If you’ve ever dragged yourself into digital marketing stuff, then chances are that you’ve probably seen or heard about the statement: “The Money Is in the List.” Well, is this true for a blogging email list?

Well, you might not have immediately figured out what it implies and if you are still wondering about the meaning of that statement, then you’ll no longer find it confusing after reading this article to the end.

As the topic implies, we are going to talk about email marketing, but wait a bit!

Have you ever browsed through a website and you got to a point where the site asks for your email address in exchange for freebies or periodic updates?

Well, if you’ve participated in something like that, then there’s a high chance you are in their email list and to prove it further, you can check your email as you are mostly likely receiving updates from that site. 

This is an awesome opportunity to be part of that content creator’s exclusive community of people who receive high value content and sometimes awesome digital products through their email. 

Only answering the question of what is a blogging email list, might have given you an insight about what an email list entails, but as a blogger, knowing what an email list comprises of, and why you should have one for your blog will go a long way.

So, here we go!

What is an Email List for Blogging?

An email list is a collection of email addresses of people who have subscribed to receive your content and to whom you can send blog updates or promotional campaigns. This is usually to either get the recipients engaged with your blog or get them converted to sales, etc.

Depending on the purpose of collecting the emails, a mailing list usually contains each recipient’s name and email addresses, and the list can be used to send emails to those subscribers in bulk.

More simply, consider an email list as a contact list from which you can send a single message to all or a selected number of persons.

A synonymous name to a mailing or an email list is “Subscriber List.” This is because people who are on the list are those who would have subscribed to your newsletters.

An email list is to a blog, what a customer list is to a traditional business. And so it is a great asset to have as a blogger.

What Does an Email List Do? 

If you’ve seen a couple of marketers willing to spend their last dime in promotional campaigns so they could build their mailing list, then that alone can tell you that having an email list has great value and can go a long way for a business.

Before we zoom in and speak about how beneficial having an email list can be, especially to bloggers, let us see how an email list works.

A typical scenario that explains how an email list works is, for instance, a visitor lands themselves on your blog and start getting value in reading an interesting article, and the next thing, a pop-up box appears, telling him/her to input his email address and name, so he/she could stay updated with the latest updates on similar topics.

When you provide value to a blog visitor and they enjoy your content, they will be curious to read more content that you will share in the future.

He/she will not hesitate to fill in a brief form because they know that they will be getting a lot of value in exchange for giving only giving you their email address. 

This is how others keep getting that pop-up box and adding their email to the database or email list.

When you get enough contacts, to begin with, you can head to bulk email sending services or apps such as Mailchimp, Convertkit, or any other blog subscription service to send bulk updates, and marketing promotions.

Why You Should Have an Email List for Your Blog

Email marketing is one of the most rewarding ways of engaging with your fans and audience and it guarantees a greater ROI on your marketing efforts than most other forms of marketing.

For your blog, building an email list is a great way to constantly secure your blog a constant flow of traffic.

Below are a few advantages of having an email list. 

• Retains Visitors

When new visitors land themselves on your blog for the first time, chances are that they might never have the chance to return.

However, if they were able to subscribe to your email list, you can always reach out and persuade them to come back.

Better yet, you can send them updates each time you post so that they can keep coming back to read your future posts.

• Your List Belongs to You

Apart from your site, the second thing you have a great deal of control over is your email list because it is what you own.

A good example to explain this kind of ownership is social media. 

Your followers there belongs to their respective social media platforms, and each platform may choose to change their policies that aren’t favorable to your campaigns.

They can also at any time deactivate or remove your account if they feel you have violated one of their policies. In that case you will lose the following you spent a good amount of time trying to build.

However, building an email list gives you peace of mind and control over your audience. 

It is way to remain connected to them even if you lose your website or have to transfer to a different domain.

• Personalize Your Blog

Besides keeping your audiences engaged with your blog content and social media, email marketing is a great way to express or give your prospects a personal touch of your blog.

You can reach out to them personally which creates a different human connection, that is different from what they would otherwise get from just being on your website.

• Generate High Returns

Email marketing is a very potent way of converting leads to sales. 

It also lets you retarget the same customers that bought from you before, so that they can keep making recurrent purchases.

• Build Trust

The more you relate with your prospects by reaching out through tailored emails, the more your chances of earning their trust.

• Communicate with Prospects

Having an email list is a great way to keep in touch or communicate with your prospects and depending on your aim, you might be able to achieve your respective marketing goals way better than by using social media.

This is because your words is directly delivered to their inboxes, unlike social media where your posts may get buried in their feeds.

• Email is Highly Targeted

Whenever someone subscribes to your list, it is because they are interested in what you’ve got to offer, this means they are more likely to keep coming over your blog to get value when you ask them to. 

What are the best email list services?

The email provider you use plays a huge role in how well you manage your list.  Choosing a good blog subscription service will help you to see growth when managing an email list for a blog.

• Convertkit 

Convertkit is the email provider that I use and love. It’s an easy solution for beginners because of its simple and user-friendly interface.

It also comes with a Free Plan for up to 1000 subscribers.

The other blog subscription service providers you can use are:

• Mailchimp
• AWeber
• GetResponse
• Sendinblue
• Constant Contact
• SendGrid

7 Strategies to capture more emails for your blog

Here are 7 strategies you can start applying today that can help you grow your email list so that you can monetize it and start enjoying the benefits of having one;

1. Provide value

One of the best ways to grow your blogging email list, is to provide great value to your audience. 

When your audience sees value in your content they will naturally want to read more and it will create a fear of missing out that will lead them to subscribing to your future content.

So before you do anything else, make sure you are offering great value to your audience, so that when you ask them to subscribe to your content, they will have no hesitation doing so.

2. Write attractive copy

When you offer an attractive and irresistible why for your site visitors to join your email list, they will fill in that form and give you their email list with no hesitation.

You will of course have to deliver on your why afterwards, for them to not unsubscribe to the list later.

3. Offer a freebie

Offering a digital freebie is a way to capture email leads for your blog. The freebie should be one that offers value to your readers, and something that they can benefit from having. 

The word FREE is one of themes powerful words in marketing. And a great way to use it is by including it in your digital freebie offer like the one below to capture your readers.

4. Sell a digital product

Apart from offering a freebie, you can also sell a high value digital product and collect emails in the process.

However, with this method while many who buy your products will have no problem being added to your email list, it is not always automatic that a person who has bought something from you also wants to subscribe to your email list. So it is important to take note of that.

5. Include an inline subscription form

An inline subscription form is a subscription form that appears before, within or after a blog post article.

Often times it is a form that has piece of marketing copy asking people to subscribe to your blog’s email list and why they should do so.

6. Include a sidebar form

A sidebar is great place to place a blog subscription form, because many of your visitors look at your sidebar to learn about you and get a glimpse of information on what your blog is about.

For many who would have come to your blog via a direct link to your post, they will look to your sidebar to see what the blog is about apart from what they are reading in the post. 

And if they like the content they have just read and everything else you would have included in your sidebar, they will most likely subscribe to get future updates from your blog.

7. Include a pop up form

This is still a point of concession for most bloggers. The dreaded pop up that interrupts people’s scrolling to ask them for their email list!

While many bloggers may have negative feelings about having a pop up on their blog and how that may affect the activity and reactions of their site visitors, research has shown that pop ups actually do increase the rate of email list subscriptions and most often than not has no negative impact on your blog visitors’ activity.

Bonus!

8. Include your email capture in your social media

This is one way to capture blog email subscriptions, that many bloggers often ignore. I did too for a long time. But a great way to capture email leads is to include a subscription landing page or form in your social media bios. 

Two examples to do this is to include either include it in your Linktree buttons or in your pinned tweet on Twitter.

Wrapping Up

Irrespective of the type of blog you run, being able to convert a one-time visit into loyalty is very rewarding, and if an email list would offer you that opportunity besides more, then I see no reason not to get one for your blog.

However, getting people to sign up for your mailing list isn’t an easy task, but if you offer great value and get them engaged, then you’ve got the key to solving the puzzle already.

What have been your struggles with building an email list? Have your efforts and strategy been working for you? Let me know in the comments below.

Also check out these;

8 Content Marketing Ideas You’ve Been Sleeping On! &

7 Easy Ways To Make Sure Your Blog Is Set Up for Success This Year