When you start your website, be sure to start it with your own email list.
Social media followers are great, but those lists of people disappear when you leave the site or it shuts down. Email lists will stay with you.
If you don’t know what service to use, I recommend mailchimp. It’s easy to use and free until you send many emails.
If you have a wordpress site, you can get a plugin to make forms, or you can grab code directly from Mailchimp and paste it in your html. Then you will need to go back to Mailchimp and get an API key to add to the plugin settings.
Your email list are your loyal readers and future customers. They have chosen to sign up with you because they want to hear what you have to say.
What can you give them?
- Paste in blog posts. This is easy. Give them great content to read.
- Give them additional content. I sometimes give away freebies to my email readers. I appreciate that they open the message, so I am happy to give them something for the trouble.
- Give them exclusive offers. Sales, special content, etc. Let it be a little benefit in signing up with you.
- Access to special content that will later be only available for a cost.
There are many ways to ask them for help and insight. If you ask the right questions, they will tell you exactly what they would like to see you add or develop and what they are willing to pay for.
Be creative and fun! People love to be entertained as well as informed.