Talk to anyone who has managed a website or a blog, someone who has grasped marketing basics of how to successfully run an online practice. Even if the website does not generate profit of any kind, there is one thing they will always recommend: a clearly visible newsletter subscription throughout the website.
Having a Mailing List is more than just an opportunity to sell, sell, sell. It’s your chance to build a relationship with your audience and the great thing is, it’s extremely easy to have one on your WordPress website. Literally as simple as 1, 2, 3 clicks!
Why Have a Website Mailing List
Where to start? For one thing, yes, having a mailing list allows you to send your subscribed audience offers, promotions and flash sales in a bid to increase purchases or readership.
This audience is quite probably your market since they clearly have an interest in what you offer, having signed their emails up themselves. However, having a mailing list should not be limited to a shout out every once in a while simply because your wares are on sale.
Your newsletters and emails should be more personal, a conversation of sorts with your readers/clients.
A freebie every once in a while accompanied by a personal note to thank your most loyal customers is an unexpected touch, sure to win you the appreciation of your followers.
This is also why it is quite important (but sadly often overlooked) to address your subscribers by their given name and not by a generic “Dear customer”. That small change is your ticket to more brownie points, we promise. Just make sure you ask for at least a first name in the initial subscription form.
Building a relationship with your followers becomes ten times easier when you can “talk” to them in the privacy of their inbox, so to speak, rather than an open message on your website.
How to manage an email list with WordPress?
Trust us, we all love WordPress for the very same reason. Which is why we’re very pleased to let you know that adding a newsletter subscription field on your website is extremely simple too. We’re going to look at a couple of popular plugin examples for your WordPress site.
MailChimp: Email Marketing Platform
MailChimp is perhaps one of the most popular e-mail marketing services around.
Its basic yet comprehensive suite of features (not to mention the fact that it’s free for the first 2000 subscribers) makes it a favourite among marketers.
MailChimp for WordPress
If you wish to opt for the MailChimp plugin, you would first need to create an account on MailChimp.com. This is easy and should not take more than a minute. Once that’s done, head over to your Plugins section in your WordPress menu, click on New Plugins and search for MailChimp for WordPress, clicking “Install Now” once the search comes up. After you activate the plugin, insert the MailChimp API Key (you find this in your MailChimp.com Account) in the plugin settings.
Voila! You’re good to go.
Now you can start creating Forms and get signing up more subscribers faster than ever before. Integration with your MailChimp account is seamless – so you can send out your mailshot from MailChimp.com without having to import subscribers from your website. Forms are mobile-friendly and entirely customisable, with a single or double opt-in option. You’re in total control.
MailPoet
MailPoet plays pretty much the same game as MailChimp but goes one step further. With MailPoet, there’s no need to create any other account, everything is handled directly from your own WordPress website.
Everything is editable from your WordPress website, including the newsletter you wish to send. You can even set an automated newsletter, which goes out, say every week or month with your latest posts! Once again, to download this plugin, simply search for MailPoet on New Plugins and click on “Install Now”.
Mailing List Analytics
Sending newsletters is only one side of the coin, however.
Analytics, Click-Through-Rates (CTR), Open Rates etc should not be ignored once you’ve started sending out newsletters.
Almost all plugins come with their own analytics section, which allows you extensive insights into what works best for your newsletters: at what time are your followers opening your emails?
Which are the buttons they click the most?
Which subject line grips their attention?
The answers to these questions are all found here, and making good use of this information can see your open and click rate soar. Segment your lists according to preferences, open rate, interests and target each list with a separate newsletter. You can never go wrong with an extra dosage of personalisation.
With myriad options of possible newsletter plugins to choose from, you really are spoilt for choice. They all follow the same procedure however: Search, Install, Activate. If you have trouble downloading or integrating a plugin, the particular plugin’s forum is usually a great place to start to get your answers and if not, many plugins have a great customer support system. Just drop them a line and they’ll be sure to help.
So go on, get started building a followers’ mailing list and reap the benefits which go with building a solid relationship with your audience.
6 Comments
Thank you very much, Dumitru. I am in the process of setting this up for the first time. And you have provided exactly the information I needed. I chose MailPoet. Multumesc!
Dear Mr Brinzan.
Please stop giving impressional, young people the advice to address strangers by their first name.
It’s actually incredibly rude and offends grown ups.
I dont expect people who, not so long ago, were addressing each other by their first name in kindergarden, but adults tend to reserve that privilege to family and close friends.
And no, unless a customer is mentally deficient, they dont ‘psychologically’ magically align as a friend because their first name is used.
Dear Mr. Tibbs,
That’s also a way of looking at it, though I disagree with your cheeky tone.
Different cultures have different attitudes towards a person’s first name.
For example in English and Russian it is OK and polite to address someone by a simple “Hello John”, while in German and Japanese that is unacceptable.
And finally, maybe a newsletter subscriber is no longer “a stranger”?
Hello Mr. Brinzan,
I am in the process of setting up my website on WordPress, and I already have a blog with over 16,000 followers. Does this number count as subscribers for the mailing list, or is that number of subscribers determined only by those who sign up?
Best,
Charles French
Hello Charles,
Simply following a blog on wordpress.com does not make someone a newsletter subscriber.
Newsletter subscribers are people that signed up for your mailing list by providing an email address. Thus you can send them emails even if you no longer update your website.
I hope this helps.
Looking for references. I have seen the adage that people respond when you use their name in a mailout to them. When I see a company trying to be friendly by using my name, i get suspicious of their sincerity as I know it is just a 2 second programming task. Maybe I am just cynical but I have yet to see any documented studies verifying the truth of that premise.