How important is your emailing list? What do top bloggers have to say about email marketing? Plus, learn 6 simple steps you can take to start building an email list.
Is Your Email List Important?
Top bloggers agree, your most successful action will be building your email list.
The majority of us have blogs as a way to make some additional income or, for a few of us, all of our income. Building your email list is vital if you want to do this.
Why is it so key to making income? Well, unlike social media and search rankings, you have far more control over your email list.
Here are a few quotes from top bloggers on this very subject:
I have literally built a multi-million dollar business on the strength of my email list. Ninety percent of my income comes from it. Even today, my email list is still my number one business priority—and asset.’
@MichaelHyatt
Without a doubt, our email list is the best investment we’ve ever made.’
@DouglasKarr
Email is the most important channel for you to cultivate.’
@MichaelStelzner
1. Create a MailChimp or Mailpoet account.
This is the first step in growing your email subscriber list. Either of these accounts will provide you with a way to send emails to your list once you start added emails.
I would suggest checking out both and then choosing the one you feel best suits your needs. For MailChimp go here and for Mailpoet take a look here.
As soon as this is done I would create a couple of emails such a ‘thank you’ email or a useful tips email so it’s ready to go out the moment you get your first sign up.
2. Create a pop-up call to action that can’t be missed.
Whatever your offer is going to be, make sure that you have a pop-up on all your pages that will ask people to sign up for future emails, deals and other info.
A percentage of people visiting your site will give you their email address for nothing more than that because they are interested in the content you are offering and want to get more when it’s created.
It doesn’t need to be obnoxious but it does need to be unmissable. Movement makes a big difference – if it slides up, pops up or slides across the screen it will be seen.
3. Give something away for free.
Create some content or resource that you give away in exchange for the person’s email.
Understandably a lot of people are reluctant to give out their email to anyone and get bombarded with tons of emails. So give them something that makes it worthwhile.
Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What would make your life easier? What would be invaluable information for your business? What resource could really help you with promotion? Those are just a few ideas – but something along these lines would be a good giveaway.
4. Add your email link everywhere you can.
You can add a subscribe button with your link to email footers, twitter comments, Mailchimp/Mailpoet newsletters, etc, etc. Don’t miss out on these.
You can get your email subscription link from your Mailchimp and Mailpoet accounts. Here is a great example of using the link in other places. Ryan Hoover uses his link when responding to tweets:
5. Hold a competition.
Competitions with a decent prize can be pretty popular and can help your overall following as well. By requesting an email in order to enter the competition you can grow your list pretty quick.
Examples of popular prizes are – iPad, night out for two, weekend getaway, etc. If you have a product or service that is something that the general public would want, then you can offer that as well.
The easiest way to spread the competition is also to make it a requirement to share the competition post.
6. Offer a discount.
I used this method on one of my sites and it worked quite well. I offered a 10% discount if the person signed up for my newsletter. In just a couple of months, even with the limited traffic I had to that site, I managed to gather a few hundred emails.
Make the offer very obvious when they sign up for your product.
So there are just a few ways that you can get started with growing your email list. Remember, your email list is vitally important to the viability of your blog or website.
To recap on how you can start building your email list:
- Create a Mailchimp or Mailpoet account.
- Create a pop-up call to action that can’t be missed.
- Give something away for free.
- Add your email link everywhere you can.
- Hold a competition.
- Offer a discount.
There are many, many other ways of building your email list but these ones here are a few reliable methods. You should keep researching to find more ways of doing this.
Once you have your list – DON’T waste it! Make sure you keep in touch with everyone on your list by continuing to offer them useful and valuable content. This will keep them engaged and interested. This way you will have a captive audience next time you have an offer or sale.
Good luck! Please let me know if there is any specific topic you would like me to cover with regards to blogging, websites, design, marketing, etc, etc.
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