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Why Email Marketing?
You may have asked yourself why email marketing.
For starters it reminds visitors/subscribers of who you are and builds your brand’s awareness. It also increases lead generation and sales…and who wouldn’t want that, right?
And you’re building a loyal community of people who are interested in you and what you have to say.
How To Build Your Email List
Now that your email marketing campaign is ready to go, it’s time to start building your email list. Here are some things you can do to help grow your list.
In addition to having a subscription form on your blog, add a sign-up form on your Facebook page and share your newsletter on social media at least once a month to give readers a peek and to encourage new sign-ups.
Include call to action (CTA) statement at the end of a blog post and a subscription box so visitors can easily subscribe.
Make it easy for visitors to find your subscription box by adding widget on your blog’s sidebar or footer.
Create a pop-up subscription box to encourage people to join your mailing list but avoid continuous pop-ups – that could drive a visitor away.
Since some folks check email on their smartphones, make sure your newsletter is mobile responsive.
Install plugins such as the Hello Bar to attract new sign-ups.
Chatbots are a huge trend right now and can help grow your mailing list. I’ve been looking for one myself and found a plugin called collect.chat. This interactive chatbot was designed to collect more data from your visitors, more feedback, orders, registrations, leads and more.
Their free version has great features but you can upgrade for as little as $19 a month for extra features like logical jump that lets you create a flow of questions/suggestions based on a user’s response.
A/B Split Testing
When you launch an email campaign, it’s important to check your stats for open rate and click rate. And if you’re not getting the stats you desire, a/b testing will help you determine if making small tweaks to things like the subject line or what time of the day your email is sent will have a better impact on your click/open rate.
Email Marketing No-No’s
There are also some email marketing no-no’s you should be aware of:
The biggest no-no is, do not spam. Always make sure you have your subscriber’s permission to email them.
Do not purchase email lists. It’s highly unlikely they aren’t legitimate opt-ins.
Avoid too many sales pitches. Make sure you’re providing helpful tools and resources to your subscribers.
Do not use a “no reply” email address. You want subscribers to engage with you.
Don’t overdo your email with banner ads. Just like your blog, if you have too many ads splashed around, you risk losing subscribers.
Over to You
I hope this post gave you some helpful tips to start building your list. If you haven’t decided on an email marketing service provider, you can try ConvertKit* for free. This platform was designed specifically for online creators like you!
Now let’s get the conversation going! If you’ve had a mailing list for a while now, what are some of the challenges you faced and what has worked for you? Which email marketing platform are you using?
And if you haven’t started your email list, what is holding you back from getting it going? Tell me all about it in the comments section below.
If you need help setting up your mailing list, I’d be happy to assist. Contact me so we can schedule a time to chat.
Before you go,please share this post on social media so that other bloggers new to email marketing can get a load of these tips. Thanks!