Grow Blog Audience with Email Marketing
As someone looking to bring in readers to your blog, simply writing good content isn’t going to cut it.
While organic traffic from search engines and social media can drive readers to your site, building a loyal audience that returns for more requires a direct and personal approach.
And a good way of reaching people directly is through their email inboxes.
That might feel a little bit outdated, but the reality is that email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to cultivate a dedicated readership.
If done right, it can turn casual visitors into engaged subscribers and long-term supporters of your blog.
In this guide, we’re going to look at how you can use email marketing to grow your blog audience effectively!
Why Email Marketing is Essential for Blog Growth
If you’ve spent any time on social media – and let’s face it, who hasn’t? – you’ll know that the content you get shown on social media is heavily dictated by the algorithms running in the background.
The key difference between social media and email marketing is that email provides direct communication with your audience, not influenced in any way by an algorithm.
When a reader subscribes to your email list, they are giving you permission to engage with them regularly.
This level of access is crucial for building trust, driving consistent traffic, and establishing your authority in your niche.
On top of this, email marketing can offer a higher return on investment compared to other digital marketing strategies.
Studies show that email generates significantly higher conversion rates than social media, meaning your subscribers are more likely to take action when reading your updates.
That action will vary, of course, depending on the calls to action (CTA) you’re using. However, if you’re reading this article, we can assume the main CTA will be to send people to your blog.
Another advantage of email marketing is its ability to foster long-term relationships.
While a one-time visitor may forget your blog after reading an article, a subscriber who receives valuable content in their inbox regularly is more likely to stay engaged and return for future updates.
How to Use Email Marketing to Grow a Blog Audience
Now that we know why email marketing can be so powerful for anyone looking to grow a readership for their blog, it’s time to look at how we do it.
There are any number of methods to make use of when it comes to building a mailing list, so we’re going to look at each one.
This will include information on how to build a list from scratch, how to write an engaging update, and much more. Keep reading to learn more!
Building an Email List from Scratch
The foundation of successful email marketing is a high-quality email list.
It can be tempting to just acquire a whole bunch of emails and start blasting out updates. Whilst you can do this (there are plenty of places to purchase addresses), you should focus on attracting engaged subscribers who are genuinely interested in your content.
One of the best ways to encourage sign-ups is by offering a compelling lead magnet, which is an incentive that provides immediate value in exchange for an email address.
For example, this could be an exclusive ebook, a downloadable checklist, a free course, or a resource library related to your blog niche. Lead magnets should align with your blog’s content and directly address the needs of your target audience.
Really, any digital product can be a lead magnet if you want it to be. To help you come up with ideas, we’ve outlined five essential digital products for all side hustles.
To maximise sign-ups, strategically place opt-in forms across your website. A prominent sign-up box in the header, an exit-intent popup, and a call-to-action at the end of blog posts can all encourage visitors to subscribe.
A well-designed landing page dedicated to collecting email addresses can further improve conversions, especially when paired with social media promotion.
Crafting Engaging Email Content
Once you've built a list of subscribers, the next step is to keep them engaged. Sending generic or overly promotional emails will quickly lead to unsubscribes, so focus on delivering valuable content that aligns with your blog’s purpose.
A good approach for this is to look at your content or ideas objectively, putting yourself in the shoes of your readers.
Thinking about your content, would you be genuinely interested in reading your email updates? If the answer to this is no, then you should think twice before sending it out.
It only takes one bad email, or one too many promotions, to turn people off of your brand. Every single update you send should be considered, providing your readers with concrete, actionable advice.
On top of this, each email should have a clear objective, whether it’s introducing a new blog post, providing exclusive insights, or encouraging engagement.
Personalising emails with the subscriber’s name and tailoring content based on their preferences can also improve engagement. Look for email services that allow you to do this, as they’ll for an increased level of customisation.
Before you send a single update, be sure to read through our complete guide to writing engaging content online.
Automating Email Campaigns for Better Engagement
Manually managing an email list can be time-consuming, but automation tools allow you to streamline the process while maintaining a personal touch.
Setting up automated sequences ensures that subscribers receive the right content at the right time without requiring constant manual effort.
A welcome email sequence is essential for nurturing new subscribers. This should introduce them to your blog, highlight your best content, and set expectations for future emails. Instead of sending a single welcome email, consider a series of automated messages that gradually build engagement over a few days or weeks.
For those selling products or services, email automation can also be used to guide subscribers through a sales funnel. This could involve sending a series of educational emails before introducing an offer, ensuring that potential customers are well-informed and ready to take action.
Below you can see a great guide from Gillian Perkins explaining how to set up a sales funnel:
Driving Blog Traffic Through Email Marketing
If you’re reading this guide, you likely want to push more people towards your blog. And that’s only fair! You’ve spent so much time writing articles, it makes sense you want people to see them.
The good news is that one of the primary benefits of email marketing is its ability to drive consistent traffic to your blog. Every time you publish a new post, sending an email update ensures that your audience knows about it immediately.
There is a caveat to that, however. If you’re publishing more than one blog post per week, we’d recommend either:
a. Picking one of the articles to send out to your email subscribers
b. Sending one update at the end of the week that includes both articles
Showing up in your readers’ inbox is great, but there’s a fine line between being a welcome update they enjoy reading, and sending too many updates that they start to ignore them.
Whichever way you do it, focus on creating compelling email previews. Instead of simply stating Hey guys, I have a new blog post, please read it!, craft a short teaser that sparks curiosity and encourages readers to click through.
A good way to do this is by highlighting the key takeaways from the article itself. That may sound like giving away the goods before your audience heads to your blog, but trust me, providing instant value is the best way of getting people to want to read more.
Measuring Success and Optimising Your Strategy
Like with every form of digital marketing, you need to be constantly analysing the data and making optimisations to ensure you’re on the right track.
No matter which tool you use for your email marketing, it should give you access to audience data that’ll show you a snapshot of how well your updates are performing.
The key metrics you should be looking at are:
Open rates: How many people saw the title of your update in their inbox and decided to open it up to read the full email.
Click-Through Rates: How many people, after opening and then reading your update, decided to follow the link(s) you included – be that to a blog, product, or something else.
Conversion Rates: How many people, after clicking the link in your update, then went on to purchase something, thus converting from a reader to a customer. This doesn’t have to apply to making a purchase. If the goal of the email is to get people to subscribe to an Instagram account, for example, their doing so would be the conversion.
Checking these analytics on a regular basis provides insight into how well your emails are performing. If engagement is low, experimenting with different subject lines, formats, or content strategies can help improve results.
Something you might not think about is removing subscribers. Yeah, removing them.
It’s also important to maintain a healthy email list by periodically removing inactive subscribers. While it may seem counterintuitive to delete subscribers, a smaller but highly engaged list is more valuable than a large list with low open rates.
Ensuring that your list consists of readers who genuinely want to hear from you helps improve deliverability and overall campaign effectiveness.
Conclusion
When done right – with regular optimisation - email marketing is one of the most powerful tools for bloggers looking to grow their audience.
By building an engaged subscriber base, crafting valuable content, and – of course – listening to the data – you can turn one-time visitors into loyal readers who keep returning to your blog.
The real key to success in email marketing lies in providing real value. Nobody wants to open every single email you send them just to be sold something.
So the golden rule is this: Whatever the ultimate goal of your email – be that website visits, product purchases, or anything else – you should always seek to provide real, genuine value with each and every update.
That’s the only way you’ll see your email marketing efforts pay off!
If you’re reading this guide, you’re no doubt running a blog of your own. If you’re struggling to see results with it, we have just the thing to help!
In our ultimate guide, we explain how you can start a side hustle blog that’ll help you grow a passive income stream!
