Starting Your Email List

Building an email list is important if you truly want to build a sustainable, profitable online business.

You may have heard the saying – the money is in the list.

Whilst it can be a slightly crass saying, if you’re not capturing your audience’s emails, you could be missing out on both money and valuable connection opportunities.

So many of us can spend a lot of time building our Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or other social platform followers.

However, building your email list is where you can truly build relationships with both your clients and your potential clients.

Email lists are also something that you own. Completely.

With all the changes going on right now with social media platforms, you have no control over these getting shut down.

Imagine having thousands or even hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and the whole platform gets taken down!

What exactly is an email autoresponder?

An email autoresponder is a tool that allows you to both collect email addresses and sends automatic emails based on the criteria you set up.

If you’re just starting out, you could choose a free autoresponder such as the free tier on Mailchimp or MailerLite.

However, many of the more feature-rich autoresponders, such as CovertKit, start at a very low entry cost of $10 per month.

Other popular email autoresponders include ActiveCampaign, Keap by InfusionSoft, Get Response and more.

Of course prices will vary so it pays to shop around.

Email autoresponder features

Some of the key features I suggest you consider when choosing the best autoresponder for you include:

• Email templates – this makes setting up your emails easier, allowing you to choose a template to go with your business branding and have a consistent look and feel
• Automation – setting up email series, client onboarding emails, launch sequences and more is the power behind autoresponders
• Tracking – you want to be able to track what’s working and what isn’t so you can test and tweak
• Customer support – you want to be supported each step of the way
• Integrations – make sure you can integrate with other tools and services you use such as scheduling, analytics, payment processors and more