If someone has decided to “like” you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, or connect with you on LinkedIn but hasn’t signed up to receive your email newsletter or announcements, it may be because they’re unaware that the opportunity to sign up exists.
For others, it may be because they’re not sure what to expect when signing up. People are protective of their information online and some people may be reluctant to join your contact list before reading your content and seeing what you have to offer.
By giving your content visibility you’ll have more people clicking through to join your contact list, and you’ll also have social connections staying with you longer because they’ll know what to expect from the get-go.
Here are five ways to give your list more visibility:
1. Share your campaigns socially.
Simple Share allows you to easily share your newsletter and announcement campaigns across your own social networks when it goes out to your list of contacts — extending its reach.
After your campaign goes out, look for opportunities to continue to promote it across your different social networks. When you coordinate your mailing schedule with your social media posting schedule, you put out a consistent message and have more chances of fans, followers, and connections signing up for your list.
2. Start a conversation around your content.
Simply sharing a link to your latest campaign isn’t always enough.
Instead, try starting a conversation around a specific newsletter article. By sharing a summary of the article and asking for feedback, you’ll not only generate more engagement but you’ll also have more opportunities to get your content in front of their social connections.
3. Talk about your campaign in a video.
Online video is a quick and easy way to humanize your marketing and give fans and followers a look behind the curtain. It can also be used to engage fans and get your campaign in front of connections that may have overlooked your updates in the past.
Talk about some hot topics from your next email in a video, upload it to YouTube, and share it across your social networks. (And don’t forget to encourage viewers to sign up!)
4. Show off the design of your campaign on Pinterest.
If you’ve already started building an audience on Pinterest, you know that it’s a great tool for showing off the work you’re doing and keeping your audience well informed. Consider creating a board on Pinterest specifically for your monthly newsletters and “pin” each edition when it comes out.
Tip: Make sure to use high-quality images that reflect your brand within your newsletters, announcements, and other marketing campaigns. This will make it easier to create an engaging pin on Pinterest, and will help bring your campaigns to life!
5. Make it easy for people to share.
By giving contacts the ability to share your campaigns on their own social networks, you’ll extend the reach of your campaign and have more opportunities to attract new people to your list.
One of the ways you can do this is by sharing your campaigns on your different social channels, where people can use the share functions that are native to those platforms (shares, retweets, likes, +1′s).
You can also look for ways to integrate social sharing into your campaigns. For example, with Constant Contact, you can easily add a social share bar to any newsletter or announcement, to enable fans to share your content with their own friends and followers. If you’re running a local deal or trackable coupon, you can offer an incentive to encourage people to share.
Using the right channels to improve visibility
Your contact list is one of the most important channels you have to communicate with your audience online.
Getting fans, followers, and connections across your different channels to join your list, gives you the chance to take ownership of your contacts and make sure future campaigns are seen by the right people. This will improve your campaign results, and over time — help you do more business!
How do you increase the visibility of your contact list? Let us know in the comments below.