List Building for
Bloggers
Phil Hollows
@phollows
What You’ll Learn Today
• Why email is more relevant today than
ever before.
• How to build a better list, faster.
• How to make your mailings more effective
and engaging.
There will be “Tweetable Tips”
Please tag with #BWENY #LBB
About Phil Hollows
• Author of “List Building for Bloggers” e-book.
• Founder and CEO of FeedBlitz, the premium
FeedBurner alternative.
• FeedBlitz sends:
• ~1 BILLION updates a year
• on behalf of more than 160k lists
• for over 72,000 bloggers
• FeedBlitz gets your word out via email, RSS,
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and IM.
• Clients include: Seth Godin, Money Saving
Mom.
Why isn’t Email Dead
in the Age of Social Media?
Email is the most powerful,
effective and relevant
subscription option that exists
today.
Are you Wasting your Blog’s
Most Precious Resource?
“I get ten times more response to my
blog from my email subscribers
than I do from anyone else.”
Seth Godin
#LBB #BWENY
You can’t Afford to Ignore Email
• Everyone online has at least one email account.
• Email readers typically outnumber RSS readers
3:1 or better
• Hubspot said 12:1 in 2009!
• Email subscribers are more committed to you.
• It takes work to join a list!
• CAPTCHAs to prove your human.
• Dual opt-in to verify your address.
• Remember: You are not your audience.
Email Subscriptions are
Better for You
• Full branding.
• Activity tracking.
• Committed
subscribers.
Email is an Essential Part of Hub
and Spoke Content Marketing
• While all the other
elements of your work
are important and
probably cooler than
email…
• … if Google went
away tomorrow, what
would keep your
blogging business
alive?
Your list
So What’s the Problem?
Plugins, widgets & social media tools have
made hundreds of thousands of us accidental
email marketers.
And we’re messing it up. #BWENY #LBB
Easy Tips to
Grow Your List Faster
The keys to email marketing
success are permission,
relevance and timeliness. #LBB
#BWENY
Make it Easy to Subscribe
• Is it easy to find your subscription form?
•
•
•
•
•
Is it on every page?
Do visitors have to scroll?
How many clicks before they enter their email?
Is it linked to by an inscrutable icon?
Does it appear after less popular subscription
methods?
• Remember, you are not your audience!
Don’t Do This…
• The email icon is after
RSS
• Even though RSS is
unfamiliar.
• The email icon is
unclear.
• Mail me?
• Subscribe?
• Forward to a friend?
• There’s at least one
extra click to get to
the form.
Better, But…
• The email icon is now
the first to be seen.
• Put the most popular,
accessible method
first.
• But it’s still ambiguous.
• There’s still a click
needed to get to the
subscription form.
Best!
• There is no ambiguity.
• There is a concrete
call to action.
• There are zero clicks
to get to the form.
• Other sharing options
remain.
Power Tip #1
Make your Subscription Form Visible
• Move it “above the fold.”
• Don’t hide it with a confusing email or RSS
icon.
• Count the pages to visit before entering
the email address.
• Get that down count to ZERO.
• Don’t skimp on proving permission.
• Subscribe to your own mailings.
Power Tip #2
Enable SM Cross-Promotion
• Add social media
options to your
mailing.
• Facebook tips:
• Add your email service’s
Facebook app to your
Pages.
• Ask for subscriptions when
you post.
• Make sure “email to a
friend” is enabled.
Power Tip #3
Add Incentives
•
•
•
•
Reward subscribers for joining your list.
Make the reward visible!
Ensure your incentive is relevant.
Use an autoresponder or custom landing
page to deliver the reward.
• Reward current subscribers with bonuses
to help with retention.
MoneySavingMom.com Example
•
•
•
•
The incentive is prominent: Above the banner!
It’s highly relevant to the site’s audience.
It takes subscribers straight to the CAPTCHA page.
Post activation pages take the new subscriber back to
the site.
• Net list growth has doubled with this incentive.
Power Tip #4
Make the Most of Offline Events
• Create a sign-up sheet
for your seminars.
• When you exchange
business cards, ask if you
may add to the list.
• Use QR codes to link to
event pages and
subscription forms.
• Add links to printed
collateral, t-shirts etc.
There are NO Shortcuts
• Don’t add subscribers who did
not give you their explicit permission.
• Don’t bury permission in terms of service etc.
• Don’t import from a list you don’t own.
•
Not from your spouse, BFF or CEO.
• Don’t import from an unrelated list you do own.
• Never, ever, EVER buy lists.
•
•
They will contain spam traps.
You will be blacklisted.
• Don’t spam your LinkedIn contacts.
• Bottom line: If you’re not sure, don’t.
The instant you add *just one* email address to your
list without permission, you are a SPAMMER.
#LBB #BWENY
Improving Engagement
Or
100,000 subscribers doesn’t count
for squat if only your mother is
opening your emails.
Open Sesame
•
•
•
•
•
Build compelling subject lines and copy.
Reinforce your brand.
Write for the three different reader types.
Be imperative with your calls to action.
Repetition works.
Subscribe to your own email updates.
If you don’t like what you get, your subscribers
probably won’t either. #LBB #BWENY
Power Tip #5
Use Compelling Copywriting
• Use direct, imperative calls to action.
• Reduce choices to reduce reader
confusion.
• Write short, SEO-friendly titles and subject
lines.
• Accommodate different reader types:
• Have at least one image per post for visual readers.
• Use headlines for scanners.
• Fulfill the subject line’s promise.
Subject Line Hints & Tips:
Neuromarketing
• Nasty out performs nice.
• Don’t ask for the order. Tell them to give it to
you.
• Low numbers work well, especially odd ones.
• Be urgent
• Buy now, do it today, immediate download!
• Use (but don’t abuse) the all-time classics:
• “You are not alone”
• “Did you get it?”
Power Tip #6
Check Your Branding and Design
• Make your “From” name and address be what
subscribers expect.
• Don’t be redundant in your subject line.
• Keep subjects short.
• 35 characters for mobile phones!
• Test in gmail, with & without images enabled.
• Fix problems with, or avoid using:
• CSS, background images, positioning
• Image descriptions, light text on dark backgrounds
• Text to image balance
Unsubscribes are a
Form of Engagement
• Don’t ignore unsubscribes.
• Someone saying “goodbye” is still telling you
something.
• It feels personal, but it most likely isn’t.
• Spikes in unsubscribe and complaint rates
may indicate:
• You’re losing relevance.
• You’re mailing too often.
• You’re mailing too little.
Engagement Killers
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Broken images.
Boring content.
Burying the lead.
Ignoring the mobile audience.
Over-reliance on video and images.
Over-mailing.
Under-mailing.
Intermission
Who’d like a T-Shirt? 
Spam and Deliverability:
Truth, Lies and Compliance
CAN-SPAM: Required Irrelevance
• CAN-SPAM compliance is a legal requirement.
• But it’s irrelevant for deliverability and inbox placement.
• Being CAN-SPAM compliant does not mean your email isn’t spam.
• But it’s the ISPs who decide where your email goes.
•
•
•
•
The primary driver is sender (IP) reputation.
Reputation is based on complaint rates, bounce handling and history.
Content filters come much later.
CAN-SPAM compliance is not a criteria used by receiving ISPs.
If you use a reputable email service and
always use dual opt-in, you should have
no problem getting email to the inbox. #LBB #BWENY
Engaging the New
Subscriber
Autoresponders and well-planned landing
pages make the most of your new
subscriber’s enthusiasm. #LBB #BWENY
Power Tip #7
Set Up an Autoresponder
• Define your new subscriber mailing sequence:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Thanks for subscribing.
Here’s a special offer for new subscribers.
Check out our top ten most popular posts.
Survey: How do you like the site?
Here are the first three chapters of my e-book
Join the e-book affiliate program.
…
• At a minimum, say “Thank you for subscribing.”
• End the series with a reward for staying with it.
Power Tip #8
Spiff Up your Landing Page
•
•
•
•
Thank them!
Deliver any sign-up reward / incentive.
Offer more subscriptions to other content.
Add links to your best / most popular
posts.
• Ask for referrals.
• Test and optimize.
Multi-List Strategies
Simple subscriber self-selection
for content, location and schedule
preferences reduce churn and
complaint rates. #LBB #BWENY
Choice is Good
• Multi-list strategies reduce churn.
• Subscribers self-select into a list that is right for them.
• They’re therefore much less likely to leave it.
• It’s easy to build multiple lists from a blog:
• Use tags and categories to focus content.
• Use multiple schedules to accommodate recipient
preferences.
• Make these choices available on the sign-up form.
More from MoneySavingMom.com
• Over 100 different
lists.
• Some filtered by topic.
• Some filtered by
schedule.
• Some filtered by
content.
• All built from the
same blog.
Power Tip #9
Diversify with Multiple Lists
• Offer different schedules for the same content.
• e.g. Express, daily and / or weekly digests.
• Offer content-specific lists.
• Decide how to offer them to readers.
• Do you have user-driven searches and feeds?
• Offer email subscriptions for search results via API.
• Add the lists you create to your landing page.
What Next?
• Make the easy changes first.
• You’ll be wasting your time on other tasks otherwise.
• Pace yourself.
• It can feel overwhelming, especially if there’s lots to
do.
• Take one task at a time, one day at a time.
• Test! See how each change works for you.
• See if you can improve, tune and tweak.
• Don’t be afraid to roll a change back if it doesn’t work.
• Please let me know how you get on!
List Building for Bloggers
THANK YOU!
Questions? Comments?
Step Up!
You’re more than welcome to chat with me
here at the conference too.
phil@feedblitz.com
@phollows
List Building for Bloggers
Thank You!
FeedBlitz.com/bweny11