Why You Need To Start Your Email List Today [+ How]

Building Your Email List - A Fabulous Fete

You probably hear and see it all the time… You KNOW you need to start your email list. But we know, it can seem like a lot of work. It can seem intimidating to get started. It can seem like you will never have anything special enough to send to them. So, today we’re breaking down why and how to get started without feeling that overwhelmed.

Small Business Tips - Setting Up Your Email List - A Fabulous Fete

Why you should start

Your biggest reason should be because capturing your audience will allow you to communicate with them directly. They are allowing you to show up right in their inbox… no algorithms and no other accounts to compete with in their feed. By signing up, they are giving you permission to contact them whenever you feel the need. And they are guaranteed to see it because let’s face it, we’re all checking our inbox way too much.

These people that take the time to give you their email WANT to hear from you. They are likely your core customers that want what you are selling. While people may follow you on Instagram, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to become a customer. If you foster the relationships you have with your core audience, they will want to support you when you have a new product, release, event, etc.

Remember, you do not own your audience on social platforms. Make sure you can still reach your audience if you ever couldn’t communicate with them via social. What if Instagram shut down suddenly, how would you get in contact with that following? You couldn’t. So make sure to start now and bring over as many of your true fans as you can.

Gaining Email Subscribers - A Fabulous Fete

So they’re on your list, now what do you send them?

Exclusives. This is one of my favorite things to include in emails. Make sure they are gaining value from what you are sending. And what’s better than something that not everyone has access to? We send a monthly calendar for your desktop and iPhone, we send small business advice, styling guides, tips, and we also send a link to a library full of freebies. Start with one small thing and build your library of exclusives over time.

Early access to products, sales, releases, or events. People love being the first to know about things, as well as having first dibs. Especially if you create something that is a limited edition or has limited space. Share how much you appreciate them and offer up these specials just for them.

Recaps of important information you have shared (valuable blog posts, IGTV tutorials, freebies, etc.). We like to group some of our best posts into a recap email rather than sending daily reminders of what posts went live. We understand that people’s time is limited. So give them a quick glance at what you think they want to see now. You can even reshare timely posts that are a bit older. Do you have a holiday printable from last year that you think your audience would still find useful this year? Share it in your updates leading up to the holidays. You’ve likely built up a large amount of resources in your online space, make sure you are taking advantage of that and re-sharing as often as possible.

How to get them to subscribe

Incentives. Part of our membership with The Creative Library includes a monthly worksheet that we encourage our members to use as an incentive with their audience. They’re always different, but we send things like a weekly printable calendar, goal setting worksheets, or printables to help you get organized. You don’t have to come up with new ones too often. You can rotate through just a few. We recommend switching them up every month or even quarterly. People love getting a little freebie in exchange for their email!

Discount codes. This is probably one of the easiest ways to grow your list for product-based businesses. These people are likely getting ready to make a purchase. They love your product. Reward them for being a loyal customer while capturing their email to share future products with them.

Consistent exclusive content. Are you going to share weekly letters to your audience with advice? Or maybe you send out free iPhone backgrounds every other week to your list. Whatever it is, big or small, give them something to look forward to being a part of your list. If you’re going to use the same content everywhere, they may start to feel like they're seeing the same thing on all your platforms, so what’s the use in being a subscriber?

Email Subscribers for Your Business - A Fabulous Fete

How to start!
Here are 5 easy steps to getting started today:

Start a list on MailChimp. We have a few different lists for different groups, but we house them all on MailChimp currently. Each list has a different link to break up your audience so you may only need one depending on how your business is structured.
Set up your welcome/thank you email and set expectations for when they will hear from you. After someone signs up for our AFF newsletter, they receive an email that tells them what to expect. For example, tell them when you’ll send emails and what will be in them. This is where we also include the link to our freebie library so that they can gain instant access.
Grab your URL. As mentioned above, you’ll have a URL that you’ll want to keep handy to include whenever asking someone to sign up. We often put it in swipe-up links on IG Stories, you can add to your Insta bio, you can add to graphics in Pinterest, put it in your Etsy shop bio, and you can put in any of your relevant blog posts.
Add a signup form on your site. Most sites offer up a way to do this automatically but you can also set up pop-ups through MailChimp that will prompt users to sign up on your site. Don’t have a site? Set up a landing page! It’s a easy as putting your logo, what to expect, and asking for an email.
Set a schedule for sending updates to your audience. Once you feel like you have the rest of these steps under control and you are ready to start sending emails, set a realistic schedule for yourself. Once a month is a great jumping off point. You can send your list a little recap of the month, tell them what’s coming up, include a small exclusive piece of content as a thank you, and keep them engaged while not creating a stressful amount of work for yourself.

The most common thing I hear from people is that they don’t know where to start when it comes to creating a list. So I hope that this breaks down the steps into manageable chunks for you. Just remember that you don’t have to go full force and send weekly emails right away. Start with a comfortable schedule and work your way up as they become a more common part of your workflow.