. Just make sure people know what they’re signing up for. If people are expecting just a free e-book, but they get the free e-book and a weekly newsletter subscription, there’s a good chance that some of them will complain and/or mark these emails as spam, which can affect your client’s ability to send email at all.
You also need to make sure that the call to action is straightforward and makes it clear to the reader what he or she is getting and what will happen next. You may even be able to get away with making the button the call to action, saying simply “Sign Up Now!”
In a two-step process, the button/CTA could say “Get the Free E-Book!” while the copy in the pop-up sign up box conveys that they’ll get the e-book and the newsletter and the button in that box could say “Sign Up.” In either case, people will have a good idea of what they’re getting.
Creating copy that focuses on the benefits of what your client is giving away and/or the benefits of being on their email list is certain to increase your client’s email subscription rates. Plus, you can work with your client to refine this message through testing other iterations and ideas. Your work is valuable, and this is the kind of project that immediately shows just how much.
Your Turn
Have you worked on email subscription projects with clients? What were your challenges and your successes? Let us know in the comments below!
Last Updated on December 8, 2023
I was wondering if what you refer to as a benefit is more an ‘offer’ to incentivise the prospect to stick around? It is the product would have the features and benefits, right?
It would require long copy to explain the ‘benefits’ in detail, but therein would be an offer to sweeten the deal.
Hi Terence,
Well, really, the best “offers” need to *be* benefits. If something doesn’t benefit someone, there’s not point in purchasing something, right? Even something as simple as “Save 50% on Tractors” is still technically a benefit; the benefit being that they’ll save money. Does that make sense?
Thanks for commenting!
Nicki