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A Beginner’s Guide to Email Lists

{This post is sponsored by Constant Contact and contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own. Read our disclosure policy here.}

We talk about email lists quite often on this site — the importance of having an email newsletter, how to make it successful, and the secrets to growing your list.

But if you’re brand new to blogging, all of this talk might be a little overwhelming. Maybe you don’t even really understand the basics of how an email list works, who to send it to, or what to include in it.

With that in mind, I created a simple Beginner’s Guide to Email Lists for you:

4 Things You Should Do If You Want to Have a Successful Email Newsletter

Email Marketing 6 Comments

So you’ve decided to stop making excuses and and start sending an email newsletter. Now what?

If you’re going to prioritize sending an email newsletter on a regular basis, you’ll want to make sure it’s successful so that it’s worth the time and energy you invest in it!

All kinds of online experts will have varying ideas on what goes into creating a successful newsletter, but I like to keep things simple. I believe there are a few key ingredients that go into a successful email newsletter, and that if you stick to these guidelines, you’ll reap huge benefits over time!

4 Reasons You Should Stop Making Excuses & Start Sending an Email Newsletter

Email Marketing 7 Comments

Think you don’t really need an email newsletter as a blogger? I was right there with you for a long time. An email newsletter just felt like one more thing in a very long line of must-do’s on my blogging task list.

I didn’t see the importance of sending out an email newsletter and my excuse was kind of lame: It would take time and I wanted to spend that time writing blog posts and focusing on building my Facebook engagement (which was at an all time high then).

That plan worked really well… until Facebook changed their algorithms and stopped showing my posts to hundreds of thousands of people.

Guess what that meant? Since I hadn’t taken the time to focus on building an email newsletter, I had no way to contact all of those people and connect with them outside of social media.

Want to grow your email list? I want to help you!

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Bloggers and online entrepreneurs, there’s no denying it: You need an email list to if you want to run a successful business.

I’m sure you know that.

Actually, I’m pretty positive you are aware of this because so many of you keep writing in and asking me how to actually grow your email list.

I won’t pretend that you can flip a switch and add 50,000 people to your list tomorrow. But I do have some proven strategies that will produce real results — if you’re willing to put in the work and stick with it.

And that’s what my brand-new course is all about!Continue Reading

The 3 Most Important Things to Look For in an Email Service Provider

Email Marketing 1 Comment

This post contains affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.

With the launch of our newest course, Email List Setup 101, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to get an email list set up — more specifically, how to choose a great email service provider.

As a new blogger, setting up an email list is one of the most important things you can do to boost your blog’s likelihood of success for the longterm. But what exactly should one look for in an email service provider?

If you’re looking to get your email list started the right way from the start, here are some important things to look for when choosing an email service provider:Continue Reading

5 Secrets to Growing a Rock Star Email List

Email Marketing 29 Comments

I’m asked all the time how to effectively grow an email list. Here’s the honest truth: I didn’t do this right for the first eight years of my business. In fact, I really didn’t even see the need to work on building an email list. I know, can you believe it?

As the internet has evolved and changed, I’ve realized that social media is constantly changing. What works with blogging is constantly changing. But people still check their email inboxes — and most people check their email inboxes multiple times per day.

This is why email newsletters are so important. They give you direct access to people who are interested in your products and your business and they give you one of the most effective ways to build and nurture relationships with people.Continue Reading

My 4-Step System to Achieve Inbox Zero Every Day

Blogging Tips • Email Marketing 26 Comments

Overwhelmed by and overflowing email inbox? Here’s my 4-step system to achieve Inbox Zero almost every single day:

1. Unsubscribe Ruthlessly

I regularly examine every single email list I am subscribed to. I ask myself, “Have I found something from this email list to be valuable in the past few months?”

If I realize that I am deleting most of the emails that come into my inbox from a particular list, I unsubscribe. My philosophy: Why waste a few seconds deleting emails that aren’t valuable to me when I could take 5 seconds to unsubscribe and never see an email from that company in my inbox again?

The act of ruthlessly unsubscribing from email lists could save you a good five to 10 minutes of time every single day — or more! That doesn’t seem like too much, until you multiply that out over the course of a week (35 to 70 minutes), a month (150 to 30 minutes), or a year (1,825 to 3,650 minutes). That’s a lot of minutes saved!

Stop the Social Media Insanity!

Please do yourself a favor and unsubscribe from all notifications you possibly can from social media. You can always go look up and see who your new Twitter followers are or who left you a comment on Facebook. You don’t need those notifications interrupting your workflow throughout the day. I promise you will survive just fine without them! 😉

2. Use the Delete Button Liberally

The delete button is your friend. Use it as your secret productivity weapon. If you don’t need an email, just delete it. Right now. There’s no need to leave it sitting in your inbox. Just get rid of it and free up precious space in your inbox.

If you think you might need some of the information on it in the future, then just use the handy-dandy feature on Gmail called “Archive”. This means, it’s deleted from your inbox, but it’s saved in your archives. So if you ever need it in the future, you can search for it and find it.

(You are on Gmail, right? I am convinced is the best productivity email service on the planet! Yes, I may be biased!)

For those of you who currently have 35,000 emails in your inbox, the delete button needs to become your very best friend. Today. To save yourself the extra time and effort, you can also check out Unroll.me.

Save Yourself a Little Time With Send & Archive

Have you added the Google Send & Archive option to your email? This saves you the step of having to send an email and then delete it. Just press Send & Archive and your email is sent and archived. Ta-da!

3. Set Up Filters Fanatically

Maybe you can’t unsubscribe from an email, but you can always filter it — provided you have Gmail. I use filters for affiliate notifications that I can’t turn off, junk email that I can’t subscribe from, and more. (Not sure how to use filters? Here’s how to set up filters in Gmail.)

I also have filters set up for submissions to my site. So if you submit a deal or a guest post, those go in a separate folder that I check when I’m posting deals or reviewing guest posts. This keeps them in an organized place that I can easily access, without taking up real estate in my inbox.

4. Deal With Email Immediately

I saved this suggestion for last, because this is truly what makes such a difference for my inbox. As much as is possible, I try to answer the emails as soon as I read them — especially if I can do it in less than a minute (which are most emails for me).

Usually, there are a few emails that will require longer answers or that I will need to do some research or put some thought into answering. In that case, I’ll file those few to answer later when I have a longer time-slot to deal with them.

I have two folders I use for filing email — one for emails that need to be answered in the next day, one for emails that require a longer answer or more time but don’t need to be answered right away. I have a time slot every day when I deal with the first folder and then a time slot on the weekends (or Friday) when I deal with the second folder.

How I Process Emails Every Day

A. Check Email

B. Immediately Delete Any Emails That Don’t Require Opening or Answering (such as someone just responding with a one-sentence confirmation)

C. Unsubscribe From Any Subscription That Has Still Made It Into My Inbox (that I don’t want to be receiving!)

D. Open and Deal With All Emails

Respond to those requiring only a few-sentence response first.

File emails that need to be filed and forward on any emails that need to be forwarded on (to others on my team, etc.)

If time, respond to as many emails as possible that require a lengthier response. Oftentimes, I find that it doesn’t take me at all as long as I think it will if I just dive in and start writing!

E. Never Allow There to Be Any More Than Four Emails In My Inbox <— This has been key for me. If there are more than four, it means that I highly prioritize email answering above other computer work.

What tips & tricks do you have for taming your email inbox?

3 Steps to Set up a Freebie Offer on Your Site

Email Marketing • WordPress Tutorials 12 Comments

Having trouble figuring out how to deliver your freebie to your subscribers? Recently, I received a question from one of my Your Blogging University™ students regarding delivering her freebie to her audience.

“I’m working on my first ‘freebie’ offer to help build my email list. Can you give advice for a clueless person on how to go from .pdf to linking that document with a web address? And does Mail Chimp help respond to those email sign ups with the freebie? I understand the important of the freebie, but I need help in setting it up and executing it. -Wendy”

This is a great question, Wendy! Here are three easy-to-implement strategies for delivering your freebie to your audience:

1. Upload it to your media library.

This is the easiest option. WordPress allows you to upload .pdf and .zip files the same way you upload images. Then, you need to click on the pdf file in your media library to get the URL for that file. From there, all you need to do is link it in the follow-up email in your subscription campaign in your email service provider or CRM system. (Recommended.)

Here are a couple of screenshots showing you how you can find your PDF URL after you upload it to your media library:

First, after your file has been uploaded, click on the file thumbnail to open the file details.

Once you’ve accessed the file details, you can copy the URL that has been assigned to the file:

2. Attach it to your follow-up emails in your email campaign.

Usually, email service providers give an option to attach a file directly to an email you’re sending out. So another option is that you can add the .pdf as an attachment to your follow-up email campaign that is delivered after your reader signs up for your freebie.

This may not be ideal, however, since it might cause your emails to be marked as spam. So if you try this and notice that people aren’t finding their emails in their inbox, you might want to switch up your delivery strategy.

3. Add it to your Thank You page.

Some people make their freebies into instant downloads by adding the freebie directly to their thank you page via a hyperlink. Another way is by making the freebie URL the actual thank you page that is linked to your signup form. I actually don’t recommend this because it runs the risk of having your readers sign up for the freebie but never confirming their email address.

Getting your subscribers to confirm is very important for your sender reputation. Having a lot of unconfirmed subscribers can signal email providers (Gmail, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) that there’s something wrong with the sender and they may prevent your emails from reaching your subscribers by marking them as spam or by dropping them and never delivering them.

For this reason, I recommend requiring email confirmation before delivering your freebie. This can be set up within your email service provider account.

Once you get familiar with your email system and with WordPress, you’ll discover which way works best for you and your audience. So play around with it and don’t be afraid to develop your own strategy!

Want more help learning tips like these so you can hone your WordPress skills? Check out my new course WordPress 101!

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