So, when I first heard this tips, I was skeptical. Do people even read email anymore? I asked myself. Well, the answer is yes. Starting an email list for your blog as far as I’m concerned (and a lot of other way bigger bloggers are too) is pretty much non-negotiable. Despite some rumors that email is a dead form of communication, its just not true! Here’s why you need an email list for your blog or business for ultimate success and income boost!
Email list subscribers are YOUR subscribers
One of the main reasons for having an email list is that there is nothing that can separate you between communicating to your audience. Ultimately, the only subscribers that are really “yours” are the ones on your list.
Social media followers are impacted by many different variables including frequent algorithm changes, content getting flagged, and the popularity of certain social media apps at certain times. Imagine if you had no email list and all of your traffic came from snapchat (which is slowly being outshone by Instagram stories) when eventually the app is yesterdays news (the fate of all social media apps eventually, RIP Vine), there goes your traffic and your potential customers!
Don’t let the fate of your traffic, income, and business be at the mercy of just social media. The fact is, anything can happen at anytime. If your account is deleted, or the social media loses popularity, all of your hard work goes down the drain. By nurturing, building, and communicating with your email list, you have a loyal reader base and potential customers for years to come.
Email list can lead to HUGE monthly sales and increase in income
I knew email list was important, but I did not know the strength of a truly well nurtured email list until a recent encounter I had in a Facebook group. In that group I discovered a blogger named Sarah Titus at sarahtitus.com, and how she uses her email list to make incredible numbers like $287,000+ a month!
I highly recommend you go check her out, her story is incredible, she is so authentic and not salesy at all. The most unbelievable part is she doesn’t really use social media, and runs no paid ads. All of her income comes from selling to her email list! If that doesn’t show you the power of an email list, I don’t know what will.
This leads me to my next point and hard lesson I learned in my first month of blogging, pitching products cold is almost impossible. When you are selling something, be it affiliates, sponsored products or your own, it is next to impossible to pitch to someone random and actually make a sale. Email list do the hard work of selling for you.
These people subscribed to your list because you have offered them something of value (via freebie) and they want to know more, or they genuinely care about you and your work. Either way, these people are already invested. Meaning when you finally launch that course or book, it is going to be a lot easier to sell to them, than it is to create a post on Instagram with hashtags and hope for the best.
It is A Great Way to Truly Connect With Your Audience
The reason I think people believe Email is dead, is because so many of us hate email ourselves. I’ll be upfront, I have an entire separate email for using for websites. Most email list I’ve subscribed to are inconsistent, don’t send out content that is valuable, and wayyyy too frequent.
However, since entering the blogging world, I have changed my mind so much about email. Some of the main free education I received was through free email courses other bloggers provided! These courses were free, packed with value, and kept me engaged for the number of days of the course.
If you send out emails with important stories that teach lessons, mistakes you’ve maid, or truly valuable pieces of content your readers need, you will be successful with starting an email list. Understand that your readers are trusting you with their time and their email, so try to make your content fun and filled with action packed steps that can help your target audience.
Okay, okay, okay, I get it. I need an email list, but, how do I start one?
When you’re setting up an email list as a new blogger, usually money is pretty tight. There are so many expenses that add up like hosting, theme, paid books and e-courses, equipment, etc, that the last thing you need is to add another.
Lucky for all us broke beginner bloggers, there are 2 popular services you can use. Mail Chimp and Mailerlite, I personally use Mailerlite because I found it more reliable. There is a paid email marketing service called ConvertKit that I’ve heard is amazing, but right now its just not in the budget. I’ll keep you all updated!
You simply apply on their website, or click here to be led to their homepage and sign up your website. They will take at least 24 hours to approve your site. Make sure it is actually launched and can be viewed so they can make sure you’re not a spam site.
Mailerlite is incredibly easy to use. You can customize the colors, choose whether to design lead pages, popups, or imbedded email subscribe areas. You can choose what kind of campaigns you want to create for your freebies and they will be split into different groups, depending on what offer a person subscribes for. It is a super efficient system and is free to use up until 1,000 subscribers.
I also recommend you install the plugin Sumo Me for your blog. You can also create popups there, and add share buttons to your blog!
How can I grow my email list?
So, now that I’ve preached to you about why emails are important and how to sign up for a service, and so now we’re gonna go over some things you can do to grow your email list.
- Create an optin or a freebie that offers value to your audience like a mini ebook or printable checklist
- Host an email course! These are great for engagement!
- Participate in Facebook groups
- Run polls on social media to see what your audience is looking for as far as content upgrades
- Send emails consistently, but not too often. Once a week is a good balance, or even every other week
That’s all my tips on why you should have an email list for your blog and the true power they can hold if you nurture them well, I hope these tips can help you like they helped me!
I appreciate this post . This is extremely informational and I’m glad you shared this . I heard that emails are great for building up your blog , but I didn’t think people actually use it anymore either. But now that I think about it, it makes sense.