First of all, let’s recap on the basics. How does one go about building a mailing list? And what are the best marketing techniques to ensure that it keeps growing?
The Autoresponder
Of course to begin with, you need the most important tool for building and managing a mailing list: an autoresponder.
An autoresponder is essentially a piece of software that manages a mailing list on your behalf. It saves you a ton of time in the long run and really it’s not an option to go without.
Specifically, an autoresponder is what you will use to create your opt-in form. This is where your visitors will enter their names and their email addresses in order to subscribe. From there, the autoresponder will then be where the database of users is stored and it’s where you will send your messages. These tools allow you to message huge lists without using the BCC function of your email.
What’s more, autoresponders also give you lots of information regarding your emails – for instance they can tell you what percentage of them are actually getting opened. They also provide you with other powerful features, such as the ability to include the recipient’s name inside the messages. This way, your email can say ‘Hey John!’ instead of being generic and the same for each subscriber.
Autoresponders also allow you to implement a ‘double opt-in’, meaning that subscribers need to respond to a confirmation email to confirm their interest. This protects you from spam and from people who aren’t really interested in reading your messages. More important, autoresponders allow people to automatically unsubscribe, rather than requiring you to manage it manually.
For all these reasons, an autoresponder is an absolutely essential tool and not something you can do without.
Three of the bigger autoresponders out there are MailChimp, GetResponse and AWeber. Unfortunately, these tools aren’t free so you will need to pay.
Also unfortunate, is that the prices are not set fees – which makes it quite hard to directly compare the value on offer.
You can refer to this table though in order to get a good idea as to which offers the most value:
MailChimp:
| Subscribers | Monthly Fee |
| 500 | $10 |
| 1,000 | $15 |
| 10,000 | $75 |
| 20,000 | $150 |
| 30,000 | $215 |
| 40,000 | $240 |
| 50,000 | $240 |
AWeber:
| Subscription Plan | Fee |
| Monthly | $19 |
| Quarterly | $49 |
| Yearly | $194 |
This is then on top of the following monthly fee:
| Subscribers | Additional Monthly Fee |
| < 500 | N/A |
| 501-2,500 | $10 |
| 2,501-5,000 | $30 |
| 5,001-10,000 | $50 |
| 10,001-25,000 | $130 |
| 25,001+ | Not Listed |
Get Response:
| Subscribers | Monthly Fee |
| 1,000 | $15 |
| 2,500 | $25 |
| 5,000 | $45 |
| 10,000 | $65 |
| 25,000 | $145 |
| 50,000 | $250 |
| 100,000 | $450 |
As you can see, the right choice for you will likely depend on how big you expect your mailing list to grow and how quickly. The good news is that you should be able to export your list and easily move to another provider if you find that your current option is no longer cost effective.
Landing Pages and Embedding Your Opt-In Form
Once you have your autoresponder, the first thing you’ll do is to build your opt-in form. This will then give you a piece of code that you can paste into your HTML to embed into your website.
So what do you do with this form and where do you put it?
One place to use an opt-in form is on a landing page, which in this case will be a ‘squeeze page’. A squeeze page’ is a single page on a website that is entirely dedicated to getting people to sign up for your list. This will use a very minimal design with no external links and no adverts for other products or pages. At the same time, all of the text is going to be in service of promoting your mailing list and selling its benefits.
If you’re unsure of how to build a squeeze page, then you can do it easily by using a WordPress site and installing the ‘Optimize Press’ theme.
The idea is that you can then use PPC advertising (pay per click) and other forms of marketing in order to ensure that you’re driving traffic to that page.
Likewise though, you can also use your opt-in forms on your blog or on your website. This way, you can surround your form with your regular content and that’s where the power of content marketing really comes in.
Of course you can add your opt-in form to your home page. Here it should be front and center. One thing you should always ask yourself when designing a website, is what you want the first thing your visitors do to be. What is the purpose of the website? What is the ultimate objective? The smart marketer knows that their mailing list is their most valuable asset and as such, this should take front and center stage on the homepage and every element should be in service of that. Think of your homepage as a funnel that leads to the opt-in form.
At the same time, you can also use your mailing list in your sidebar as a widget. This way it will be site-wide and a constant reminder of its existence. Thereby, anyone browsing your site will be likely to sign up whenever they see the form there if they’re sufficiently impressed with your content.
Pop-Overs
And one more tool to make sure that your audience definitely sees your opt-in form and engages with it, is to use a ‘pop-over’.
A pop-over is like a pop-up, except it doesn’t open in a separate window. Instead, it pops up within the browser and sits on top of the content of the website. Your visitors will then need to either enter their e-mail or click ‘close’ in order to continue browsing.
Many bloggers say that pop-overs increase their subscriptions by several hundred percent, so this is a very worthwhile technique.
But do keep in mind that pop-overs also rub people up the wrong way. You don’t want to over-do this because it ultimately prevents your visitors from seeing the content they came to enjoy. It takes up their time, it’s invasive and that can really damage your brand if you’re not careful.
This is why you should use a pop-over plugin that gives you advanced functionality. There’s no point showing your mailing list as soon as someone lands on your site anyway – why would they be interested in signing up when they’ve never heard of you and haven’t read one bit of text yet?
Instead then, use smart algorithms to create pop-overs that show onlywhen the visitor has spent a significant amount of time on your site, or when they have scrolled down the page a certain amount. Likewise, make sure that your pop-overs don’t show when people return to your site a second time and make sure that they are easy to close – even on mobiles.
A great tool for making pop-overs is ‘Buzz Sumo’. There are plenty of good ones out there to choose form though.
Content Marketing
But finally, you’ll also be able to embed the opt-in forms directly into your content.
This way, the objective is to make your articles and blog posts serve as ‘free tasters’ for your mailing list. The idea is to show your audience that you know your stuff, that you’re capable of writing engaging content and that you’re focussed on delivering value. If they read lots of your content and they’re consistently impressed with the quality and value you offer, then they’ll want more and they’ll want to know about the new content and projects you’re working on. And that’s when they’ll be likely to sign up for your mailing list.
Think of the way Starbucks will sell their new coffees – by standing outside with free samples and offering them to passers-by. Your website visitors are people who are just stopping by on the information super-highway. You need to use your content to lure them in, and that means you need to keep offering amazing value.
And don’t shy away from actively encouraging people to sign up. Don’t paste your opt-in form into the corner of your website and just hope your fans find it. Instead, blow their minds with some incredible, high quality content and then remind them about your mailing list where they can get much more similar information.
This way, you are already building a relationship with your audience at the same time as you’re getting them to sign up.
