If you haven’t set up a newsletter for your site then you need to read this. A newsletter should be your blog treasure, Facebook and Pinterest can change their algorithms and stop sending any traffic to your blog. You own your email list and those subscribers will be your most loyal readers, because they are allowing you into their inbox.
If you’d like to start growing your email list, a great way to do so is to provide an incentive for those who join up for your email newsletter. To deliver a freebie to your readers, the best way is to use a newsletter service like MailChimp or Mad Mimi.
With a substantial email list, you can use it to promote your blog posts, eblasts and any other sales/freebies from your affiliate.
If you’d like your readers to receive an email each time you post on your blog, you will need to set up an RSS feed campaign. You will need to enter your feed address from either Feedburner or http://www.yourdomain.com/feed if you’re on self-hosted WordPress as your feed address so that your readers will get your new posts.
If you’d like to manually create your newsletter each week so that you can send them a summary of your posts for the week as well as other tips, sales, freebies or giveaways then you will need to go in a create a new campaign each time.
Both services allow your to design a color scheme and save it so that you can use it for each newsletter. I suggest going with the color scheme of your blog to keep your branding consistent.
One of the best ways to grow your email list is to offer an incentive for those who sign up for your newsletter. That can be a mini ebook, printable or list of tips or recipes, depending on your blog audience. It doesn’t have to be a huge freebie, but get something out there for your subscribers.
Once you have something to offer your readers, you can use one of the email services to deliver your freebie to them. They can be redirected to a page on your blog that has your freebie available for download. This page can be password protected to ensure it is not found. If you’re on the Pro plans, this allows you to use the auto responder option, and you can send them an email with your freebie included.
I also list my current freebie at the bottom of my newsletter just to make sure everyone has access to it if they’ve forgotten about it.
MailChimp
On their free plan, you’re allowed 2000 subscribers on your contact list, with 12,000 emails per month. This would influence the type of campaign you would set up based on the size of your list. If you have a larger list and do daily email updates, then you’ll run out of emails by the end of the month. This would be a great time to switch to a weekly or biweekly newsletter.
There are many options to design your newsletter template with the ability to add code and even a small sidebar area for your promotions. The stats are right there front and center as soon as you login so that you can check your open rates and click through rates as well.
Monthly Pro Plan includes unlimited number of emails per month
Based on the number of subscribers
- up to 500 – $10/mth
- up to 1,000 – $15/mth
- up to 10,000 – $75/mth
- up to 25,000 – $150/mth
Pros:
- More design and layout options
- Integrates more easily with other plugins
- Free plan includes 2000 subscribers
Cons:
- Bigger learning curve
- Price once you get to the point of a paid subscription
Mad Mimi
I have tried both services for my personal blogs but I have opted for Mad Mimi because of price and they have wonderful customer service, you can quickly speak to somebody on their live chat. I figured I didn’t want to have to deal with the hassle of moving my subscribers over from another platform. although it seems to be a painless process of downloading your list of subscribers via a csv file.
Monthly Pro Plan includes unlimited number of emails per month
Based on the number of subscribers
- up to 500 – $10/mth
- up to 1,000 – $12/mth
- up to 10,000 – $42/mth
- up to 25,000 – $89/mth
Pros:
- Easy to use and set up
- Great customer service
Cons:
- Only allows 100 subscribers on their free plan
- Less design options
- Free plan includes only 100 subscribers
Be sure to sign up for your own newsletter to ensure that they are being sent out correctly and so that you can view your newsletter on your phone/tablet as well as your computer. This will give you an idea on what you need to tweak in terms of design for your next newletter.
Go ahead and create an account with both companies to see which one you like best and start growing your email list.
