Boy, was I wrong!
Now confession time, I’ve been a little lax of late when it comes to managing my list but despite that, I will see the value in having one for your blog.
(This post includes affiliate links. Should you click an affiliate link and make a purchase I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you.)
Why you need an email list
There are multiple reasons you should build a mailing list for your blog. All of which are beneficial to your blog’s growth.
- It’s a great way to grow your readership and ultimately drive consistent traffic to your blog
- You have control over when your emails are sent, the content that is in them, and who receives them
- It’s a great way to be more personal and engage with your readers and followers.
- If you sell a product or service it’s easier to get your subscribers to convert because they have a relationship with you.
How to get your email list started
Now that I’ve convinced you to start building an email list, I’m going to share with you how you can start one.First, you need to figure out what email service you want to use. There are many out there with the main ones that bloggers gravitate to being ConvertKit, MailerLite, and MailChimp.
In this article, though we’re going to focus on getting an email list started with MailerLite since that’s the email marketing service I use.
I dabbled with MailChimp in the past and didn’t like it and while ConvertKit is the dream, I chose MailerLite because of the multiple features I’m able to get under their free plan. I have yet to find another email service that can rival MailerLite on free features which is key for me right now since the earnings from my blog are still very small.
With MailerLite’s free plan
As I mentioned all of these features come with the free plan. The key difference between the free and paid plans is the number of subscribers. So if you find you’ve outgrown the free plan, paid plans start at $10/mo. So it's extremely affordable for the features you have access to.
- I can have up to 1,000 subscribers on my list with the free plan.
- I have access to free mobile-friendly email templates.
- I can set up multiple subscriber lists and send different emails to each one. I can create automation workflows for each subscriber list so that I can send them specific emails depending on the actions they do or don’t take.
- Reporting is provided on each email campaign so I can see what’s working and what’s not.
- I can create different types of subscription forms
- I can do subject line testing
As I mentioned all of these features come with the free plan. The key difference between the free and paid plans is the number of subscribers. So if you find you’ve outgrown the free plan, paid plans start at $10/mo. So it's extremely affordable for the features you have access to.
How to get set up with MailerLite
1. Create an account
You'll need to provide your company name, email address, and password. If you liked to create an account now, you can use my affiliate link.
After setting up your account you’ll need to verify it.
You’ll also need to verify the domain for your blog and provide a custom or domain email.
In order to send any emails with MailerLite, you’ll need a customized email instead of a Gmail or Yahoo email account. This is basically to help keep your emails being blocked by your subscribers' email providers.
You can create as many Groups as you like to help you segment your subscribers. Or you can have one big group. It just depends on how you plan to communicate with your list.
I have two different Groups based on the type of communication that I send out. One group is for automatic emails for when a new post goes live. The other is for a monthly newsletter that I send out with a recap of my monthly content, behind-the-scenes info, and other things that I want to share with my subscribers.
After setting up your account you’ll need to verify it.
2. Get your account approved
Complete your profile telling MailerLite about your business or blogYou’ll also need to verify the domain for your blog and provide a custom or domain email.
In order to send any emails with MailerLite, you’ll need a customized email instead of a Gmail or Yahoo email account. This is basically to help keep your emails being blocked by your subscribers' email providers.
3. Start building your list
Once your account is approved by MailerLite it’s time to start building your list. There are a few features you'll need to use to do this.Set up your Groups
This is essentially your email list - the group of people who have opted to receive emails from you.You can create as many Groups as you like to help you segment your subscribers. Or you can have one big group. It just depends on how you plan to communicate with your list.
I have two different Groups based on the type of communication that I send out. One group is for automatic emails for when a new post goes live. The other is for a monthly newsletter that I send out with a recap of my monthly content, behind-the-scenes info, and other things that I want to share with my subscribers.
Design sign up forms
There are three form types available in MailerLite- Popups: I haven’t tried this type of form because I’m not a fan of pop-ups on the sites I frequent. So I couldn’t bring myself to do that to my readers.
- Embedded forms: This is the type of form I use the most because I can place it anywhere on my blog. I have a form that shows up on my homepage and another one in my sidebar. You can see one of them below.
- Promotions: These don't have a subscription field and are to be used to deliver important and timely messages to your site visitors. These seem more like pop-up ads than anything else. I don't use them.
When designing your forms try and use your brand colors and fonts so that they integrate well into your blog. Also, make sure your forms are GDPR compliant. You can find out more about what this means on the MailerLite blog.
To add forms to your blog you can use plugins or manually add the code to each place you want your form to show up.
If you’re sharing on your social channels you can use a link to the form instead of the code.
To add forms to your blog you can use plugins or manually add the code to each place you want your form to show up.
If you’re sharing on your social channels you can use a link to the form instead of the code.
4. Setup automation
Once you’ve captured subscribers you’ll want to welcome them to your list and give them more details on what they can expect from you and what help or information you’ll be providing in your newsletter.
MailerLite makes it easy to create an automated workflow.
MailerLite makes it easy to create an automated workflow.
- You’ll need to create and name your workflow
- Next, select a trigger. This is the action that needs to happen for the workflow to start. MailerLite provides lots of options such as joining a subscriber list, opening an email, clicking a link.
- In addition to selecting the trigger, you can determine how quickly after that trigger happens the email is sent.
- After setting the initial trigger it’s time to create that first email.
- From there you can continue to build out the workflow with additional triggers and emails.
5. Create your newsletter
To begin designing and writing your newsletter emails go to the Campaign section. There you’ll find these four options- Regular campaign: A regular email newsletter.
- A/B Split campaign: This option lets you test two different emails to see which one performs better. Elements that you can test in your emails are different subject lines, sender details, email content, or email design.
- RSS campaign: An email that’s sent out every time you publish a new article on your blog.
- Auto Resend: This automatically sends your email again to subscribers who didn’t perform the action you wanted them to take such as opening the email or clicking a specific link. You have the option of changing the email content or subject line of the resent email. This is only available for paid plans, not the free plan that I use.
Once you’ve selected your Campaign type you’ll need to build your email. You create your own email using the HTML editor, Drag & drop editor, Rich text editor. Those with a paid plan have access to the MailerLite newsletter templates.
I prefer using the drag & drop editor because it’s easy to use and I can more easily customize my email with my own brand colors and images.
If you’d like to give MailerLite a try you can sign up here. Once you’ve signed up, come back and share in the comments below your MailerLite experience.
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