An email list is a powerful way to build your blog and your creative business. As a friend told me recently, "My list is golden." With so many social media options, it might seem that email is old school. But think about it: from the early days of home access to the internet to the present moment, email is the one channel that is still alive and well. Here’s why email endures, and why an email list is one of your most powerful tools as a creative business owner.
First, everyone has an email address. My 12-year-old neighbor has one, and my 86-year-old father-in-law does, too. Most people check their email first thing in the morning and then several times throughout the day, especially if they have a smartphone. People have varying levels of familiarity and engagement with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and RSS, but nothing is as familiar, universal, and immediate as email.
And second, email is private. When you check your email you’re opening your personal inbox. If you respond to an email, nobody sees your response but the recipient. Email is direct. It’s not inter-mediated by a third party that’s determining what you see and what you don’t. And email is under your control. To subscribe to a list, you have to double opt-in (fill out a sign up form, and then confirm) and you can unsubscribe at any time.
The power and reach of email are enough that you should be taking it seriously. It’s not too late to start building an email list. I started mine a year ago, after I’d already been blogging for seven years. It’s too complex to manage the list yourself. Instead, use a service. I recommend MailChimp (that’s what I use) or MadMimi (which I’ve heard is also great). Tiny Letter is affiliate with MailChimp and is pared down to make newsletter writing even simpler.
How Do you Get People to Join?
Remember that you want your list to grow organically so that the people who sign up really want to read your newsletter. That being said, there are some concrete steps you can take to increase their awareness that you have a newsletter you’re your visitors might enjoy.
1. Put the opt-in form in a prominent place on your blog. Up high, near your profile photo, might be a good spot.
2. Ask people to sign up.
- Put a link to the sign-up form in your email signature.
- Email your customers after they make a purchase and invite them to sign up. -If you guest post on a bigger blog, include a link to your sign-up form in your bio.
- If you post a free pattern or tutorial on your blog, ask readers to sign-up for your newsletter at the end of the post. This is especially useful if your free tutorial gets picked up by an aggregator site or goes wild on Pinterest.
- Put your free pattern up on Craftsy. When someone downloads it there, you get access to their email address. Email them, inviting them to sign up for your newsletter!
- If you’ve been blogging for a while you’ve probably got some old posts that are evergreen. Go back and edit them, adding a newsletter sign up form at the bottom.
When you ask, be direct! Instead of saying, “Why not sign up for my newsletter?” say “Enter your email and get started today.” Authority makes us feel secure in our decision to hand over our email addresses.
3. Succinctly describe the benefits of receiving your newsletter.
- Consider showing a testimonial near the sign up form, and perhaps a preview of what to expect from the newsletter on the opt-in page.
- If you’ve already got a large list, provide subscriber numbers (join the 2,000 people who’ve already signed up!).
- Describe your newsletter subscribers as a community. Everyone wants to be members of a special group.
4. Offer an incentive. Once you’re using the paid version of MailChimp you can set up an autoresponder that will give new subscribers something for free immediately, like an ebook, a pattern, or a coupon.
Now, email your list!
A list gets stale after a while if you ignore it so don’t be afraid! Several times a month send out a friendly, well-edited email. You might want to develop a schedule so that people know when to expect your email. Colette Snippets, one of my favorite newsletters, comes out every Monday morning at 8:30 am. I look forward to it!
An email newsletter is a huge opportunity and equally weighty responsibility. What will you do once you’ve got all these email addresses? If you’re not sure what to include, go subscribe to the email lists of five bloggers you admire and see what appeals to you in their newsletters. Jot down some ideas and then experiment.
I think a good way to think about a newsletter is as an exchange of ideas. Write as if you’re talking to a friend you haven’t seen in a few weeks. Give them something interesting to think about. Invite them to join you in your creative explorations. It’s okay to experiment! This week for the first time I asked my readers to hit “reply” and tell me about what they’re working on right now. That was a big success! I heard from tons of people and had some great exchanges.
Try new ideas and see how it goes. And like anything in business, it helps to have a thick skin. Every single time you send out an email a certain number of people will unsubscribe. Don’t worry! Keep working to build your list. The people who open, read, and respond to your newsletter are your devoted fans and they are truly golden.
Thanks for the reminders! I’ve been meaning to add subscribe buttons to my popular posts. Just added it to my email signature!
One thing that kind of stinks about email newsletters is the new(isn) tab that gmail has now. It directs “promotions” into a separate folder so often subscribers that use gmail might never see them unless they check the tab. 🙁 There’s been a lot of talk about it online. I can definitely see it in my open-rate numbers since the new tab went into effect. And you can’t really tell people to look there if they can’t read your newsletter telling them to do so!
Thanks for the post! I love the email signature idea- such an easy thing to do that will get seen all the time!
I do my email list through MailChimp as well and just set up a Birthday Club using their autoresponders. It automatically sends a ‘birthday surprise’ (aka- a coupon for my shop) to list members a week before their birthday. My list has grown a ton already and I’m hoping to see continued growth for a while yet. (I tried to make the coupon good enough that it’s worth bragging about. Hopefully when list members get it they’ll be excited enough to share my list with their sewing friends.)
Setting it up was much easier than I expected. Here’s the tutorial I followed in case you want to check it out- http://blog.mailchimp.com/using-autoresponders-for-birthday-messages/
This is just genius and timely. I was just wondering how to increase my list, make access more appealing. Thanks.
Thank you for this. I know it will come really handy, hopefully soon 🙂
I am currently looking at trying to increase the number of subscribers on my list. I do like the thought of contacting people that have downloaded my free patterns on Craftsy, but here in the UK there are data protection laws that prohibit us from contacting people/customers unless they have said that it is ok to contact them (through an opt in/out). I wonder whether this may be classed as unsolicited mail in the UK? I also don’t know whether the law applies when people have ‘purchased’ through an overseas website and live overseas…..
I honestly don’t know either, Victoria.
I think this is so brilliant. Thank you!
I hate that tabs thing in gmail, so I actually turned it off in my settings. I’m pretty sure your regular readers will figure out sooner or later (hopefully sooner) to check that tab, and some of them may also realise how annoying they are and turn the tabs off like I did. Have you considered doing a short blog post about it? Just sortof a shout-out to your mailing list readers, letting them know? I realise it might only affect a portion of your readers, but as long as it was fairly succinct, I can’t see your other readers minding. You know? Could even do a mini tute on turning the tabs off, if you were so inclined, or link to an existing one, in case anyone is thinking “Man, I hate those things, can’t I just get rid of them?”
I love my newsletter subscribers and I do everything I can to let them know how special they are. When I’ve been out of stock on something in my shop, they’re the first to know when I get it back in. And when I have a sale I do a special Early Bird Day for subscribers only. Since I sometimes sell out of certain supplies on the first day of a sale this is a very big advantage. And I have a new free pattern every month that’s only available to newsletter subscribers. I like doing special things for my subscribers. 🙂
This is a great tip, and speaks to the specialness of belonging to a club or exclusive group. I love your newsletter, Wendi, and it does feel special to have access to the free patterns and insider information that you share just with subscribers.
I’m not sure about getting emails from Craftsy either, I have a free pattern on there with way more people downloading it than on my mailing list, but I checked the T&Cs and it says “you agree you will not…. (vi) harvest or collect email addresses or other contact information of other Users from the Portal by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications; ” – I wonder why they bother showing the emails?
Hmmmm…Thanks for pointing that out. I certainly don’t intend to encourage anyone to violate Craftsy’s terms of use. So tread with caution! And perhaps they should hide those emails.