Build a list you own, send something useful on a steady schedule, and automate the first emails. 1) Pick a tool: Kit is free for up to 10,000 subscribers, Brevo's free plan sends up to 300 emails a day with Starter from $9 a month, and MailerLite is free for 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. 2) Send from your own domain with SPF and DKIM set up; once you send 5,000 or more a day to Gmail, you also need DMARC, one-click unsubscribe and a spam rate below 0.3%. 3) Collect consent with a signup form on your site, a landing page and a link in your bios; never upload bought lists. 4) Write a short welcome sequence that sends automatically to every new subscriber. 5) Pick a rhythm, weekly or fortnightly, with one idea and one call to action per email. 6) Judge it by clicks, replies and unsubscribes. Rule: send only what someone would forward to a friend.
This is Google's own rulebook for what gets an email into Gmail instead of spam: SPF or DKIM for every sender, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC together once you send any volume, valid reverse DNS, and TLS in transit. When you are debugging why your cold email is landing in spam, this is the primary source to check yourself against, not a vendor's interpretation of it.
The essay tells you why to own your audience and the tool gives you somewhere to put it, but this is the piece that covers the actual move: getting a follower to hand over their email. McGarry lays out a concrete five part playbook (lead magnets, launch teasers, comment to get giveaways, DMs to new followers, and a bio optimized as a landing page) with rough conversion numbers for each. It is tactical and honest that a plain "join my newsletter" ask rarely works, you need to offer a specific reason.
Give people a specific reason to subscribe (a small, useful lead magnet), not a generic "join my newsletter".
Your social bio should work like a landing page: one clear call to action, one link to your signup.
"Comment to get" and warm DMs to new followers are the highest converting tactics, so build the funnel from the platform you already have attention on.
Kit (formerly ConvertKit) is email marketing for creators and small businesses. The free plan holds up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited landing pages and forms.
An email marketing and messaging platform priced by emails sent rather than contacts. The free plan sends up to 300 emails a day; Starter is $9 a month ($8.08 billed yearly).
A simple email marketing tool with automations and landing pages. Free for up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month; paid plans start at $10.80 a month billed yearly for 500 subscribers.
Once you are convinced you want an owned list, you need somewhere to actually put it, and Beehiiv is a straightforward place to start with a free plan so you can begin before you have any budget. It handles the unglamorous parts (signup forms, a subscribe page, sending) so you can focus on writing rather than plumbing. Treat it as one solid starting point, not the only option: Substack is simpler if you just want to write, and Kit (formerly ConvertKit) leans toward creators selling digital products.
This is the submissions layer. Tally gives you unlimited forms and responses for free, so people can add themselves to your directory or request to be listed without you building anything. It pipes submissions straight into Airtable, so a new entry lands in your database ready to review. That manual review step is a feature early on, since you want to control quality before you automate.
