How To Build Business Blog Subscriptions With Email

How many people currently subscribe to your business blog? Could (and should) you have more?

In inbound marketing, blog readers are potential customers. And we’d all like more potential customers. There are a handful of ways readers get to one of your blog posts:

• Search—When an online search for information on a chosen topic leads them to your useful, informative post.

• Social media—When a status update, paid ad or another reader’s shared post links them to your blog.

• Recommendation—When a reader shares a blog post via email or social media.

• Subscription—When a return reader gets an email to notify them of a new blog post and comes to read it.

Today, let’s focus on that last pathway, because boosting business blog subscriptions is one way to increase your blog’s lead generation potential.

You can promote blog subscriptions with a quickly completed form on the blog itself, with calls-to-action elsewhere on your website that lead to a dedicated subscription landing page, with social media CTAs linked to that landing page, or with email.

Here are two types of emails you can use to promote blog subscriptions: dedicated sends and lead nurturing emails.

Promoting blog subscriptions with dedicated email send

While you can send a mass email to your entire contact list promoting a blog subscription, it may be more effective to segment your list and target specific groups with tailored messages.

Segment your list by any or all of these characteristics:

• Recent interaction with your website, such as converting on a specific offer

• Job title or responsibility

• Geography

• Existing customers

• Customer persona

Then tailor the email message to match that segment. For example, if you chose contacts who recently converted on an offer, include in the email links to several past blog posts about the same topic. If the segment all joined your contact list at a recent event, include links to blog posts about the topics covered at that event or your own report on the happenings.

When you personalize the emails to show that your blog provides useful information on topics the contact has an interest it, you will be more likely to gain a new subscriber.

Promoting blog subscriptions in lead nurturing emails

While we typically think of the emails in a lead nurturing workflow as promoting content offers that show an increasing interest in purchasing your product or service, it’s OK to switch it up.

You can use an automated lead nurturing email, instead, to feature your big hit blog posts that are relevant to the workflow and your lead’s needs.

This type of email could be especially useful for when a lead seems to have hit a plateau in their progress through the buyer’s journey. It helps keep your business top-of-mind and offers evidence of your knowledge and expertise, without being pushy and causing leads to unsubscribe from the nurturing emails.

Building your blog’s subscriber list is one of the key ways you can build its potential to generate leads and sales. Find more ways to Grow and Scale Your Business Blog in our free ebook.