Build Your List: How to Get People to Subscribe to Your Blog

How to gain blog subscribers

If you provide consistent, meaningful blog content, consider the following best practices to attract and keep subscribers. 

1. Make your blog’s subscribe button easy to find.

An accessible subscribe button is the most obvious way to get more blog or email newsletter subscribers, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t consider this carefully. Many content creators assume having a subscribe button is enough. However, it’s essential to draw your readers’ eyes toward your subscribe button and make clicking it an easy decision.

First, select an optimal location for your subscribe button. Subscribe buttons are often placed on the top right of a blog, where most people’s eyes naturally go, like on this Lifehacker blog:

Image credit: Lifehacker

You can also place your subscribe button as a call to action (CTA) at the bottom of the page. This example from the Say Yes blog invites readers to subscribe to its newsletter: 

Image credit: Say Yes

Another option is to have a pop-up box request that readers subscribe as they are about to exit your site. There’s no downside — they’ll either leave the site or enter their email address to join your subscriber list.

2. Offer an incentive for subscribing to your blog.

People often want something in return for their email address, so it makes sense to encourage them by offering a gift. Your incentive doesn’t have to be a spectacular offer, like “$100 off your next purchase.” It can be as simple as a free e-book.

For example, the Goop blog presents a pop-up that offers a 10 percent discount on products and exclusive access to other items. The exclusivity focus encourages users to sign up because otherwise, they’ll feel like they’re missing out.

Image credit: Goop

Here’s another incentive from Copyblogger that entices subscribers with free training: 

Image credit: Copyblogger

3. Create a dedicated subscription landing page for your blog.

If you promote your blog or newsletter via email, social media or a website, use a link that sends visitors to a dedicated landing page. This eliminates any confusion visitors might encounter if they arrive at your blog and have to hunt for a subscribe button. 

Here’s a sample landing page from Apartment Therapy:

Image credit: Apartment Therapy

4. Make your content easy to read.

Everyone’s busy, so people appreciate if they can derive valuable information from content just by skimming it. To make your articles easy to skim, consider the space around the text. Thoughtful white-space usage can make an article look much more appealing. 

For an example of what not to do, consider this article, which appears as a sea of text:

For comparison, this version of the article provides more white space and is easier to skim:

In addition to leaving white space, simplify your articles as much as possible. Remove all jargon, and use concise, easy-to-read language. Well-designed content will make readers more inclined to subscribe to your blog or newsletter. 

5. Leverage social proof to gain more blog subscribers.

Showing prospective subscribers how many people already subscribe to your content can make them feel comfortable joining the crowd. When readers know your blog or newsletter is popular, they’re reassured that they’ll obtain respected, engaging and helpful content.

Here’s an example from Backlinko:

Image credit: Backlinko

6. Ensure people can find your blog.

To gain more subscribers, you must be highly visible. Here are some ways to ensure people encounter your blog or newsletter: 

• Make your blog accessible from your website. Put a link to your blog or newsletter on your website’s primary navigation bar. A prominent link will help increase subscribers and overall customer satisfaction.
• Increase your social presence. If you want to be seen, you must be where your potential subscribers are — social media. According to Statista, Americans spend an average of 2 hours, 16 minutes daily on social media. Consequently, social media can be an excellent brand marketing platform. Every time you write a new article, share it on your social sites. Include social sharing buttons to encourage others to share your articles.
• Contribute to other sites. By writing articles for websites with a higher domain authority than your own, you can gain valuable backlinks to your site, more eyes on your articles and, ultimately, more subscribers.
• Optimize posts for search engines. Each post should revolve around one keyword or key phrase. Repeat the keyword throughout the post so it ranks highly on search engines. You can also use the keyword in the post title (preferably in the beginning), make your posts at least 600 words, and use the keyword in image alt tags. Use search engine optimization (SEO) tools to enhance your ranking. If you use WordPress, multiple free plugins can help you boost your blog posts’ SEO.
• Create backlinks. Put links to your blog on all of your digital assets, including websites, social media platforms and email signatures. Also, put blog links in your biography wherever it’s posted, including guest posts and comments you make on others’ blogs. These backlinks will drive traffic to your blog and contribute to your organic SEO.
• Leverage influencers. Many brands reach out to social media influencers to give them a product demo or to ask for a quote. The next step is to let the influencer know your post with their quote or mention is online so they can link to it. This will generate traffic from the influencer’s following and help your search ranking.

Benefits of growing your blog subscribers

Growing your blog’s subscriber list takes time and effort, but it’s well worth it. Consider the following benefits of increasing your blog’s subscriber count: 

• Increased brand awareness: A robust subscriber list helps you boost brand awareness online. More people will know about your products and services and engage with your content strategy. They’ll see your name and offerings more frequently via their blog subscription and better understand your brand’s unique selling proposition.
• Goodwill: Blog posts are distinct from promotional communication because their primary aims are to educate, inform and entertain. Blog subscribers view this content as valuable and appreciate that it’s free. Giving something valuable for free engenders goodwill among subscribers, making them see your company favorably. 
• Boost in website traffic: When many subscribers access your content, there’s a good chance some will explore your website’s more commercial elements, such as your product catalog. With increased web traffic come more opportunities to intrigue and sell to your target audience.  
• Higher search rankings: More web traffic leads to higher search engine rankings. This is in addition to the positive SEO impact of having substantial content with relevant keywords. A higher organic search engine ranking is an affordable way to get more visibility to potential customers.
• Relationship building: Most products are not impulse purchases. Your business must slowly build relationships with potential customers over time. A blog is at the lower end of the sales funnel, where you get people generally interested in your product. Once they subscribe to your blog, you can further engage them by encouraging them to subscribe to your email list, direct them to specific website links, and invite them to follow you on social media.

Mistakes to avoid when trying to boost subscribers

Some strategies are sure to backfire when you’re attempting to obtain more subscribers. Here are some mistakes to avoid:

• Revealing a pop-up subscription banner that covers the screen before your post loads
• Interrupting your post content with multiple subscription requests
• Asking people to subscribe without telling them why
• Misleading subscribers about the content or the frequency of your posts
• Providing outdated content 
• Adding new content infrequently or inconsistently
• Giving general or commonsense advice that readers can find anywhere
• Failing to make your blog or newsletter mobile-friendly
• Uploading poor-quality images or error-riddled writing
• Using too much jargon
• Writing what you want without thinking about readers’ needs

As with all digital marketing strategies, you may have to experiment with your blog or newsletter techniques to improve engagement and add subscribers. Stay with it, and you’re sure to see improved subscriber counts.