Increase Subscribers with a Bonus Download

Offering your website audience a downloadable file in exchange for their email address is a great way to encourage them to subscribe to your email newsletter. Obviously useful and regular content is the best way to keep them clicking through to your website to read more.

Downloads Which Add Value

It will depend a lot on the type of business you operate but some effective bonus downloads I’ve seen are:

• Product Catalogue
• Tips and tricks Sheet 
• A discount voucher
• A Step-by-step Guide or mini book
• A free image or photo to use
• Form to send off for a free magazine or product sample
• Free  template to help people use your product
• Free shop/office poster to promote your product

Email Newsletter Plugin for WordPress

The Post Notification plugin for WordPress lets you edit the messages subscribers see when they sign up (reg_success.tmpl) and when they receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription (confirm.tmpl). These files are located in the folder of the language you have choosen to use in on your Post Notification Settings page – if you are using the english version, they are in a folder called en_US.

You can create a third template which subscribers will see when they save their settings. This is where you add a link to your bonus file for them to download.

How to add a bonus download

Edit your Post Notification Settings page

1. Click on Post Notification under Settings in your admin bar, then choose the Settings submenu
2. Part way down the page, there is drop down box asking if you want to show a Saved Template – select yes
3. Click on the Save button at the bottom of the page

Upload your bonus file

1. Click on the Add image icon on a post 
2. Choose your bonus file and upload
3. Copy the link url to the new file (you can always get this from the media library later)

Create and upload a new template

1. Using Notepad, create a new file called saved.tmpl
2. Paste your bonus download link into the file in the following format <a href=”link url”>Download bonus file wording</a>
3. Add any other wording you think is required and save the file.
4. Upload it to the en_US folder using ftp
5. Download a sample saved.tmpl file

You can see this in action by subscribing to the kitchengarden email newsletter.

Promoting Your Download

Make sure you promote your download on your website, in your email signature, on other websites and in your off-line advertising. Change your post notification widget description and your Subscribe page to include mention of the bonus file. I also recommend editing your res_success.tmpl and confirm.tmpl files (these are mentioned above) to move subscribers through the steps to subscribing and receiving their download.

For more information about the Post Notification plugin, see my previous post.

Please use the comments form below to let me know what kind of bonus download you are using (keep it clean please) to encourage your readers to subscribe to your email newsletter. Is it working?