Email marketing is one of the most overlooked concepts to draw traffic to a blog. The best way to keep traffic interested in your blog is communicating with your readers. The link between you and your readers is an email list.
One of the first things a person does every day is check their email. Email alerts go to phones or pop up in the corner of your computer screen any time a person gets a new message. People are more likely to see an email before they visit your blog. Creating an email list will not only reach out to your readers, but draw them to your blog.
It’s important to fill your email newsletter with a variety of useful information. Include links to your blog as well as fresh content available only to email subscribers. You can even use an email list to make money selling ad space or partnering with other blogs to build traffic.
The first step in creating a successful email list is choosing the best email marketing service that fits your needs.
Constant Contact
The best part about Constant Contact is that you can try the service before you commit. For 60 days you can toy around with templates and complete services to see if they offer everything you want. Pre-made templates are available that require you to simply choose colors, photos, fonts and fill with your original content. The customer service is great as well.
Mail Chimp
Mail Chimp can be a completely free service, depending on the size of your email list. Each month the free service offers 12,000 emails to 2,000 contacts. If your list grows larger, you can upgrade to a paid account that charges you monthly. As of 2011, you can expect to pay between $10 and $240. Mail Chimp also provides pre-designed templates or you can upload your own from InDesign.
iContact
The future of email marketing lies with iContact. Unlike other services, you must pay to use iContact. However, the services provided with this company stretch further than Constant Contact or Mail Chimp. Currently iContact is developing software that allows you to share your newsletter with your email contacts, but also through social networks like Twitter and Facebook.
