Some things feel like they never change: a great email list is still your most valuable marketing asset. Itâs literally a group of people who have given you permission to talk to them about your company, your products, your services, and yourself. What an opportunity!Â
Often, though, it can be hard to know how to get that list started. People have to know what theyâre signing up for first, and then you can build trust and pitch them your offerings later. No one signs up just to get sales emails. So, how you do you get going?
Blog Digests
You can leverage content youâre already putting out to give value to people and build your email list by emailing out your blog posts. People get the convenience of reading your content without visiting your site to check for new posts, and you get an invitation directly into their inbox.Â
One fantastically easy way to get this going is with a signup form on your website and MailChimpâs RSS-to-Email featureâitâs all set-it-and-forget-it. Once itâs set up, you donât have to do anything but keep creating great content. Your blog posts will be automatically put together into a daily digest and sent each day to everyone on your list.
Iâll give you the rundown on one way to set this up. If youâre an Evermore customer, you donât have to install anything. Just activate and go!
MailChimp Account
(If you have an existing MailChimp account, skip on down to âCreating a Listâ.)
Start by signing up for a new MailChimp account. Itâs free! Once you submit your information, youâll get an activation email in your inbox. Click that and walk through the steps of putting in your information.
When youâre done, youâll find yourself on your fancy new Dashboard.
Creating a List
Youâll need to create a new empty list of people to send your posts to. Click on âListsâ on the left side of your Dashboard, and then click the âCreate Listâ button in the top right corner.
Fill out the information required, but do note that your subscribers will see a few things you fill in here. The âList Nameâ should clearly state what this list isâsomething like âYour Company Name Blog Digestâ should do fine. The email you set up as the default âfromâ email should be real, because thatâs what folks might reply to. Lastly, a good example for the âRemind people how they got on your listâ field is, âYou signed up to receive Your Company Nameâs blog posts by email.â
Once youâre done with everything, click âSaveâ.
The Magic: Setting up the Subscription Form
From here, youâll have to do a few minutes of fancy footwork. But remember, you only have to do it once! And, Evermore customers, you can feel free to contact us for assistance if you have trouble.
Start by clicking âSignup formsâ (you can see it on the screenshot above), or go back to your main Lists page, click on the dropdown menu for your new list, and click âSignup formsâ.
Select âEmbedded formsâ, and then choose the âNakedâ form option.
Now, look for the âCopy/paste onto your siteâ section, which has a bunch of gobbledygook code in it. Copy everything in that section, open a text editing program (like Notepad, TextEdit, or Word), and paste that whole bunch of code in there. Weâre only going to get one URL out of it, called the âform actionâ.
Look for a bit of code that looks like:
<form action=ââ//aprilseal.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=48ad14a990cc034f28fe42378&id=4b42c87bc0â method=âpostâ
âŠ
What we want is the URL between the quotation marks. So, in the example I gave above, it would be:
//aprilseal.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=48ad14a990cc034f28fe42378&id=4b42c87bc0
Now, hold on to that URL. Youâre doing great! And, now you can tell your friends that you worked with code. đ
Subscription WidgetÂ
Now, log in to the backend of your WordPress (Evermore) website. Once logged in, head over to the âPluginsâ section and activate âGenesis eNews Extendedâ. If youâre not on Evermore, download and install the plugin. This is a widget that will power your subscription form.Â
Now, go to Appearance > Widgets. Find the âGenesis – eNews Extendedâ widget on the left side. Click it, and choose which area to add it to. I recommend either the âAfter Entryâ area if you have it (which places it below your blog posts), or your primary sidebar.
Great! Now, youâre going to fill in some details. A screenshot of a correctly set up widget is below, but hereâs what you need to know:Â
- The âTitleâ and âText To Show Before Formâ fields are yours to customize. Tell people what theyâll get when they sign up!
- Ensure that âEmail Fieldâ says âEMAILââit needs to be all capital letters.
- Finally, in âForm Actionâ paste that special URL we just worked on a minute ago. This will tell the form to send the email address to MailChimp.
Click âSaveââyouâre all set there!
Creating the RSS Feed Campaign
Before setting up your RSS campaign, hereâs all you need to know: your âRSS Feed URLâ will be your website, with â/feedâ added to the end. For example: yoursite.com/feed.
Pro tip: If you want to only include posts from a category, you can do that, too! For instance, if you only want to send posts from your âBusinessâ category, simply make the RSS URL yoursite.com/category/business/feed.
Instead of repeating everything here, read MailChimpâs instructions on creating an RSS-driven campaign or watch the handy video below. Youâll have a beautiful template set up for your digest in no time!
Make sure you send a test email to yourself, just to see it all working. Use the âPreview & Testâ dropdown menu while editing your campaign and send a test email.
Once youâve clicked âStart RSSâ, youâre all set up! Excellent! Now, folks can sign up to your email list and automatically get your blog postsâand you have their email address!
Now, we should clearly state: donât abuse that privilege. They signed up to get your blog posts, not your marketing emails. Donât spam them! Youâll not only lose subscribers, youâll seem untrustworthy. Writing great content will do your selling for you over time.
Bonus: Improving Images
To really clean up your emails, use the Send Images to RSS plugin to ensure all your images are the right size for your email template. Itâs magic!