Homestead Newsletters

Whether you are a business owner marketing to your customers or trying to stay connected to your network of friends and colleagues, an electronic mailing list can be an invaluable tool for your website. Creating a mailing list makes it easier to send announcements, promotions, and newsletters to many people at once using the power of email. In this short article we offer quick steps to creating a mailing list and adding elements to your website that allow visitors to add or remove themselves from your mailing list.

1. Create your mailing list
Once you’ve set up your domain name and your email account, it’s easy to create and use a mailing list. Here’s how to do it:

   1. Log in to your website account
   2. Click the ‘domains & email’ link in the left-hand menu.
   3. Click the ‘email accounts’ link. (The ‘Email Account’ page will appear.)
   4. Click the ‘New Mailing List’ link.
   5. Select an email address for your mailing list. This will be the address you use to send mail to your mailing list.
   6. Enter the email addresses that you would like to receive your mailing list. Separate the addresses with a comma or by pressing ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ on your keyboard.
   7. Click the ’save’ button to save your mailing list.

Once your mailing list is saved, you can send mail to your mailing list at any time by simply entering the mailing list address (from step # 5) into your email program.

Note: You will not be able to create a mailing list until there is at least one domain name registered or transferred to the account, and at least one email box created.

2. Let visitors join or remove themselves from your mailing list
Now that you’ve set up your mailing list, you can easily add elements to your website that allow visitors to join or remove themselves from the list. SiteBuilder allows you to add elements to your website that give customers the option to choose whether their email address will be included in future mailing sent to your list. Note: You will need to download the SiteBuilder software before these features will be available.

   1. Open and log in to SiteBuilder.
   2. Along the top of the page, click the element button that looks like a speech bubble. When you pass your mouse pointer over this button it will read ‘View Communication Tools Elements’.
   3. From this drop-down menu, choose ‘Join This Mailing List’ to create an element that lets visitors join your mailing list or choose ‘Remove Me From This Mailing List’ to create an element that lets them remove themselves.
   4. Customize the element properties to your liking using the editor on the right-side of the SiteBuilder window.
   5. Drag and drop the element to your website.

It’s important to give visitors the option to decide whether they would like to receive emails from you in the future. Just think, those who ask to receive your emails have admitted they have some interest in what you will send them while those who opt out will not be reporting your emails as ’spam’.
Remember that you are managing your relationship with the customers, friends, or other contacts on your mailing list. So be mindful of the relevancy, timing, and frequency of messages sent to your list. Managed properly, your emails will be read more often and may improve your relationship with your readers. In a future newsletter we offer tips on email marketing and how your new mailing list can be leveraged to drive more business to your site!