Create an Email list : An Easy How to Guide

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How do you create an email list?

You've heard the saying 'the money's in the list', right?

And you know it's all about creating and marketing to your email list.

But, where do you start?

create an email list, cartoon images of people with envelopes above their heads

Gone are the days when you cc people into an email (GDPR legislation would have you strung up and hit you with thousands of pounds worth of fines!) It's all about ethically collecting email addresses from people who are interested in what you do so that you can send them newsletters and promotional material via email.

Due to GDPR legislation, you also need to prove they have consented to these emails, have a privacy policy on your website (which you should have anyway), and obviously not spam them or pass their email addresses on.

How Do You Create an Email List the Right Way?

The best place to start is with some email marketing software, of which we always recommend Mailerlite for people starting out. It's easy to use, and it's also free for up to 500 subscribers.

To sign up to Mailerlite, just go to mailerlite.com and register for an account. If you have a website, you will need to put that in and make sure that you have a home page, contact information and a privacy policy. You will also need a domain email address, an email address ending in @yourwebsitename.com, etc., to create an email list.

Due to changes in anti-spam laws, it's no longer permitted to use personal email addresses such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc., whether you have your business name in them or not, they are still personal email addresses and have very few security settings, so they are no longer able to be used to mass send out emails using email marketing tools.

If you don't have a website, then you can create landing and opt-in pages with Mailerlite. You will also need to fill in what you will be sending out in your emails so that they can see that you are not intending to spam people. Mailerlite will then check all your details before approving your account.

How to create an email list - a 3d graphic of a blue file, filled out with a pen next to it to illustrate collecting data

Start Collecting Data

Once approved, you can start collecting email addresses and sending out newsletters or even creating funnel automations for when people purchase a product or service or sign up for a freebie, such as a PDF or video course.

You can also import an email list in spreadsheet format or add subscribers one by one, although you will need to retain proof that they have consented to be added to your mailing list, such as a form they have filled in with a consent tick box.

Forms are easy to create and can then be embedded on your website, whatever website platform you are using. Once you have subscribers, you can start sending out newsletters. I always get asked how often you should send out newsletters, and my answer is always as often as you can be consistent. If you know you will never send them out weekly, then don't promise weekly newsletters.

3d graphic of an blue envelope with a 'megaphone' graphic coming out of it - how to create an email list

How Often Do You Email?

I try and send mine out once a week. I have missed a few, but I know that it's something I put in my calendar to do each week. I also have a format that I stick to for each newsletter (a bit about my week or what's going on in the website world, a blog post and then a tip or something I'm promoting). The advice I would give is to keep it real, don't overthink it. It's not like social media, where you are putting posts out there and hoping someone is interested; these people have signed up as they have already decided that they want to learn more.

You can also set up automated campaigns in Mailerlite, so, for example, you may have an opt-in incentive (which is good to have as most people don't just sign up to a mailing list for the sake of it). So something like a free PDF (check out mine in the footer below). This is to give them a little encouragement to sign up for your list. But make sure that it's something they would be interested in, or they will probably just unsubscribe straight away.

You also need to give them the option of signing up for the freebie and consenting to the email list.

Create an Email List - Summary

If you want to know more about how to set up an email list, you can purchase our Mailerlite course below. This course takes you through everything you need to know about Mailerlite, from signing up to everything we have talked about in this blog!

Help ChatGPT find your website a laptop with a megaphone coming out of the screen

I know that sounds ridiculous, but spend a few minutes browsing small-business websites, and you will see why it matters.

For example: A homepage might say: "Helping you achieve your goals." That's great, but what goals? Who are you helping?

A web visitor might work it out from the logo, photographs and navigation. Machines have less tolerance for ambiguity.

Compare that with: " We provide commercial cleaning services to offices, schools and healthcare businesses across South Wales."

Suddenly, there's much less to decipher. Who are you? A commercial cleaning company. What do you do? Clean commercial premises. Who for? Offices, schools, and healthcare businesses. Where? South Wales.

Clear website copy isn't unsophisticated copy. If you want to help ChatGPT find your website, clarity can be a big advantage.

3. Create Proper Pages for Your Main Services

One mistake I regularly see is businesses trying to squeeze everything they offer onto one service page. Imagine a building company offering extensions, loft conversions, kitchen renovations, and garage conversions. Giving each important service its own useful page creates far more context than mentioning all four in a short bullet list.

A strong page can explain:

what the service involves;
who it is suitable for;
common questions customers ask;
the process;
relevant experience;
examples of completed work;
geographical areas covered.

This is not only useful information for potential customers, but also useful for conventional SEO and will help ChatGPT find your website and understand exactly what your business provides.

However, a word of caution. The important word here is useful. Creating 30 near-identical pages simply to target 30 slightly different phrases isn't the answer. Websites are ultimately for people, so create pages because you have something worthwhile to tell them.

4. Answer the Questions Your Customers Really Ask

3d speech bubbles with Q & A in them for Help ChatGPT find your website blog

This is where good blog content becomes particularly valuable and can help ChatGPT find your website.

People often interact with ChatGPT and other AI bots in a conversational way. Rather than searching for something like: "loft conversion Cardiff", they might ask "Do I need planning permission for a loft conversion in Cardiff?" or "Is my house suitable for a loft conversion?". You get my drift.

Think about the questions customers ask you on the phone, in emails, during quotations, or at meetings. Those questions can become extremely useful website content. And don't limit yourself to just obvious FAQs. Some of the best content comes from the questions that require actual expertise to answer: comparisons, costs, pitfalls, misconceptions, alternatives, and situations where one option is better than another. That is where your knowledge becomes valuable. Put that into blogs, and it will help ChatGPT find your website.

5. Don't Just Say You're an Expert - Demonstrate It

Almost every business website claims some variation of: "We pride ourselves on providing a professional, high-quality service." The problem is that anybody can write it. Evidence is much more persuasive.

If you want to help ChatGPT find your website and understand why your business might be a credible source, then you need to give your website substance.

That could include detailed case studies, named authors with relevant experience, customer reviews, original photographs, accreditations, qualifications, awards, research or data you've produced, and genuinely knowledgeable articles/blogs.

A case study saying: We recently completed this project for a client in Newport", isn't particularly informative. Explain the problem. What did the customer need? What did you recommend? Why? What difficulties arose? How did you solve them? What was the outcome?

That is useful information for humans, and it gives search and AI systems considerably more context about your real-world expertise.

6. Make Your Location Clear

Naturally, this is particularly important for local businesses.

If you are an electrician serving customers across South Wales, make that clear on your website. Your address, service areas, and contact details shouldn't require detective work to find.

Your About and Contact pages can reinforce where you are based, while individual service pages can naturally explain areas you cover. However, avoid creating dozens of thin location pages where the only difference is swapping one town name for another, like "Electrician Newport", "Electrician Cardiff", and "Electrician Cwmbran."

That's not useful content. If a location genuinely warrants its own page, give the reader something specific and worthwhile.

7. Build Your Reputation Beyond Your Own Website

Your website doesn't exist in isolation.

If you claim to be a leading expert in your field but nobody else on the internet appears to know you exist, that's not a particularly convincing signal. Therefore, I want you to think about your wider digital footprint.

Are you listed accurately on relevant professional or industry websites? Have local publications mentioned your business? Do reputable websites link to you? Are there genuine customer reviews? Have you contributed expert comments or guest articles elsewhere?

You see, digital PR, quality guest blogging, and traditional link building still have a place. However, the aim shouldn't be to scatter links across hundreds of low-quality websites to help ChatGPT find your website. On the contrary, it's to build a recognisable business with a credible online presence.

8. Write Content Worth Citing

Graphic woman sat at a computer with pages of content coming out of it

This may be one of the biggest opportunities created by AI search.

If everybody writes a generic article called "10 benefits of X", then there is very little reason for any search or AI system to favour yours above the others. To help ChatGPT find your website, you need to give it something better:

Share your experience.

Explain what customers commonly get wrong.
Compare two approaches and say when you'd choose each one.
Publish original examples.
Answer awkward questions.
Discuss pricing honestly where possible.
Challenge a commonly repeated piece of industry advice if you disagree with it – and explain why.

The internet doesn't desperately need another 800-word blog saying the same thing as the previous 100 ones. What it does need are people who actually know their subject sharing information that isn't available everywhere else. Tricky, yes. Impossible, no.

9. Don't Forget Traditional SEO

As I mentioned right at the beginning of this article, trying to help ChatGPT find your website doesn't mean forgetting Google and other search engines. In fact, as I'm sure you've realised by now, many of the fundamentals overlap.

You still need a technically sound, crawlable website with logical navigation, descriptive page titles, useful headings, strong internal links and well-written pages focused on genuine customer needs. Ultimately, your content should make sense to a person first; I always stress this to my clients. There is little to be gained by contorting every single paragraph into something you imagine AI or search engines want to read.

Cater for your customer. Ensure your website clearly explains who you are, what you do, where you operate, and why you know what you're talking about. That's what they need to know, and by doing that you are already building a much stronger foundation for both traditional and AI-driven searches.

Help ChatGPT Find Your Website - But Write For People

Help ChatGPT find your website a 3d graphic of a person in front of a laptop with books and text

AI is changing how people discover information online, but that doesn't mean websites suddenly need to be written for robots. Quite the opposite. After all, humans, your potential customers, are asking ChatGPT the questions. So, if you want to help ChatGPT find your website, you must make it clear, informative, and more authoritative for the people you're trying to reach.

Follow the guidance listed above. None of it is particularly technical (save point 1); it is simply about making sure you have good website content. The difference is that today, a well-written website isn't only helping a potential customer decide whether to contact you; it may also help ChatGPT find your website and decide whether or not to list it in response to a query, ultimately driving fresh traffic your way.

If you would like help reviewing your website content, or creating quality blogs that appeal to both humans and bots, please do not hesitate to get in touch. My name is Heather, and I'm The Content Creator.

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A bit about the author

Heather founded The Content Creator nearly three years ago, combining her love of writing with a genuine passion for helping small businesses and solopreneurs get seen online. She supports her clients with everything from website copy and SEO to AI search visibility, newsletters and social media, taking the stress out of creating content that not only sounds like them, but helps their business grow.

If you need a helping hand with any of these areas, Heather is your go-to girl! We can speak from experience, too, because she works on our own website, helping us keep up with the ever-changing world of SEO and AI search and making sure our content continues to work hard for our business.

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