Most businesses put off email marketing for longer than they should. They’ll start once they have more subscribers, a better offer, or more time to do it properly. Meanwhile they’re not collecting addresses, not building a list, and handing a compounding advantage to whoever got started earlier.
Starting is straightforward. You need an account with an email tool, a way to collect addresses, and something worth saying. That’s genuinely it. Here’s how to get there without overthinking it.
Step 1: pick a tool and start
The most common reason people don’t start is spending weeks comparing platforms and never signing up for one.
Mailchimp is free up to 500 contacts. Fine for getting started, widely documented, easy to find help online. Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is better for service businesses and content creators, free up to 10,000 subscribers with basic features. Brevo has a generous free plan with good automation built in.
If you can’t decide: use Mailchimp. You can migrate later. What you can’t do is recover the time you spent not building a list while deliberating over platforms.
Step 2: set up your opt-in form
Your email tool will generate a form you can embed on your website. Put it on your homepage, at the bottom of blog posts, and consider a non-intrusive popup (triggered after 30 seconds or on exit intent, not immediately on landing). Not buried in the footer.
“Subscribe to our newsletter” is not a reason to sign up. It’s not even really a sentence. Tell people what they’re getting: “Weekly no-fluff marketing tips” or “Download our free checklist for X”, something specific and immediately useful. Every extra field you ask for reduces sign-ups, so ask for as little as possible to start. Name and email is plenty.
Step 3: write a welcome email worth reading
Your welcome email gets opened more than any other email you’ll ever send. It goes out when interest is at its peak, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. Most businesses waste it with a “Thanks for subscribing!” and nothing else.
Use it to deliver whatever you promised, tell people exactly what to expect (frequency and content), and give them something genuinely useful, not a sales pitch. You have their full attention for about thirty seconds. Make it count.
Step 4: actually send emails
The most common failure mode after setup: not sending anything because it’s not perfect yet. Done is better than perfect in email marketing, particularly at the start. A simple, plain-text email with something useful in it will outperform a beautifully designed template that never gets sent.
Pick a frequency you can sustain. Weekly is ideal if you have the material. Monthly is fine if you don’t. Occasional is not fine, it means people forget who you are between sends and your open rates suffer.
Step 5: grow the list consistently
Put your sign-up link in your email footer. Mention your list at relevant moments in customer conversations. Add a QR code pointing to your sign-up page at your premises or on printed materials. These small, persistent touchpoints compound over time into a meaningful list.
Don’t buy email lists. Besides being largely problematic under GDPR, purchased lists are full of people who didn’t ask to hear from you, which means poor open rates, spam complaints, and a damaged sending reputation that takes months to repair. Build it properly from the start.
