Today we take a look at the single most important thing you can do to start building the long term value of your new website – how to start a mailing list in WordPress – and we’ll get it done in less than 5 minutes.
How to start a mailing list in WordPress in less than 5 minutes
Contents
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. – Chinese Proverb
As some of you will have picked up by now if you’ve been following my blog posts, I’m a huge fan of podcasts. In fact, if the human race ever nails cloning I’m pretty sure one of my first clones will be solely dedicated to listening to all the podcasts I never get time to listen to. One thing I’ve learned from listening to tons of successful website owners is the importance of building the good ‘ol mailing list. Lots of website owners get the distracted by shiny new social networks and end up regretting not building their mailing lists sooner. Even today in 2016 when we’re surrounded by dominant social properties like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Snapchat (which I’ve tried to get but I must be getting old – I think it’s awful – sorry Snapchat I tried – I really did!) the bog standard mailing list is still the lifeblood of some of the biggest websites in the world. Here’s why:
Your mailing list is your very own social network that you own.
Email is the old dinosaur of the Internet age. But it’s going anywhere anytime soon. While the bright young things might spend most of their time in Snapchat and Whatsapp, email is still by far the most effective communications channel for building your brand and your business online. I’ve seen too many businesses spend way too much time and money acquiring attention on Facebook only to see the rug pulled out from them when Facebook change their feed algorithms and make it increasingly expensive to reach their audience. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realize that all the major social properties will increasingly rely on advertising dollars from businesses to survive. That means any dollar you invest in acquiring likes on Facebook are going to yield a smaller return over time as the cost of advertising increases – along with more advertisers chasing the same users.
Email, on the other hand, costs you nothing. Well apart from the cost of acquiring the users email of course. But I think whether it’s an email address or a Facebook like – the main acquisition cost is kickass, compelling content. Do yourself a favor and don’t exchange your users attention for the shitty price of a Facebook like – win their love and attention for their most prized possession – their email address. Yes it’s hard to get people to part with their email address. They’re afraid you’ll spam them. God knows they’re also jaded by the amount of crap they already get in their inbox. But if you’re not doing a good enough job to compel someone to give you their email address you’re probably not going to succeed to start with. That might come across a bit harsh – but it’s true. Think about the last time you signed up for a mailing list – what was it about the content that convinced you to give them your email address in spite of all the good reasons you had not to? That’s a winning content strategy right there. Let’s get cracking and get that list up and running for you in a jiffy.
Step 1 – Sign Up for Mailchimp for free
Mailchimp is one of my favourite online businesses. They get a little bit pricey once you start to build a pretty big list. But when you’re starting from scratch it’s free. Sign Up now and come back once you’re done.
Step 2 – Setup Mailmunch
There’s tons of Mailchimp integrations for WordPress. Mailmunch is my favourite right now. Here’s why.
Again it’s free https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailmunch/so go ahead and get Mailmunch setup and come back for the final step.
Step 3 – Setup SumoMe
This is an optional but highly recommended step. SumoMe came from nowhere a few years ago from well known Internet marketer Noah Kagan and has quickly grown to become a 7 figure internet business. Why? They created a series of free tools to make it much easier to build mailing lists using highly effective calls to action. I’m not a huge fan of the user interface of their admin tools – but their tools are damn effective at growing mailing lists. Go ahead and Sign Up and setup their List Builder tool.
Go forth and build your list!
So that’s it for today guide on how to start a mailing list in WordPress in less than 5 minutes. So what now Ed? Well we’ll save that for another day.