You’ve heard it before: that you need to start an email list and grow it when you’re a new blogger. But do you really? Well, yes, you do – and this is all about the top reasons why you should start building an email list today.
Having an email subscriber list for your newsletter opens up many possibilities for bloggers.
And you want to leverage those opportunities, don’t you? Growing your blog means focusing on strategies that help you achieve your goals.
Starting an email list is one of those growth strategies.
In this post, I’ll run through some of the top reasons to start building an email list. My goal is to inspire you to get started today!
You’ll also learn an easy trick that I used for starting and growing my email list. Yours will grow too – even if it’s by 10 to 50 people a month at first!
DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click on a product or service, and decide to purchase it, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. All recommended products and services are based on my positive experience with them. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.
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Top 5 Reasons To Start Building An Email List
When you’re just starting a blog, there are so many things to do and learn.
Starting your email list should be one of your top priorities. This is aside from learning how to create content readers actually want to read and using smart promotion strategies.
When I was starting out with my lifestyle blog, so many years ago, I made the mistake of ignoring the idea of an email list.
I chased page views and ad revenue instead. It’s one of the most common blogging mistakes.
With no strategy or idea on how to engage my followers, I was missing out on communicating on a more personal level and building a connection with my readers.
This leads to the first reason to start building an email list for your blog.
1. An Email List Lets You Be More Personal
Yes, you can show your personality in your blog posts. People reading them get a sense of you and your personal brand.
However, blog posts aren’t where you should share your personal weekly stories. Nobody cares about those. Even if they’re relevant to the point you’re trying to make.
The top reason why you should start building an email is that you can be more personal with your readers.
They want to get to know the real you! You can occasionally share a behind-the-scenes moment. Or a story that relates to your topic.
You can build your personal brand: let your readers know what you value, what your interests are, and your thoughts on a topic.
People gravitate toward people who are real!
Email lists connect people. Your readers are given the opportunity to learn more about you, and over time grow to trust you.
Build an email list with this in mind – consider what kind of people you want to attract. At the end of the day, it should be your ideal customer avatar / key audience.
2. Return Visitors: You Drive More Traffic To Your Site
Another reason why you should start building your email list is that you want to attract people who actually want to hear from you on a regular basis.
They’re enjoying the information you’re sharing, including your blog content.
Share your blog links in your email newsletters when you have something newly published. Or include relevant older blog posts that are timely or helpful to the subject matter.
It’s a great way to get extra traffic to your site.
3. Grow Your Facebook Group, Social Media
Another great reason to start a newsletter subscriber list is to grow other marketing tools and channels.
Want to know one of the best ways to grow your Facebook group? Or your Instagram account?
Create a call to action in your email newsletter!
When you start building an email list, you can grow your Facebook group or yur social media profile at the same time.
What I like to do is add a PS at the end of my weekly newsletter or my automated lead magnet emails. Here I invite readers to join my Facebook group, with information on what we do there that would benefit them.
This is what I write:
You’d be surprised how quickly your Facebook group or social media account will grow with this invitation. This is yet another amazing reason why you should start an email list ASAP.
| RELATED: How To Use Facebook Groups To Grow Your Blog And Business
4. Email Newsletter Lists Give You Trusting Followers
Consider the journey for the person who’s signed up to your email list:
- They landed on your website and liked what they were reading
- The lead magnet was of interest to them, so they signed up
- They’re now on your weekly email newsletter list, getting great tips and ideas from you on a regular basis
- Your personality is shining through and they like YOU and your personal brand
- Trust in you is growing because you’re sharing valuable information with them
Growing your email newsletter list gives you a whole group of people who will be more willing to visit your site, provide you with feedback when requested and purchase your products.
This leads me to my next point.
5. Email Lists Help You Increase Sales
One of the top reasons why you want to start building an email list is the opportunity to make money.
As you start to earn your email subscribers’ trust, you increasingly gain opportunities to be more profitable when you sell to them.
The goal is to not overwhelm them with sales emails all the time.
The fastest way to get unsubscribers is to constantly sell, sell, sell!
So, balancing informative, useful emails with sales emails should be your goal.
TIP: Promote your affiliate product review posts in your newsletters to give them a traffic boost. They are a great way to convert readers into potential buyers!
| RELATED: 15 Clever Ways To Promote Affiliate Links
6. You Own Your Email Subscriber List
Finally, the last reason why you should start building an email list is that YOU own it.
If a social media site crashes or decides to permanently shut down for any reason, you already have your own audience to connect with you.
You’ve accumulated a list of people who WANT to hear from you.
They’ve willfully agreed to get a free offer from you in return for being part of your newsletter list.
If you start to think of it as your community, you’ll see the value of working on building your email list.
Fast Way To Start And Grow Your Email List
What’s a fast way to build an email list?
Offer a lead magnet that’s free and valuable!
The best place to include your opt-in form is embedded in your blog posts. Pop-ups are a nuisance and create a poor site visitor experience, especially on mobile.
So, what’s one of the best ways to grow your email list? Use your social media! In particular Instagram.
I’ve added a link to my most popular lead magnet in my “blog links” page for my Instagram profile. As well, I’ve added the mention of it in my actual profile, with the word “FREE” which always grabs people’s attention.
Since doing this, I’ve gained many more newsletter subscribers.
PRO TIP: Occasionally promote your lead magnets in posts on Instagram or your stories, with a link to your lead magnet page. This gives you an extra boost in subscribers!
| READ MORE: How To Create And Use Lead Magnets To Grow Your Email List
Maintain Your Email Newsletter List With Worthwhile Information
Two of the top reasons I’ve unsubscribed from email newsletter lists are the rate at which they are sent (every day is a big no for me), and whether they have anything of value for me.
If it’s all promotion for sales and new products, I’m not interested. The same goes for pushing affiliate links.
The best way to keep people on your email subscriber list is to share solutions to problems they may be having.
Or an excellent new idea, or trend. Knowledge is power – empower your email list subscribers with information! They will love you for it.
Start An Email List Today And Make It A Top Strategy For Blog Growth
There you go, all the key reasons to start building an email list for your blog!
I always encourage my blog coaching clients that are just starting their blogs, to put this on their priority list.
Just as soon as they have about five to 10 blog posts published, and a process for writing blog posts mastered, they can switch gears and start learning about email lists.
Want to check out my email newsletter list? Here’s a helpful free offer that you’ll find useful – how to spruce up your About Me page. By signing up, you’ll also start receiving my weekly emails to see how I work to build my email subscriber list community.
PRO TIP: Check out Mailerlite – the email marketing platform that I use to grow my community with easy-to-set-up templates and features.
Finally, if you’re stuck figuring out what to write to your email community check out all the amazing tips from Kate Doster (I love her stuff – she is always inspiring!).
QUESTION: What is holding you back from starting an email list for your blog?
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Thanks for this. I’m just getting ready to launch my blog & I’ve been overwhelmed with the thought of starting an email list too. This gives me some perspective.
You’re welcome! Starting an email list is an important part of starting your blog, but give yourself a couple of months after initially launching it to really focus on it. There’s lots to do with an email list!
That is one thing that I still have to do but keep putting it off for some reason. Thanks for this informative post.
You’ve made initial strides Christine – it will come!
I am just beginning to think about an email list and not sure where to start. Being so new at this, I just haven’t had time to study email campaigns yet. Thank you for giving me the motivation to get it going!
You’re welcome!
This article was right on time as building an email list is one of my goals this week. I will definitely be referring back to this article. Thank you!
You’re welcome – keep me posted if you have any questions!
I too love Kate’s content!
My goal for the fall, other than writing, is to start learning about emails & lead magnets. It is very much my weakest skill.