Now that you know why an email list is so important and the simple strategy behind growing it, let’s talk about email list tech. Here’s what you need to get started:
- An email service provider
- A way to add an opt-in form to your blog
- An automated welcome series
Email Service Providers
There are SO MANY choices when it comes to email service providers, so the caveat here is that you really can’t make a wrong choice. Pick the one you will actually use – because the ultimate goal here is to take action, not get bogged down in picking the right or wrong tool. They will all work.
That being said, I have a couple of recommendations.
If you’re just starting to blog, you have just ONE email opt-in freebie and you don’t have a super-clear vision of how you’re going to monetize just yet, but you want to start building an audience right away, I recommend MailChimp.
It’s free up to 2,000 subscribers, It’s going to work with just about any blog platform, and it lets you send an automated welcome email upon subscribing. Mailchimp will grow with you, although you may find someday you need to move to a more sophisticated platform. No big deal, you can export your list and move on up!
If you want detailed instruction on how to set up MailChimp on your blog, sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.wp-bff.com – I cover MailChimp setup on Day 3 (and if you use self-hosted WordPress you’ll learn a lot about your blog too!)
If you have multiple email opt-in freebies or content upgrades, or you know that you’ll want to monetize your expertise via an online course in the future, I recommend starting with ConvertKit.
Pricing starts at $29/month, and it easily lets you create and deliver multiple freebies and integrates with some of my favorite online course platforms.
Sending multiple freebies has historically been harder to do with MailChimp because until recently, you used to need a separate mailing list for each freebie (which means if the same person opted in to 10 freebies, they’d be on your list 10 times) – but recently MailChimp released a tagging option which might allow you to have the person on your list once but with a tag for each freebie. I say “might” because at the time of writing this blog post I haven’t had a chance to research it!
Adding an Opt-In Form to Your Blog
There are many choices here too – and they’ll be different depending on your blog platform.
If you’re using self-hosted WordPress, I recommend a plugin called Bloom to create a sleek opt-in form above the fold on your homepage (and I show how to set that up in the 5 Day Website Challenge).
There are also tools like SumoMe and Hellobar that let you create popups and opt-in bars.
MailChimp and ConvertKit also have their own forms that you can embed on your blog.
If you’re on Squarespace or WordPress.com you can pretty easily add an opt-in form to your site and connect your email service provider to it.
No matter what you choose, the most important things to note are:
- Make sure the opt-in form is on your homepage, above the fold. That means it’s showing up on the screen without having to scroll.
- Make sure it’s on every single page, whether it’s a slim opt-in bar across the top of your site or a popup or in your blog sidebar.
- Mention it as much as possible in your blog posts and add opt-in forms where appropriate.
If you hide your opt-in form away, it’s really hard to build an email list. And if your freebie is really good, you’ll want to broadcast it all over your blog!
Automated Welcome Series
So here’s how this works:
Your reader opts in for your awesome shareworthy freebie.
Right after they opt in, they are redirected to a Thank You page that tells them to go check their email for their freebie and lets them know where the best place to follow you on social media is, or tells them about your podcast, whatever.
Bonus Tip – set up a Goal in Google Analytics to track conversions (How many people visited the page vs. how many opted in and got sent to this Thank You page. The goal URL is this Thank You Page.
Then, in the very first email you send them, you deliver the freebie – and you ask them to hit reply and asked them what compelled them to download your freebie.
The following day, you send another email that shares a little bit about you plus links to any other resources or blog posts they might find useful. You’re delivering more value.
And then the next day, you can invite them to purchase your e-book on the topic, or invite them to your webinar or anything else you’re doing – and if you’re not doing anything yet, that’s okay, just let them know what to expect from you. Will you be sending them a weekly email? Going live in your FB group daily? Whatever it is, let them know how you plan to continue to deliver value to them.
This builds trust and builds a relationship so that when you do have something to offer in exchange for money, it’s not icky to ask.
So to recap, your email list is crucial to monetizing your blog. You can set yourself apart from every other blogger out there and leverage all the traffic you’re working so hard to generate by creating a shareworthy freebie to build your list, and you’ll build the know, like and trust factor by focusing on building a relationship with your new subscribing and then showing up consistently in their inbox!
If you want to learn the tech behind setting up your email list, then I invite you to sign up for the Free 5 Day Website Challenge (www.wp-bff.com) and on Day 3 I’ll break it all down for you. You can also watch my free webinar, “So you have a website, now what? Three simple steps you can take today to get more traffic, more subscribers and more customers” (www.wp-bff.com/nowwhat) to learn more about email marketing!
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
