How to Set up a Mailing List
September 25, 2008
Email newsletters are an important part of marketing, but how do you put an opt-in option on your website so that poeple can sign up to your newsletter?”
There are a number of different ways that you can do this yourself. We will cover two simple ways here.
First of all, if you want to manage your email list manually, you can add a simple form to your website that will collect the subscriber’s information - email address - and send you an email with that info. This is a simple solution if you don’t want to have to try to figure out how to use a mailing list program - but it also means that you have to manage the list, and transfer the email addresses from the emails you get into a spreadsheet or whatever you are using to build your email list. This may be more hassle then it is worth, or it may work perfectly for you. The main thing is to find what works for you!
Form Experts
To add a form to your website, I recommend using this service, Form Experts - the Fastest and Easiest-to-Use Website Forms, Guaranteed. Advantage Website Solutions uses this service for our forms, and for our clients, and we have found it to be exceptional! You can make as many forms as you need for your website, and the service is inexpensive at less than $50/year. The user interface is simple and easy to navigate. You can use these forms without any knowledge of html or any other kind of programming. You have the option to choose the colors, fonts and sizes that you want, and more. You choose what email address you want the notifications to be sent to and whether or not you want an autoresponder to send an email to the subscriber automatically.
To integrate the form into your website, you can choose from two different options. You can let Form Experts host the form - for this option you would have a url to link to your form. We use this option a fair bit and just have the link open in a new window, so the visitor does not have to actually leave your website to subscribe. The other option is to put the form right into your webpage. Form Experts generates a piece of html code for this - and all you have to do is copy and paste the code into your website code wherever you want the form (or give it to your webmaster to paste in). Both of these methods are easy and simple. Form Experts does all the work, and you can relax knowing that when someone subscribes, the email will come right to your inbox for you to take care of from there!
Mailing List Software
Another option that we also use is mailing list software. Our preferred provider of this is BlueHost.com, where you can also get excellent web hosting, blogging tools, and many many other options for your website. They have partnered with other programs to be able to offer all of these fantastic tools to their customers - and we love it!
A software program that they offer is called PHP List, which is a program that will manage your email lists, subscriptions and your actual newsletters. You can do it all from this program! Setting it up is fairly straightforward, and involves customizing your subscribe pages, as well as the emails that are automatically sent when someone subscribes. You can customize the pages by adding your own logo. PHP List handles all of the details like adding new email addresses to your list, sending automated confirmation emails, as well as including easy links to unsubscribe as well in each email newsletter. You can design your newsletter right in the PHP List interface and automatically send it out to your mailing list.
To use PHP List in your website, you will just need to add your subscribe link, which you can find in the PHP List management page, to your website wherever you want people to be able to click on it!
You do not have to sign up for a BlueHost account to use PHP List. If you do not need the web hosting or the other cool programs BlueHost offers, then you can go straight to PHPList.com and use it alone - but don’t forget that BlueHost has it all in one place - hosting, domains, blogging, mail list, photo albums and more, and it’s not expensive (less than $100/year for everything)!
Which option do you choose? This will depend on what you are comfortable with, and what works best for you and your business! But if you need some assistance, or suggestions, or just some coaching to help you set it up, don’t be afraid to contact someone who can help you!