Increase Your Newsletter Opt-Ins With a Call to Action

If you're missing a call to action when trying to get newsletter opt-ins, you may be missing out on opt-ins. Just like in offline copy, you need a call to action to have prospects take a specific action. It's not always obvious on what the prospect should do. So we need to spell it out for them.

We need to tell the prospect to subscribe to the newsletter. For instance, you might write, “Subscribe to my newsletter now!” Or, “Click on the button below to sign up for my newsletter.”

You should also put a call to action in the button's text. Instead of using the default “Submit” button text, you could use “Subscribe Now.” Other suggestions are:

* Sign Up!
* Sign Up Now!
* Click Here to Subscribe
* Subscribe Now

You may have noticed that some of the suggestion use the word “now.” Adding urgency to your call to action pushes the prospect to take action now. Without adding urgency, your prospect will put it aside and end up forgetting about it. So you'll want to add urgency.

An easy way is to add the word “now” or “today.” “Subscribe Today” and “Subscribe Now” use those two words to add urgency.

You could also add urgency by making a time-limited offer. Perhaps you have a free bonus, such as a report or teleseminar recording, to offer new subscribers. But after a certain date, the bonus will no longer be available. So you tell your prospects they have to subscribe now because the bonus will be gone forever after that date.

If you're offering a bonus, you can also include it as part of your call to action. You could write, “Get my free report by subscribing to my newsletter.” It tells the prospect to get your free report along with instructions on how to do so (which is subscribing to your newsletter).

So remember to include a call to action. It's quick to add. And it'll increase your opt-ins.

Francis Lui is a freelance web copywriter with web technical skills. For more web copywriting and Internet marketing tips, get his FREE 31-page report along with a FREE newsletter subscription at http://www.francislui.com/.