[Y]ou probably think you *should* be building an email list, but you’re not entirely sure why and you already think you don’t blog enough or do social media well, let alone sending out regular newsletters. Do you really need another thing on your marketing pile?

Firstly, I know we all rely heavily on social media. I am guilty as charged. In fact, at times I bet that we all have long stretches where it’s the only meaningful marketing we do. It’s quick and easy and there is no tricky tech to master. But we don’t own our social media content. Social media platforms can lose popularity or fold and accounts can disappear or be shut down.  What would you do if your social media audience dried up overnight? If the answer is ‘be filled with despair and start crying’ then you need to take back some control in the form of building an email list.

Secondly, I can give you one easy stat to show you the difference between social media reach and list reach. From looking at my Facebook analytics, I can see that a plain old unboosted Facebook post only reaches roughly 5% of my audience. But when I send out an email to my list, my open rate is around 40-50%. The average open rate for all industries (even the boring ones) is around 20%. Here’s the difference. Not everyone checks into their social media accounts frequently and when they do, they’ll often scroll for short periods and see only a fraction of the content on offer. But email? Everyone checks that, and if you are delivering consistently useful and inspiring information, with catchy headlines, your email is going to get noticed and read.

Once people join your list, they are letting you into their inbox, alongside emails from their friends and family, as well as work stuff. It’s true that you have to get the tone right, but done well, it’s the key to building really genuine relationships with your clients. Of course it’s not going to work the same way for every business. Although a wedding photographer’s product might have something of a shelf-life, it’s a time of intense activity where your clients will be seeking reliable advice from a trusted expert. If you are a portrait photographer, on the other hand, the sky’s the limit. Parents are always interesting in advice about capturing better images of their family / pets / home. Whatever your profession, if you have inside knowledge to share, which will help establish your authority as an expert, then you’ve got a reason to write to a list.

Before we dive into a creating a list and integrating it into your website, have a think about the process you want to follow when it comes to the sign up. You have two general courses of action.

THE PASSIVE SIGN UP
This is a gentle call to action along the lines of ‘Hey, sign up for our awesome newsletter’. Theoretically, once your website visitor has signed up to your list, nothing needs to happen next, unless you want it to. At some point, you might want to add an automated welcome email, but if nothing else, it’s better to at least start taking names.

THE SIGN UP & WELCOME
This is a more proactive approach. As soon as people sign up to your list, you send them a friendly automated welcome email. This might contain an outline of what kind of content they can expect from you, or details of a special offer they might have signed up for in order to receive it. Many businesses take this one step further and also offer a ‘lead magnet’ or tangible incentive to hand over their email address. For example, I offer a discount on a first purchase plus a free mini blogging course. The welcome email includes a link to my hidden page where they can access the guide and the free resources.

So, let’s do this. The following video walks you through the process of:

• creating a list in Mailchimp
• building a newsletter layout using the drag and drop builder tool in Mailchimp
• adding an automated welcome email
• using a plugin to connect your Mailchimp list with your website

If you enjoyed the walkthrough video, you would love Siteschool! Sitechool is packed with dozens of step-by-step bitesize videos just like this one and covers everything you need to know about building your own website from choosing hosting, to content planning, copywriting, SEO and more. And of course it covers the nitty gritty of building in WordPress using easy tools as well. Students hang out in a private Facebook group hosted by yours truly. Find out more right here.

So, are you ready to build your list? Stay tuned for more posts about making your emails irresistible as well as how to create a killer lead magnet to attract more signups.