Today I want to talk about email subscribers and newsletters. More specifically, I want to talk about how I doubled my email subscribers in 3 months. This is one for you if you’re a blogger or you run any kind of business. Or if you just fancy coming along on the journey with me, you’re always welcome!
This post contains affiliate links
Why is email marketing important?
I have always had a vague notion that email marketing is important. I have heard this said, I had some kind of email marketing in place, I just hadn’t given it all that much thought.
Then this summer, I decided to alter the course of this blog and business and I started making plans.
As with all bloggers and all businesses, getting more traffic and more customers was always going to be key. One of those plans was to grow my email list.
An email list is absolutely key as it is mine. If Instagram close my account tomorrow, I have lost all of those followers and reach. If Pinterest mess with their algorithm (and wow, have they!) I lose traffic and reach.
I can’t control these other platforms, but I will always own my email list and have a way to get in touch with interested readers.
So convinced that I needed to focus on growing and taking care of my list, I started looking round at email marketing providers. I didn’t love my current provider, Mailchimp, and I could see they would soon get expensive for me.
Enter Flodesk.
Flodesk review
I had heard about Flodesk from a few different places. It popped up in Facebook groups I was in and a couple of bloggers used it in the newsletters I had signed up to receive from them.
The emails and templates are just so, so pretty! They are lovely to look at, and from a user point of view, they are so easy to use. Putting my newsletters together is now one of my favourite things to do each week!
Flodesk is quite a new email platform and as such it is still in beta testing. They are adding and testing more functionality all the time and I can only see it getting better and better.
There is a very active Facebook group to address any queries or issues and the support there is fast and friendly. There are people asking for all sorts of additional features and functionality, and they have much of it in the pipeline.
Personally, I have everything I need with it right now. I need a reliable provider to send my weekly newsletters from and to be able to set up workflows so that when people opt-in to receive my newsletter via a freebie, it delivers it to them automatically with a message from me. I can see my open and click rates and I can split my subscribers into relevant segments.
The BIG thing for me here is price. I mean, the email templates, colours and fonts are all gorgeous, but that only goes so far, doesn’t it?
Most mailing companies have different pricing thresholds depending on the number of subscribers you have, and it can go up quite a lot every thousand or so. I don’t want to pay huge amounts if I don’t need to and I don’t want to feel like I am going to have to spend a lot more if I grow my list.
Flodesk is a flat fee, presumably while it’s in beta, no matter how many subscribers you have. It currently costs $38 per month, and I have an affiliate code that you can use to get this at half price, so just $19 per month.
This $19 price is locked in for lifetime, so whether their prices go up or you get tens of thousands of subscribers, this is going to remain the price you pay. I am impressed.
Doubling my email list
I suppose the very first stage here is making the decision to actually grow your list. And then do something about it.
For me, this was a couple of steps. I decided who it was that I wanted signing up, driven by my content and products, and then I created a few different offers to encourage and thank sign ups.
The key here for me, was not overthinking this part. I could have put this off for weeks, months, years! In fact, it had been something I had long meant to do but never got round to, until this point.
But determined to work on this area, I created a few options and started running the offers on the blog and promoting them on my social media channels too. It is always worth telling everyone about this, and what your newsletter/emails will do for them as the chances are that if they follow you somewhere, they might also want to follow you like this.
A note here for those of us in Europe. You need to be transparent that these sign ups are to receive your emails, and not just to get the freebie. This is very important to ensure you are GDPR complaint. You must also offer the ‘unsubscribe’ option on all emails that you send out. This is pre-filled on every form with Flodesk.
Looking after my list
Growing a list is a numbers game. Keeping and serving that list is a different matter entirely, as you should be seeking to look after all of your subscribers. They have chosen to allow you to drop into their inboxes, so treat them well.
An email list should operate on an 80% serve, 20% sell basis. Meaning that when I get in touch with my subscribers, I aim to serve them in some way.
I want to share with them content that I hope will be of help or inspiration to them. I want to tell them about the latest activities that I am running so that they won’t miss out. I like to give them freebies from time to time, as a thank you for reading and staying with me.
I do then share my product launches and offers with them, as they are often engaged blog readers. I want them to know about them first, as my most looked after readers, and I want to give them the opportunity on any offers first.
I want my newsletter subscribers to feel special. I always add a little ramble each week, a peek into my life that week. And I absolutely will give them free stuff or offers first. They are important to me and I love ‘chatting’ with them each week.
Final thoughts on How I Doubled My Email Subscribers
To sum up, if you are looking to double your email subscribers, you need to commit to doing so.
You need to make a plan, sign up for an email provider and get an opt-in up and running. Do not overthink. Just do.
None of this is irreversible.
Don’t like your email platform? Download and move your list elsewhere. I should point out that some offer trials, and I know Flodesk offer a 30 day free trial with that affiliate code, so you can try before you buy.
Your opt-ins aren’t working, or maybe they aren’t attracting the people you wanted them to? Then create a new one and try that. In fact, I’d suggest trying 2 or 3 initially anyway to see what works for you and your readership.
Then take a look at the emails you receive from the businesses and creators that you like. What do you like? What could you do? What can you offer your readers? What do you want to tell them about? Remember, 80% serve.
You can receive mine here if you’d like to see what mine are like…
What? I’d be missing a trick not to mention it, wouldn’t I?!
So there you have it. That’s how I doubled my email subscribers in 3 months. I do hope you found this useful, do feel free to ask me any questions, as always!
Do you send out newsletters to your readers?
This post contains affiliate links