6 Reasons You Need an Email List for Your Blog ASAP

Think building a mailing list is no big deal? Think again! An email list is absolutely crucial to your blog’s success – even more than social media!

Keep reading to learn why you need an email list for your blog and how to get started now!  I’ve included affiliate links for products/services that I use and love and that might be helpful for you too; read my disclosure policy here.

An email list is absolutely crucial to your blog's success - even more than social media!

6 Reasons You NEED an Email List for Your Blog

In the blogging world, there is a HUGE focus on growing your social media following.

While social media is absolutely necessary and can send a lot of traffic to your blog, there’s another step that should come first: building an email list.

However, this step is often overlooked or done in a hurry.

When you skip building an email list or don’t pay attention to it, that is a BIG opportunity that you’re missing!

I know bloggers that get 50,000 clicks to their website every time they send an email! WOW!!

1. Emails = Blog Traffic

Take a look at this graph showing daily page views for my own website:

Daily Pageview chart showing spike when an newsletter is sent

As you can see, my daily web traffic follows a pattern — except when I send an email. Check out that spike in traffic!

That’s just one reason that you NEED an email list for your blog. Here are five more reasons that you can’t skip building a mailing list, and why you need to start right away:

2. Email is Easy

When I promote a new blog post on social media, there is a LOT of work involved.

I have to create unique images specifically tailored to each social media platform. For example, I will make a square photo with no text for Instagram and I’ll also make a vertical image with text overlay for Pinterest.

Related: Click here to learn how to make your pins go viral on Pinterest! I’ll show you my system that’s worked time and again to get me lots of Pinterest traffic.

Email is SO much easier!

With just a couple clicks, you can send a message straight to ALL of your subscribers. You can create branded email templates that are ready to go, so all you need to do is type a quick message.

Tip: I know a blogger who says that an email should never take more than 7 minutes to create and send. You can definitely find 7 minutes in your day to write an email!

The key is using an email marketing provider that makes it as simple as that (because I’ve tried a few and some email providers are pretty complicated!)

I love Constant Contact because it is perhaps the most user-friendly platform available. Even though it’s easy to use, you still get all of the fancy features offered by pricier services. Total win-win!

The best part about Constant Contact is that you can sign up for a 60-day free trial with NO credit card required!

How to build an email list with Constant Contact

I don’t know of any other company that offers that kind of risk-free test run!

Constant Contact is tailored for beginners, so as soon as you sign up, you can dive right in and create your first list and send your first email.

Start an email list with Constant Contact

Plus, when you sign up for the 60 day free trial, you’ll be contacted by the Constant Contact support team via phone call and email. They’ll walk you through how to navigate your new account, how to use different features, and answer any and all questions you might have.

That way you get to spend 60 days actually using the product, rather than 60 days trying to understand it!

Click here to start your risk-free FREE 60 day trial of Constant Contact.

3. You Own Your List

This is the big one!

Your social media accounts are not really “yours.” At any given time, social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter can shut down your account.

Usually it’s for violating policies (being reported too many times for plagiarism, hate speech, etc.). So you probably think you have nothing to worry about. Hopefully that’s true!

Unfortunately, I’ve also seen more than a few bloggers have their account disabled by mistake.

Even if you can get your account reinstated, that downtime is devastating when you think about the lost traffic and revenue, plus the hit to your reputation (deserved or not).

The best thing about an email list is that YOU own it. It’s YOUR list and no one can take it away from you!

Even if you change email providers, you can take your list with you.

Your email list is a following that stays with you as long as your blog is operational.

Related: If you don’t have a blog yet, you’ll want to read my complete guide to start a blog that gets noticed first!

4. Your Email List is an Engaged Following

When someone signs up to join your mailing list, it’s because they want to follow you. They are giving you permission to put your content in their inbox!

Think of all the emails you probably receive every day from businesses. I’m willing to bet that you get annoyed and delete most of them.

However, when a reader signs up for your email list, they actually look forward to your emails! They might delete the others, but they’ll open yours.

Social media is a bit tricker, because your following is harder to reach. You also have a lot more “casual” followers on social media.

Perhaps they saw a photo you posted and hit “like” — that might be simply because they liked that particular piece of content. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they signed up to see everything you post.

Getting a new blog post to spread on social media also takes time. It take weeks or months for a new blog post to earn Google “juice” and start showing up in searches.

However, you can put your new blog posts directly in front of your email subscribers whenever you want with a simple click. And they’ll thank you for it!

5. Email is More Personal than Social Media

Writing emails gives you a chance to build a more personal connection with your readers. With Constant Contact, you can even customize your emails so that they address each individual recipient by name!

You can create branded templates with your logo, website colors, and a format that YOU like – all with a couple clicks!

Create email templates with constant contact

When I write an email, it’s more laid-back than they way I write blog articles. I like to pretend I’m sending a message to a good friend. Sometimes I even include a personal photo that’s not on my blog or social media.

By regularly writing to your subscribers and sharing things with them that they can’t get elsewhere, they’ll start to feel closer to you, almost as if they really know you.

The more of a personal connection that you can make with your readers, the higher your open rate will be, and the more engaged they’ll become.

This leads to more clicks to your website, more repeat readers, and more sales down the road!

6. There Are No Algorithms to Block Your Content

One of the most comment complaints among bloggers is the never-ending struggle to figure out the algorithms of social media and search engines.

Periodically, social media platforms will change the way that content is shown (or not shown) to users.

A good example of this is when Facebook rolled out paid posts/boosting a few years ago. In order to try to get business page owners to pay for ads, Facebook made it more difficult for their content to be seen organically.

With an email list, you don’t have to worry about any of that.

When you click “send,” your email goes straight to the inbox of all of your subscribers.

Why Some Emails DO Get Blocked:

Some email marketing services (especially free ones) may have their messages filtered by receiving servers, which means that some of your subscribers never see your emails. This is because providers like Gmail try to protect their users from spam, and free email marketing services tend to be less “trusted” by Gmail’s scans.

I started with a free email service (Mailchimp), however my open rate was really low (less than 10%). I did some research and learned that it was probably because free email marketing servers often get blocked, so I switched away from Mailchimp. Immediately, my open rate more than doubled!

I used to recommend starting with a free email marketing service and switching to paid later. However, after my personal experience, I highly recommend skipping free providers and choosing a trusted sender like Constant Contact. If your emails are being blocked, you’re simply wasting your time – free or not!

Think building a mailing list is no big deal? Think again! An email list is absolutely crucial to your blog's success - even more than social media! Why you need an email list for your blog and how to get started now!

What’s Next

  1. Sign up for a free trial account at Constant Contact.
  2. Join my Banking on Blogging email list (using the form below) for free blogging tips delivered to your inbox – you’re welcome to hit “reply” any time with questions!

Want more blogging tips?

If you want to check out more blogging tips, check out this post for all my blog post tips! Sign up for my blogging newsletter for more delivered straight to your inbox!

Stacey aka the Soccer Mom
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3 Comments

  1. Hi Stacey,

    Thanks for writing this post. It’s been very helpful. I totally agree that email has no algorithm to block the content. It’s all about human to human connection. It’s quality over quantity. And the care to follow up with existing subscribers. I love emails and even create an app around it.

    Keep writing!

    Aaron

  2. Great post. I’m a new old blogger. I started a blog, then let it sit dormant while our lives took a crazy turn for a spell. 5 years later I’m picking up where I left off! I had forgotten that I already had a list of subscribers whose contact info I held onto all these years. Thanks for reminding me!! :‐)

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