Before you write a word of co-registration copy, do some quick & easy market research. Subscribe to the newsletters of current and prospective co-registration partners. (I like to print out the "thank-you" page with the co-reg offers so I can refer to them easily. Look for ways to make your newsletter stand out, and remember, you're usually limited to unformatted text. Bolding, colors, images and capital letters aren't going to help this time -- it's the words that count. So find areas where your newsletter is unique (suggestions below). Be sure to show the reader what makes your newsletter special and worthy of their time.

Possible areas where your newsletter may be unique:

  -Editorial style
  -Geographic coverage
  -Type of editorial coverage (news, reports, case studies, etc.)
  -Well-known publisher, editor or reporters
  -Awards won for reporting.

Co-reg copy blocks are like mini-billboards. Keep your copy shorter than 4 lines; 2-3 lines are even better. Use short, one-syllable words for best results. Chances are that most of the copy you use to describe your newsletter is wordy, boring, non-specific, overly-complicated, and may be self-congratulatory. We suggest that you scrap it altogether and start over, or just hammer it down to copy that's easy-to-read, punchy, and informative.

 

If you're offering a free subscription - say so. Don't assume that the subscriber will know that your newsletter is free.

Give a free report, study, set of charts, list of tips - any editorially-based content that's original and perceived to be useful will help bump up response from co-registration. Often, you can compile content from previous newsletter issues to come up with a good giveaway. Remember to assign a retail price to your bonus - it'll be perceived as being worth more than a bonus that's just designated as free. You can deliver the bonus by including a download link in the "Welcome" emails to new co-reg subscribers.

- Get rid of any references to "our", "we" - find a way to refer to "you" and "yours" - Don't use the passive voice

Example of the passive voice:

"Cameo Cleaning Newsletter is a weekly report bringing you news and insights from the world of cameo repair."

Example of the active voice:

"Subscribe now to the only weekly newsletter that tells you how to clean and repair your cameos.

Other great action verbs ("Get","Subscribe", "Sign-up" and "Join")

A question is one of the fastest and easiest ways to position your newsletter and "stake your claim" on the co-reg page.

"Want to find out what's new in b-to-b PR?
"Tired of the same-old, rehashed advertising news?"
"Need to know court rulings before anyone else?

If you really want to knock the socks off everyone else on the co-reg page - write your question as if it's a headline, and then follow it with 2-3 lines of copy: "Tired of the same-old rehashed advertising news? Liven up your in-box with breaking advertising news" -- you'll read because you want to, not because you have to.

Of course, tips are great -- but the only true way to gain better results is to test your copy.

If you or your partner is using Co-Reg Complete to manage co-registration, copy testing is easy. Just give your partner two versions of your copy. Ask them to run Copy A one week, and Copy B the next week (make sure that the weeks don't include, follow or precede major holidays, etc. You can tell which copy resulted in the higher subscription rate from your campaign statistics report, just run the report for each date range.

Our experts say that this testing works best if you pick a partner with a healthy influx of new subscribers - over 500 per week - and the partner runs your offer consistently. If you co-register with partners with smaller circulations, run your test for a longer period of time. You may want to give the partner some additional promotion for taking the time to run the test, such as a banner ad or other promotion in your newsletter or web site.