Zero to e-mail list in 15 minutes - ⚡️Kristen Kalp

Zero to e-mail list in 15 minutes

Let’s imagine that you have a somewhat rustic yet totally modern, lived-in studio space full of your goods in a pedestrian-only part of town.

Your store is always full of people stopping by to browse your goodies — and to buy them, too!  As people browse, they pick up the flyers, postcards, and other promotional items you’ve placed throughout the store.  They take them even if they don’t buy anything, just for future reference.

Of course, you also slip a postcard or two into the bag of each person that purchases an item in your store.

Unfortunately, with an online presence, you don’t have all the benefits of a brick and mortar store at your disposal.

No customers wandering in from down the street, no daily face time with potential clients, and certainly no chance of slipping a postcard into their bags to save for later.  That’s where your e-mail list comes in.

E-mail marketing is quiet, straight-forward, and endlessly powerful!

Your mailing list is your secret for driving traffic to your virtual storefront, as well as keeping your potential and past customers informed of what’s shaking in the land of incentives, promos, events, and new stuff.

Getting started in the land of e-mail marketing is actually pretty simple.

First, you need a list.  A professional list, not the kind where you blind CC all your friends and hope they forward your e-mails to other people.

This means signing up with a company like MailChimp or Mad Mimi or Aweber or Convertkit to handle your e-mail delivery and sign-ups.  Small lists of under 100 peeps are generally free or yours for a nominal monthly fee.

Now you’re ready to rock the e-mail list setup!

Gather your contacts. Dig around in your e-mails and invoices to find the e-mail addresses of anyone who’s purchased anything from you in the past year.

Next, create a new spreadsheet. Use a program such as Excel or Open Office to input and organize those e-mail addresses. Save all those e-mails, placed into a single column, as a .csv file.

Upload that .csv file to your spiffy new e-mail service provider. Once it’s uploaded, label that list ‘Customers.’

(By the way — this is legally a-okay, 100% expected.  You are within your rights to contact people who have made purchases in your store, and they are within their legal rights to opt out of your e-mails by unsubscribing at any time. I recommend an opening e-mail that asks their permission to contact them and that lets ’em know they’ll now be receiving your newsletter as a courtesy.)

It’s that simple to get started!  To keep reading, check out newsletter titles that will make your subscribers excited to open those shiny new e-mails from you.

P.S. If you’re like, BUT WTF AM I GOING TO *SAY*…?  Check out How to F*^(ing Communicate.  I’ll walk you through exactly how to create and maintain a profitable email list that doesn’t stress you the fuck out.