Let’s be honest… when you start a blog there’s SOOOO many things to think about:
Writing, posting, making good graphics, tweeting/pinning/sharing on various social media, make connections and much more!
With all these things going on is easy to skip what is less important. I’ve made a mistake when I started my blog. I said “why should I ever need an email list?” and ditch it for a couple of months. Until I figure out why I need to build an email list for the blog.. and should have started from day one.
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Why you need to build an email list for your blog
I still remember that I was excusing myself with “who is going to sign up that I still haven’t got much content?”.
Well, the truth is that when I finally started the email list people were actually SIGN IN to it! And the more I was posting good and helpful content, the more the email list was growing.
So here, I figured out why you need an email list for your blog and you should start it as soon as day one.
1. Emails are personal
On social media we are used to share, follow, follow back and all this sort of things to interact with others. But how many of those people in your follower list have YOUR EMAIL address?
Probably a couple.. just the close friends.
So, if someone is happy to leave their email address to receive updates, freebies or whatever you are offering, it means that they trust you.
They trust you enough to let you send an email to their inbox (which is probably more likely to see it than the thousands of notifications on social media).
So, don’t miss the opportunity!
2. Emails go straight in the inbox
As a blogger you probably know the importance of promoting your blog posts across social media.
And behind your scheduling routing there’s probably a strategy or at least some research to see which is the best group board or hashtags to use.
But chances that people will find your post amongst all others (for example in a Twitter thread) are low.
Instead, if you send regular emails to your readers to announce a new blog post, for example, you’ll be sure it goes straight to their inbox and won’t get lost.
And because they’ll see your email in their inbox, it leads to the following step…
3. Emails will help you boost traffic
How many times you’ve written great content but just got a couple of views?
How frustrating is to promote a post on all social media but people just don’t click on it…
With email you don’t have this prove. If emails goes directly to your readers’ inbox, they’ll be more likely to open it that people seeing your post “randomly” on social media.
Earlier I said that they trust you so they trust you content, too! You’ve already established a connection with them so you don’t need to “finding them out” as you on social media.
4. Emails will help you boost sales
Thinking of launching a product, a service or promoting your affiliate links?
Then you need an email list to help you boost sales!
The reason is, because you’ve established a connection with your readers and they trust you, they’ll be more likely to buy what you’re offering.
Trust takes time to build, that’s why you need to start the email list from day one. So by the time your product/service will be ready, also your readers’ trust will spike.
Ready to start your email list?
After I realised these things I wish I started a email list from day one and not wasting time and wait “everything to be perfect”.
In long-term, and if you’re thinking of make a living out of blogging is something you have to consider, you know it will pay off starting as soon as possible.
Also if your product/service is not ready or you just post once/twice a week, I highly recommend you to start now. When it will be the time, things will be ready!
So, to start an email list, that something you can set up on your own, we need an email service provider.
Why I cannot use my gmail account?
Well, first of all.. If you want people to trust you enough to buy what you’re offering you need to look professional. Would you buy something from someone with a @gmail.com as email address?
Secondly, you want to automate as much as possible the process so you can focus on other tasks. Would you rather spend time sending emails to each of your readers or would you prefer creating new content for your blog?
Set up an account with Constant Contact
If you are ready to start and build your email list, you can use Constant Contact as email provider.
Why I cannot use other providers?
Well, of course you’re free to use other providers. But I’m going to show you few reasons why Constant Contact is better than others and offer even more that others haven’t got:
- They offer 60-day FREE trial. This mean that you can try the service for 60 days, free of charge, and donโt even have to enter a credit card number to get started! This gives you the time to build an email list that, by the time the trial ends, it will repay for the price. (ConvertKit offers only 1 month, instead).
- They’ve got easy drag and drop templates. Have you ever tried to build an email with MailChimp? If you choose the wrong template, you have to go back, start again, choose a different one and continue with the email. Not very user-friendly. You want something that let you create an email as YOU want to, tailored to your needs.
- It’s cheaper than other providers. Monthly price of Constant Contact starts from just $17/month against $24/month of ConvertKit. So you’ll save $84 a year that you can invest in something else for you blog.
- They offer up to 15% discount if you get a 6 or 12 months plan. Also other providers offer a cheaper price if you commit to a 12 months plan, but with Constant Contact you still end up paying less than ConvertKit, for example.
These are just a few benefits of using Constant Contact as email provider. So, if you are ready to see the real and full potential, click here to get started today!
>> Sign-up now to to get your 60-day free trial – no credit card required <<
In conclusion
If you haven’t started an email list yet, with all these information now is the right time to do so ๐
Not convinced to start an email list yet? Comment down below to let me know why you think you’re not ready.
This is a great post – really helpful advice. Thank you for sharing it!
Glad it helped ๐ Thanks for stopping by!
This is a great post. I havenโt thought much of an email list outside of my blog subscribers! Thank you for sharing!
I know! When you start a blog there are so many things to think about that a email list is last. But it worth having it on point from the beginning!
Isa
Hi Isa, I absolutely agree that an email list is important from day one. I have had people sign up and be part of my list. It is challenging to build the list but it is definitely an important thing to do. I am with Constant Contact right now and I have really felt that they are very helpful. Thank you for your post. Raheela
Yeah, is very important from to start from day 1 of the blog ๐ Wohoo, happy to see other people withConstant Contact.. they are the best!
Isa
Itโs so funny how when I first started blogging I had the same exact thought, โwhy start an email list when I barely had anything up?โ and oh boy was I wrong!
I recently set up an email list and readers keep subscribing to it which is cool, it makes me feel like they really genuinely like my content!
xo a | http://www.alexandraquinlann.com
I know, there are so many things to think about when you start a blog that an email list is definitely the last one!
I must be in the minority here but I really, really love Mailchimp – and I’ve never had an issue with customizing or changing up elements of a template as i’m drafting an email.
Constant Contact was too finicky for me to work with, I guess I just prefer a more streamlined approach! ๐
That’s good to hear… is important that you find what it works best for you and your blog ๐