Newsletter is a great way to connect with your audience.
In fact, In my article on ways to promote a tech blog, I have mentioned a newsletter as one key medium for promoting blog content.
In this blog, I will talk about setting up an email newsletter system for your blog completely free.
This is a beginner’s guide and if you are just starting with your blogging journey this blog will be really helpful for you.
How Does a Email Newsletter System Work
Email newsletter system is pretty simple.
Here is how it works,
Step 1: A user visiting your blog will subscribe to your newsletter through the subscription box you have on your blog page.
It can be something very honest like the following subscription box 😀
Step 2: The subscriber receives a confirmation email in his inbox with a confirmation link. When he clicks the link, his email will be added to your newletter email list.
Like this, gradually your email list will grow.
Step 3: Whenever you have published a blog or a set of blogs, you can create an email and send it to everyone in your email list with a single click.
You can view the insights in the software or the app you are using for the newsletter.
There is more automation you can do with the subscriber list, but I would suggest not focusing on those aspects when you are getting started.
You will automatically figure out the automation requirements when you connect with your audience more.
Choosing the Right Free Newsletter Software
When I started blogging, I never had an email subscription box.
All I had in my blog was an RSS subscription and a WordPress subscription button.
A couple of years later, I understood the importance of building an audience, and I started adding email subscription boxed to my website.
Following are the recommended email marketing solutions that you can use for
Convertkit
It is a great email marketing tool that is specifically designed for bloggers and content creators. You can get started with convertkit for completely free for your first 1000 subscribers.
Also, you can create unlimited landing pages and email signup forms in the free subscription.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is also a great option to get started for free.
However, with Mailchimp, you have limitations on the number of emails you can send with the free plan.
But always you can migrate the email list from Mailchimp to other providers anytime.
Aweber
Aweber is one of the popular email marketing platform.
It is used by many famous bloggers and enterprises for their email marketing campaigns.
You can get started with Aweber for free for the first 500 subscribers.
Start With Simple Emails
When you start reading about blog newsletters, there is a high chance for you to get overwhelmed with all the information you read from other blogs.
You might come across phrases like email funnels, email automation, lead generation, etc..Don’t give importance to all those unless you are launching a course or selling your digital product from day one.
The first thing you have to focus on is developing a habit of sending newsletters and creating a connection with your subscribers.
I am not talking about email templates with banners and colours.
I am talking about a simple email, as shown in the image below. It is as if you are sending an email to a friend or a colleague.
Conclusion
In this blog, I have covered the basics required for setting up an email newsletter system for your blog or website.
For each tool I have mentioned in this article, I will be publishing the step-by-step guides to integrate the landing pages and subscription forms in your blogs.
