I always get asked about email newsletters and I am always amazed at the most popular question. “When do I start a newsletter?” My answer is always the same “Now.”
Last month I started a new site and the first thing I did after adding a page of content was log in to Aweber and get a newsletter sign up form for the new site. I put it on the site and didn't think much about it as I was developing a content strategy and doing other things.
Today I log in and see the site has 28 subscribers. Not a large number by any means but it is a starting point to build from once I get the site going in a few weeks.
Since the email is loaded and the auto-responder is set to go out with content every 3 weeks for 9 weeks the people on the list are already interacting with it. I don't have to do anything and the site is getting traffic from the newsletter.
Building a newsletter list should be one of the main to-do's as you are building a site. In a world of “Not Provided” keywords disappearing from Google analytics and Facebook starting to show your page to less and less of your fans you have to get your slice of traffic any way you can.
Use Your Social Media Channels To Build Your List
I am a big fan of getting traffic from Facebook or any social site for that matter and getting them to my email list. Besides interacting with the interesting people on social media for future business I also consider social media to be the wide rim of the sales funnel. Once you get people on your newsletter list you control the way they interact with you. [Tweet “Once you get people on your newsletter list you control the way they interact with you.”]
You can sleep at night and you don't have to worry if Facebook is showing them your post. Actually you shouldn't be worrying about it because they are not showing it. You should be spending the time you are using worrying and build content on your site and build up your newsletter list.
Odds are if you are reading this post you came from a social media channel or my newsletter: )