How are you communicating with your stakeholders? Do you have a regular newsletter that you send out? Or perhaps you even have an “email group” that you have created to send out updates. What about those who want to receive updates via email but are not sure how to get in your group? What if someone in your email group wants to add another email address or change their email address? Then YOU have to do all the work and upkeep. This wastes valuable time and money, especially if you are sending updates to hundreds or thousands of customers. You can save time and money by implementing an email subscription service.
How do email subscription services work?
Email subscription services allow you to have your clients, customers or stakeholders sign up to receive your message via email. You simply place a “Subscribe to my newsletter” box on your page (notice mine on the right) and then promote it to have people sign up. That’s it.
Which service do I use?
Personally, I use a service called MailChimp. While there are paid options for this service, I am using the free version because it fits what I am doing very well. MailChimp allows you to create different lists for different purposes and provides you with different templates help you get started. Additionally, this service provides you with some really good feedback.
This service is highly customizable. It does everything from providing forms to automatically ask people to confirm they want to sign up to allowing you to automatically send a “Welcome to my newsletter” emails.
For example, say you are launching a new portion of your website. You could add a link in your email that you are sending to your customers via MailChimp and then monitor how many times people click on that link. MailChimp also provides you with information on how many times your email has been opened.
Now, remember not to SPAM your subscribers with too many emails. This will just upset them and they will likely unsubscribe from your list. Another tip is to send a personal “thanks” email for those who sign up to your email list.
So, check it out and if you’d like to receive updates from me, please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter.
