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It's easy to see other people and other businesses getting mentions in the big newspapers, on TV or radio or even on popular websites and think "they've got it made".

What we've found at Campaign Monitor is that mainstream media mentions produce a minuscule amount of actual business compared to word of mouth from our customers.

So it was interesting to see a recent post at CopyBlogger from cartoonist Hugh MacLeod on much the same theme. Hugh has seen repeatedly that encouraging his subscribers to share the newsletter (and therefore his cartoons) with their friends has an immediate impact on his business.

But looking back, it occurs to me that none of that “hot PR media action” has moved my business forward nearly as quickly or effectively as this one simple thing:

My newsletter subscribers telling their friends about my newsletter, and suggesting that they sign up.

No, really, that’s it. That is the money shot. When that happens, my business grows, end of story.
-Hugh MacLeod

Having made that discovery, Hugh then worked to capitalise on the knowledge by making it super easy for subscribers to let other people know about the newsletter, adding a very direct "Hello from Hugh: Please share this link with your friends." sentence in each one. It's a link to page explaining what Hugh is about and encouraging people to sign up.

How to use Campaign Monitor to encourage your subscribers to spread the word

In Campaign Monitor you already have a super easy forward to a friend link you can use to let your subscribers send a copy of the email to up to 5 people at once. It only takes a moment to implement and you'll be able to see exactly who used that link, and how many people they forwarded your email to.

The second part of the process is to consider people who have received your email as a forwarded copy. You might want to add a block specifically for them, something like "Received this from a friend? Find out more and join yourself on our site. Link that to a well thought out sign up page and form, and you'll be on your way.

Finally, take a look at one of Hugh's blog posts. At the end of the article, even before the comments, is a giant sign-up form with a brief explanation of what the newsletter is about. It's clear how important Hugh considers his list to be.

Do you put the same level of importance on your newsletter? How could you make it easier to spread the word?