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How To Build & Use an Email List
Benefits, tips, and more!
When I self-published my first book in August 2017, I did not have an email list and wasn’t really sure how to start one or why I needed it.
But everyone else seemed pretty sure I needed one.
It turns out they were right and over the last couple of years, I’ve slowly gained subscribers on my email list.
I don’t think I use it particularly effectively but I am working on getting better! The lists are certainly a great way to keep people organized and send out very specifically targeted emails, too.
How to create an email list
I put this first because starting a new email list is incredibly easy.
Almost all email sites have a free account/version where you can start your lists and add subscribers and start to learn their system. There are limitations and restrictions, such as MailChimp limiting you to 2000 subscribers and only one audience for the free account, but that’s still more than enough to get started!
Here are a few of the most popular email marketing services:
Start an account with one of them, create a new list and name it, and then you can easily either create a new signup form or use the premade one they provide and embed it on your website (if it’s a WordPress site, you can grab the HTML code and paste it into the page or widget), add the code to the end of blog posts, on social media, etc.
People who sign up will automatically receive any welcome email you created and you’ll have them on the list for when you want to send out an email to the list.
The harder part, of course, is getting people to sign up for your list and then learning how to use it effectively.
Benefits of having an email list
There are actually a lot of benefits to having an email list, not the least of which is the most obvious: a group of people who like your work who are more likely to become paying clients.
