Can a signup survey add subscribers to a second newsletter?

In the Las Vegas area I run two newsletters, one on each side of town. The signup survey for one has a single question: do you want us to also add you to our other one across town? Every yes gets pushed to the second newsletter.

"If they say yes, we push their email to the other newsletter as well. So now we just got two subscribers for the neighboring newsletter."

Why ask in the survey and not on the landing page?

Because choices on the landing page cost you subscribers. A newsletter picker, even with one box pre-checked, is a decision, and people faced with decisions often do nothing. Get the email first. Offer the second list one page later, when they're already saying yes to things.

Can you pre-build a list for a newsletter that doesn't exist yet?

Yes. Add a question like this to your existing survey:

We're getting ready to launch a new newsletter for [area or topic].
Would you like us to add you to that one too?  Yes / No

You're starting that list now. You don't even need the new newsletter's email platform set up. Store the emails in the survey tool and bulk upload them once it's ready.

What else can the same question do?

• A daily digest option for readers who want more.
• A sister brand in a neighboring city. I did this with a city-picker pop-up asking if people also wanted a nearby city's newsletter.
• A niche spin-off. If your survey collects zip codes, you can later launch regional editions with a list already in hand.

Newsrooms can use it too. When I worked through a signup survey with one newsroom, a second-newsletter referral made the final cut alongside events interest and a donation ask, because it's a question they'd actually act on.

Any risks?

Watch completion. When we added that neighboring-city pop-up, I noticed a subscriber skip the survey and immediately wondered if the pop-up caused it. Log the change and compare completion before and after.