Email lists are a fantastic way to keep in touch with your audience. They can help your brand to feel more personal. But how do you build one?

1. Get an email marketing service.

If you have yet to set up your email list, I have good news! Setting up an email list is surprisingly easy. There are many inexpensive email marketing services available that work well for what you will need to do. Many influencers recommend ConvertKit.

2. Make people want to join your list.

No one appreciates when an influencer buys followers, likes or comments. This also goes for email lists! If your brand is truly valuable, it is the kind of thing people will like without having to be coaxed.

One good way to encourage your existing following to join your email list is to offer an extra (product or discount) to those who sign up. For example, when you join LadyBossBlogger’s email list, you get her list of 50 free resources to start an online business.

There are many different ways to promote your email list.

• If you have a blog, you could offer a bonus post, or a bonus post per month for example, to those who sign up.
• If you are a brand, you could offer special deals on products, or you could even offer exclusive merchandise. 

3. Put your email list link in your bio.

It might surprise you how impactful this can be. Aside from your name and profile picture, your bio is the first thing people see on your social media.

Make it your email list link, and add to your bio what the link is for, and people will notice! The most loyal of your following will not want to miss the chance to become more involved with your brand as part of your audience.

4. Talk about your email list on your platform, and do it often.

If people are interested in your brand, the odds are that they read your social media posts. Use your social media to shamelessly promote your email list.

Instagram and Twitter and two of the best social media sites for this. And if you have an understanding of the current meme culture, you could use memes to promote your email list.

However, this last option can be risky, because memes become outdated very quickly, and you want your promotions to stick with people. But remember this advice: your memes don’t need to be timeless as long as they are used to promote timeless content.

Your memes don’t need to be timeless as long as they are used to promote timeless content. Click To Tweet

5. Host an event related to your brand.

This is where you have room to get creative! This is YOUR event, so consider what you would like to host that could draw people to your brand and (hopefully!) also to your email list.

Some ideas include a question and answer session, book discussion, meet-up, art show–whatever you feel is relevant to both your brand and your audience.

6. Do an email-list exclusive giveaway every month.

 People like being included in things, no one likes to be excluded. If people who have not subscribed to your email list see on Insta or Twitter that you are hosting a giveaway, they may want in!

But to be a part of it, of course, they have to subscribe to your email list. This is an excellent incentive, and it often works! One tip to make a giveaway even more exciting is to partner with other brands that your target audience also might enjoy.

7. A little goes a long way.

The fastest way to drive people to unsubscribe to your email list is to spam them with emails daily. Don’t do this! It is not about the quantity of your emails, it’s about the quality.

Make your email list something worth subscribing to! Email no more than weekly (this will make your audience look forward to an email from you!) and pack each email with valuable content that your audience will appreciate!

8. Know your audience.

This is the most important step! Figure out what they like and you will be much more successful than if you blindly throw content to them without knowing who they are. Who is your target demographic? Once you know this, research them.

Do surveys on Instagram and/or Twitter about what content they would like to see. People LOVE to give feedback, and they will love your brand a lot more if you encourage them to do this.

And don’t be discouraged! You’ve gotten far already, and an email list is just another way for you to reach for your goals!

Elisabeth Chase is a photographer, student and writer who is passionate about blogging. Through her writing, she hopes to help others learn how to blog and share what they love with the world.