I thought I would add my experience and thoughts to the list. I currently have 11,872 subscribers which I know isn't huge but I think this is a high-quality list which is what I've been aiming to build. My last monthly newsletter went to 11,768 subscribers, achieved an open rate of just over 52% and had 3 people unsubscribe. I suspect some of my 11,768 emails didn't reach their target and some of the email openings weren't recorded so my open rate may be higher.I could not find any thread about this topic, so let's share our knowledge here.
Here is one from me:
Create Email Marketing Your Way - MailerLite - You can create you first email campaign for free, super beginner friendly and does not require credit card. For starters it's probably the best solution.
For wordpress, use "Popup maker" plugin for free popups, you can integrate MC4WP plugin on it and connect it to your MailCheat(Chimp) account. MailCheat(Chimp) has advantage in terms for number of free emails you can send, but Mailerlite has good sequence email strategy set up.
What tools and channels do you use?
What are some of your best strategies?
I wanted to share these figures for a few reasons:
- I self host this list using the newsletter plugin for WordPress. I've hooked this up to the Amazon Simple Email System which seems to do a good job of delivery. It also only costs me a few £ each month in mailing fees. I much prefer this to paying MailCheat(Chimp) or someone more money each month than it costs me to run my list for a year.
- In the past, I've tried "Tactics" to build my list fast. The result was a poor open rate and lots of rubbish emails. By rubbish, I mean people who never react unless I was giving away something for free. These are not people who will buy my products and I don't want to waste my time on them.
- My aim is to build a quality list of highly targeted subscribers with an interest in what I do. Then when I launch a new product, I only need to mention it and they buy. This seems to be working for me.
- I think there are two keys to building a quality list. Firstly you need to provide value with every email you send to someone. I think of sending an email as being like knocking on their door and then trying to have a conversation with them. If you knock on their door and dive into a sales pitch they are likely to slam the door in your face. Give them something they want first because you need to build trust. And Trust is the second key to building the list. If they don't trust you then having their email is useless.
To get people on my list I do have a popup on my site and I do have a free offer. I drive traffic using articles on the site, my YouTube videos and the books that I sell via Amazon, Apple etc. I don't use any form of advertising although I have considered it. I would like to grow my list faster but only if it's with quality people who match my customer profile.
Something else to be aware of is that if you do this right, you will need time to respond to the email that a good mailing generates. I receive hundreds of emails each time I send out a newsletter. This is a mix of positive messages thanking me for something as well as questions that give me ideas for new articles or videos. Occasionally I get an abusive email, but then I just delete the subscriber.