I’m a big believer that the most important asset you can have in growing your career is a strong email mailing list. It’s easy to overlook email these days with all the hype about Facebook and Twitter, but the reality is that email is still by far the most effective way to ensure that you reach your fanbase with whatever content or shows you’re looking to promote.

Just think about the people that you follow on Twitter or Facebook: the chances are you miss a lot of their updates. But if somebody sends you an email? The chances are you’re going to see it.

Unfortunately, while most comedians have some sort of email mailing list, they rarely are building it or using it as effectively as they could be. That’s why I wanted to take a moment to tell you about a tool that I think can really help you get the most out of email promotion – it’s an email marketing software called AWeber and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I’m going to lay out some reasons why I think you should use AWeber, but first, here’s a sign-up form if you’d like to get a free test drive of the software:

And now, here’s my breakdown of some of what AWeber’s email marketing software can do for you and why I think you should check it out.

It Helps You Collect Emails

The first step to having an effective mailing list is of course to get people to sign up for your list. AWeber offers lots of tools that help you do this, including pre-made signup templates (like the one you see on the sidebar of this site), and the ability to create pop-up windows to promote your mailing list. You can even set how often the pop-up window will show up so that you don’t pester your readers all the time. For example, on this site I have a pop-up window set to show up for every user no more than one time a month.

Additionally, if you don’t have your own website or it doesn’t get much traffic, you can host the signup form on AWeber’s site and just send people to sign up by posting a link to it on your Twitter, Facebook, or other places like a comedy club website’s promo for your next show. And of course, you can import your existing mailing list into your new AWeber list as well so you don’t have to lose all the subscribers you already have.

It Helps You Manage And Target Your List

Once you’ve got some subscribers to your mailing list, AWeber has lots of tools that can help you manage the list and target your emails. You can sort the list by zip code (assuming you ask for that information in the subscription form), or could even allow people to tell you they only want updates about live shows or videos you release. Basically, AWeber makes it easy to slice and dice your mailing list however you want so that you can provide value to your fans (and yourself), without sending them info they may not care about.

It Makes It Easy To Look Like A Pro

AWeber is packed with easy-to-use design templates for newsletters and sign-up forms so that you will look like a pro, even if you don’t really have any technical knowledge. It makes it easy to add pictures and links in your email blasts as well. Plus, it comes with a built-in “Autoresponder” program which allows you to set up a series of emails that get sent to new subscribers. For example, you could write a series of four email blasts that you want to send to new subscribers in a once-a-week increment to introduce them to various things you’ve done. Once it’s set up, you can count on those going to new subscribers automatically. Pretty cool stuff.

It Gives You Amazing Analytics

One of the biggest frustrations of sending email blasts is not knowing if anybody actually looked at your email. Well, AWeber solves this problem with an amazing analytics package that will tell you exactly how many people opened your email, how many people clicked individual links in your email, and even how many people unsubscribed after reading the email. Plus, you can even send follow up emails to only subscribers that clicked a specific link in your email.

It’s Reasonably Priced

It’s no surprise that a tool that offers as much stuff as AWeber comes with a price tag, but it’s at least a reasonable one. The price varies based on the size of your list and number of emails you plan to send out each month, but it starts off as low as $19 per month. Personally, I’ve been using it for several months on Connected Comedy and have found it to be well worth the investment.

I Can Help You Set It Up

If you’d like to give AWeber a try but don’t have the time/interest in setting it up for yourself, feel free to email me and I’d be happy to set up an account for you and get you started for a minimal fee. I can also give you some advice on how best to integrate it into your specific projects and needs.

Ready to step up your email list game? Then go head over to AWeber.com and give it a shot…