This post takes things a step further. You’ll learn about the benefits of creating a handcrafted newsletter using Mailchimp. We’ll help you plan for success and get started.<\/p>\n
We know it\u2019s definitely a good idea to have some sort of option available for readers who would like to receive an email when you publish new blog posts.<\/p>\n Most people check their email every day and it’s more of a sure bet than sharing your posts on social media and hoping for the best.<\/p>\n Our last post<\/a> explained the two choices for sending out emails when you publish new blog posts.<\/p>\n Here’s a summary graphic of your two choices:<\/p>\n Remember to check out our previous pos<\/a>t if you want to learn how to set up RSS.<\/p>\n This guide takes you through 4 steps to getting your email newsletter set up:<\/p>\n Before you begin, it pays to take a bit of time to consider your plan.<\/p>\n Here are 5 key questions to consider. Scroll down for a printable planning worksheet.<\/p>\n Creating an ongoing email newsletter can take a little work but there are rewards. Consider why you want to build your following and community through a regular newsletter.<\/p>\n This isn’t information you need to make public but it’s good to keep in mind.<\/p>\n This goal is probably related to the reason you set up a blog in the first place.<\/p>\n This tutorial uses Mailchimp<\/a>. We have no affiliations with Mailchimp but have used it for 10+ years and it’s one of the most popular platforms out there.<\/p>\n Importantly, Mailchimp is free if you have under 2000 subscribers. It’s fairly intuitive to use (drag and drop) and their help documents are excellent.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re interested in comparing different email platforms, check out this guide from ProBlogger<\/a> or comparison chart from PC Mag.\u00a0<\/a>We encourage you to find the provider that works best for your needs.<\/p>\n Obviously, you have to do this legally. You can’t just start emailing people without their permission.<\/p>\n When you set up an account with a platform like Mailchimp, you’ll have access to a URL with your sign-up form.<\/p>\n For example, this is what our sign-up form looks like for the Student Blogging Challenge<\/a>:<\/p>\n https:\/\/studentchallenge.edublogs.org\/stay-in-the-loop-with-student-blogging-challenge-news\/<\/a><\/p>\n You want to make it as easy as possible for people to know about your newsletter and how they can opt in.<\/p>\n Here are some key places to consider sharing your sign-up form:<\/p>\n The main thing you probably want to include is your latest blog post(s).<\/p>\n Some people copy and paste the whole blog post into an email but a more popular approach is to summarise it and include a link for subscribers to keep reading.<\/p>\n Some people also like to include other information in their newsletters such as:<\/p>\n Your content could basically be anything you think might be of value to your readers. Are you aiming to educate, entertain, inspire? Perhaps a mix of all three?<\/p>\n It pays to consider the needs of your audience and stick to the topic(s) you’re known for e.g. edtech, social studies, English teaching etc.<\/p>\n Also, consider whether you want an image-heavy email or a simple plain text newsletter? There are pros and cons but simple does work for some people.<\/p>\n Here’s an example from well-known SEO blogger Brian Dean who has hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Brian uses a very simple image-free design with text that’s friendly yet to the point.<\/p>\n You don’t have<\/em> to tell people how often you’ll be sending out emails but it can be a good way to stay committed to your blogging goals.<\/p>\n For example, if you say you’ll be sharing a new blog post every two weeks or every month, you’ll have the incentive to do it! Your readers will be waiting to hear from you.<\/p>\n This printable planning PDF<\/a> will help if you want to jot down your ideas before moving on.<\/p>\n This part is fairly straightforward although we recommend Mailchimp’s getting started guide<\/a> if you’re unsure.<\/p>\n The three most important steps to explore are:<\/p>\n Click on “Campaigns”.<\/p>\n Click “Email”.<\/p>\n Type a Campaign Name (subscribers won’t see this) and then press “Begin”.<\/p>\n You are now presented with four important steps<\/strong> to create your campaign.<\/p>\n As each of these four tasks are completed, a green checkmark will appear.<\/p>\n If you scroll down further you’ll see an option to personalize your campaign link.<\/strong> This is the URL for the email that you’ll be able to share online once you send your email (perhaps on social media). All users can edit their campaign link but you have to be a paid user to include your website domain. Click here<\/a> to read Mailchimp’s help guide on campaign links.<\/p>\n If you need more assistance filling out the to<\/strong>, from<\/strong>, or subject<\/strong> field, check out this help guide from Mailchimp.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Let’s take a closer look at designing the content<\/strong> of your email…<\/p>\n The final step involves putting the content of your email together.<\/p>\n The free version on Mailchimp only includes the basic templates. This is fine.<\/p>\n If you’re not sure what template to choose, stick with the basic “1 column” template. You can always change it over time.<\/p>\n It’s now time to design the look of your emails. If you’re new to Mailchimp, you can definitely keep this simple!<\/p>\n Here are the most important steps:<\/p>\n Hover over the word “Logo” and click on the pencil icon. Follow the prompts to upload an image that represents you and your website.<\/p>\n (If you don’t want an image just click on the trash can icon in the Logo box).<\/p>\n Hover over the block of text and click on the pencil icon. You’ll write the text of your newsletter on the right-hand side using the familiar editing tools to format (bold, italics, link etc.).<\/p>\n You might start by introducing your new blog post and then add the link to your blog so subscribers can read the full post.<\/p>\n If you have any other interesting information to share such as other useful links or tips, add this underneath.<\/p>\n Tips for writing your newsletter:<\/strong><\/p>\n There are different schools of thought about whether you should use images throughout your newsletter.<\/p>\n Some people like images to break up the text and illustrate the content. Plain text emails are also very popular and some people find a very simple email is better received.<\/p>\n If you do want to add images to your email, drag over an image block from the right-hand side to the work area on the left-hand side. You’ll then be prompted to upload your image.<\/p>\n There are different choices available. You can drag over a simple “Image” block or “Image Group”, “Image Card”, or “Image + Caption”.<\/p>\n Learn more about designing your email in this help guide from Mailchimp.<\/a><\/p>\n A final helpful tip is to preview what your email will look like and\/or send a test email to yourself or someone else who can offer you feedback.<\/p>\n You’ll find these options at the top of the page under “Preview and Test”.<\/p>\n “Open Link Checker” is another very helpful tool if you use multiple links in your email. It helps you double-check they’re all correct!<\/p>\n Select “Save and Close” in the bottom right-hand corner of the page when you’re ready to move on.<\/p>\n Once your email is all set up, you should see a green checkmark next to the To, From, Subject, and Content sections of the Campaign Builder.<\/p>\n You can check your details and then use one of three options:<\/p>\n We’ve mentioned that creating a handcrafted email does take a little bit of extra time than the RSS option, however, you don’t have to start from scratch every time.<\/p>\n You can replicate a campaign to create a copy of any campaign in your account.<\/p>\n All you need to do is:<\/p>\n Follow the prompts to edit your campaign details. Check out Mailchimp’s guide to replicating campaigns<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n Another option is to create your own template<\/a> which you can use when writing new emails. Mailchimp’s help guide walks you through this process.<\/p>\n If you want to get really serious about building your email list, do what the pros do: offer an opt-in or freebie for subscribers!<\/p>\n Offering your readers an opt-in offer or “content upgrade” is a proven way to grow your email list. An opt-in freebie is simply a free downloadable file.<\/p>\n Your readers might be on the fence about signing up for your newsletter or they might not even realize you have a newsletter.<\/p>\n An incentive might be all they need to hand over their email address and join your community. Then surely they’ll like what you offer and stick around!<\/p>\n What can you create as an opt-in offer? Here are some ideas:<\/p>\n Where would you design your freebie? Two popular free design tools are Google Drawings and Canva. We have guides to both of these tools:<\/p>\n If you’re using Mailchimp, this guide<\/a> explains how to send a file (freebie) to new subscribers.<\/p>\n You’re putting the effort into writing your email newsletter, so you want as many people as possible to enjoy it, right? An opt-in offer could be the solution you need to grow your list.<\/p>\n The only thing to remember is if you grow your list too rapidly, you’ll have to pay to use your email platform. For example, Mailchimp is free until you have 2000 subscribers. Remember to clean up your list<\/a> before paying!<\/p>\n It’s an excellent idea for all bloggers to offer readers a chance to be notified of new blog posts via email.<\/p>\n![\"Learn](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Set-Up-An-Email-Newsletter-To-Share-Your-Blog-Posts-Using-Mailchimp.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Benefit Of Creating Emails Manually<\/h2>\n
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![\"If](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/10\/Share-new-blog-posts-via-email.png\")
<\/a><\/h2>\nHow To Set Up Your Email Newsletter<\/h2>\n
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Part One: Planning<\/h3>\n
#1 What is your goal?<\/h4>\n
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#2 Which email marketing platform will you use?<\/h4>\n
#3 How will you collect email addresses?<\/h4>\n
![\"Example](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/STUBC-sign-up-form-example.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
#4 What will you include in your emails?<\/h4>\n
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![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Blog-content-Brian-Dean-example.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n#5 How frequently will your emails be sent out?<\/h4>\n
>>Click here to download a PDF copy.<\/a><\/h5>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Plan-Your-Email-Newsletter-Edublogs.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPart Two: Register And Set Up Your Mailchimp Account<\/h3>\n
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Registration tips:<\/h4>\n
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Part Three: Create An Email Campaign<\/h3>\n
1) Login to your Mailchimp account<\/h4>\n
![\"Click](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/10\/Campaign.png\")
2) From here click “Create Campaign”<\/h4>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/10\/Create-Campaign.png\")
<\/p>\n3) You’ll be presented with a range of campaign options<\/h4>\n
![\"click](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/10\/Rss-click-on-email.png\")
<\/p>\n4) Click on “Regular”<\/h4>\n
![\"Create](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Create-a-regular-Mailchimp-campaign-screenshot.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n5) Fill out your campaign information<\/h4>\n
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![\"4](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/4-steps-to-creating-a-Mailchimp-campaign-screenshot.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Click](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Edit-your-campaign-link.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPart Four: Design Your Email<\/h3>\n
1) From the campaign builder page, click “Design Email”<\/h4>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Design-email-button.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n2) Select your template<\/h4>\n
![\"Choose](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/10\/RSS-choose-template-e1572846361778.png\")
<\/p>\n4) Design Your Email<\/h4>\n
a) Add an image to the top of the email<\/h5>\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/10\/Add-your-logo-RSS-campaign.gif\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\nb) Edit the text<\/h5>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Editing-your-text-Mailchimp.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
c) Add an image to the body of the email (optional)<\/h5>\n
![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Add-an-image-to-your-email-e1572933127246.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nd) Test your email<\/h5>\n
![\"Preview](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/10\/enter-preview-mode-or-send-test-RSS.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Save-and-close-button.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n5) Confirm and send<\/h4>\n
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Save Time In Future: Replicate Your Email<\/h2>\n
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![\"Replicate](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Replicate-a-campaign-mailchimp.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBonus Tip: Create An Opt-In Offer!<\/h2>\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n
![\"Learn](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/11\/Set-Up-An-Email-Newsletter-To-Share-Your-Blog-Posts-Using-Mailchimp-PINTEREST.png\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![\"Learn](\"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/files\/2019\/10\/Share-Your-Blog-Posts-With-Automated-Mailchimp-Emails-RSS-PINTEREST-2.png\")
<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"