How To Get Email Subscribers to Your Blog

How To Get Email Subscribers to Your Blog

When you’re first starting out with your online business, email marketing can be a daunting thing:

You look at your traffic stats and see that next to nobody even knows your website exists yet.

So, why would anyone want to subscribe to your email list when they don’t even know you exist?

The truth is, every single online business owner once started out just where you did-at “0!”

Experiencing success with email marketing is the culmination of baby steps, little victories, and intentional action taken.

Let’s get started. I’m going to show you how to get email subscribers to your blog.

How To Get Email Subscribers To Your Blog

The Importance of Signing Up ASAP

I heard the best quote of my life regarding email marketing and why it’s so important to start the moment your blog or website goes live:

“The money is in the list.”

To clarify, you may not have any email subscribers now, but there will come a point (if you put the work in) when you will.

If you are taking action in the correct order, you’ll reach a point where monetizing your blog and getting sales via affiliate products and maybe even your own digital products will become priority.

And who will you be selling those products to?

That’s right, your email list!

You’ll have your own audience champing at the bit to get their hands on anything you offer them if you’re smart about offering products that solve a problem they have.

And that, my friends, is why it’s so important to start your email list asap and begin to develop a relationship with your audience-even if your audience currently consists of your mom and best friend.

Sign-Up

I personally use and love ConvertKit.

Their program is user friendly, even for the technologically challenged.

Because they already have templates made for everything, it’s easy-peasy to create opt-in forms and landing pages. You basically pick the template you want and then add in the copy and graphic (if any) that you want.

To set up an automation, you simply follow their prompts by selecting the opt-in you created and then selecting the sequence (aka the “sales funnel” you created) that you want to connect it to.

I have used MailChimp in the past, and I wasn’t overly impressed with it. There were too many features I just didn’t understand (and didn’t need). And while I didn’t need a ton of features, I did need a few specific ones that ConvertKit had.

Not only that, but you’re not allowed to do any affiliate marketing with Mail Chimp. So, if you’re looking to monetize via email marketing, MailChimp is a no-go.

The other perk to ConvertKit is, for me, a significant one: Their content creators regularly schedule free webinars where they teach you how to come up with opt-ins that convert subscribers, catchy email subject lines that get your emails opened and read, and more.

They also have freebie giveaways just for showing up live. You do not have to be a ConvertKit subscriber to attend or get the free goodies, either.

ConvertKit offers a one-month free trial and you do not have to give them your credit card information in order to start. You only provide payment when you make the decision to continue on with them.

I know what it’s like to have a tight budget when first starting your blog, especially after you’ve already paid for hosting and possibly a few other necessities.

But I encourage you to put ConvertKit on your necessity list because it was completely worth the investment for me.

You might not see it initially, but when you have hundreds and thousands of followers and introduce that killer affiliate course or digital product to your audience base, you’re going to be glad you opted in (no pun intended) to ConvertKit when you first started out.

My advice is to at least give the free trial a go and see how you like it. That’s what I did.

You can access the free trial here.

Resources:

Opt-Ins: It’s all about trial-and-error.

When you’re new to email marketing (or anything, for that matter), you will go through what I call the trial-and-error phase.

As a new blogger, you probably aren’t sure who your audience is yet. That’s where you need to come up with different opt-in ideas (your incentive to entice people to “opt-in” to your mailing list) and try them out.

My first three subscribers were my husband and two friends, but I’ll never forget when I got that 4^th subscriber-someone I didn’t know.

I jumped up and down in my office and my husband thought I was crazy-but I was so excited (he was excited for me too)!

As the weeks went by, a few more subscribers here, a few more subscribers there, trickled onto my mailing list.

Those first few months, I tried a few different opt-ins and I started setting monthly subscriber goals for myself.

Unfortunately, I never beat those monthly goals.

My opt-ins weren’t converting as well as I’d have liked them to.

Eventually, I got to a point where my subscribers were at a stand-still for a month.

I knew I had to come up with a better idea.

And so, it was my next idea that did the trick.

No sooner did I implement that new opt-in, and the subscribers started rolling in.

I had to try out different opt-ins and figure out what was hooking people before I could experience email marketing success.

The other thing I had to work on was driving more traffic to my blog. My website traffic stats were a rollercoaster of highs and lows.

This is why the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche program is so resourceful-you’ll learn how to drive organic traffic to your blog consistently.

The Process of Elimination

Once you figure out what works, don’t shut off your under-performing opt-ins-just remove them from your website and replace them with your best performing one (if it’s in the same niche). You don’t want to lose those subscribers who opted into your other opt-ins!

The opt-in I created that was most successful was for Mindset Monday, an encouraging email I send out weekly on Mondays.

As I started sending out my weekly Mindset Monday emails, I noticed that I’d lose a few subscribers a week.

That’s okay.

You want subscribers who are interested in the value you provide, and I discovered nearly all of my un-subscribers had originally subscribed into some of my older, under-performing opt-ins.

They were happy to get my Goal-Setting Checklist or take my Personal Development 101 e-course, but they didn’t care to receive weekly inspirational emails.

You can segment subscribers into relevant lists, but since these opt-ins were in the same niche as Mindset Monday, I included them in my emails. Some have stayed, and some have decided to part ways.

It’s okay to lose people who aren’t going to be interested in what you have to offer anyway.

Planning Your Long-Term Strategy

What do you ultimately want to do with your website?

That answer should dictate what opt-ins you create and the content you deliver to your email subscribers.

Ultimately, your email subscribers will dictate what you should be offering them. And it starts with finding out who your audience is.

For me, I have ideas stored away of digital products and e-books I want to create in the future. Products that tie into my niche and that I believe will interest my audience.

Products that will solve a problem they have.

If you build up an audience of 5000 email subscribers via an opt-in tied to DIY arts and crafts and create products outside your niche, they aren’t going to be interested, just alienated.

Think through your long-term goals and develop a plan to get there via intentional action regarding your email marketing strategy.

Before You Go

Email marketing truly is the way to build a thriving online business.

As I stated earlier, the money is in the list.

If you want to become a successful blogger, you must start with email marketing immediately upon going live, suffer through the trial-and-error phase and use what you’ve learned to finally experience that first big breakthrough and then plan your long-term strategy.