Have you ever tried to transfer your mailing list from one email marketing tool to another? If so, you know how difficult it can be; most email service providers make the process difficult and time-consuming. Not any more. In this article, we’ll teach you four simple steps that will help you transfer your mailing list without any problems.
Step one: Create accounts on both platforms
Nowadays, it’s extremely common for large companies to outsource some or all of their email marketing needs to freelance agencies or in-house teams. These teams often have extensive knowledge of various email marketing tools and platforms, allowing them to easily transfer existing customer email lists from one tool/platform to another. Before you begin the process, you should have created accounts on both HostGator and AWeber. If you haven’t already, you can use the following links to create an account (note: you’ll need to verify your email address):
Now that you have accounts set up, you can begin the process of transferring your list. To do this, you’ll need to log into your HostGator account and navigate to the “Tools” section.
- Mailing List Manager (this is the tool we’ll use to import the list)
- Mulberry (the CSV file you’ll need to upload)
- XML Sitemap (this creates the foundation for your menus and visual styling)
- Meta Description (this allows you to enter a brief description of your site. This will appear in the search engine results)
From the tools section, you’ll see a number of buttons and menus. On the far right, you’ll see a button labeled Mailing List Manager. Clicking this button will take you to a page where you can see a list of all of the mailing lists you’ve created or used with HostGator.
- Look for the listing that corresponds with your current mailing list. Alternatively, you can click the + button to create a new mailing list.
- Once you’ve found the listing, click the Add button to add the list to your account.
- You can either choose to add the list as “active” or “inactive”. If you choose to make the list “inactive”, it won’t send out any emails; you can come back to this list at a later date and choose to make it “active” again. When you’re finished, click the Save button.
The next step is to log into your AWeber account and find the “Contact Us” menu. From here, you can click the button that says Create a new list.
- Name (this is the list you’ll use to send the emails)
- Email (this is the email address you’ll use to send the emails)
- Subject (this is the subject line you’ll use in the email)
- URL (this is the web site address you’ll use in the email)
When you click the “Create a new list” button, you’ll be taken to a page where you can see the details of the list you’ve just created. You can use this page to add subscribers to the list. To do this, click the Add Subscriber button.
Adding subscribers is very easy. Simply enter your email address and click the Next button. You’ll see a confirmation screen that you’ve successfully added the subscriber. Now, you can go back to the main page and start entering emails, one by one, to add to the list.
Step two: Upload your mailing list
The second step is to upload the file that contains your mailing list. To do this, you’ll need to go back to your HostGator account and click the Mailing List Manager button. From here, you can either Select the file from your computer or + Select a file from anywhere on the web. If you’ve stored the file on your computer, you can click the Open button to select it. Alternately, you can paste the URL of the file into the text box.
- Mailing List Manager (this is the tool we’ll use to upload the list)
- Description (this allows you to enter a brief description of the content within the file. For example, you may want to enter the names of the people in the file. The maximum length of this field is limited to 10,000 characters)
- Format (this allows you to choose how you want the email list to appear. You can choose from a variety of formats, including CSV, TSV, and TXT )
- Privacy Policy (this allows you to specify whether or not you’re comfortable having your email addresses displayed or hidden. You can choose from public, private, or custom)
The CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file format is the simplest to use; all you need to do is click the Browse button and pick the file you want to use. Alternatively, you can click the + Select a CSV file from your computer button to open the Computer file selector. In the file selector, you can either Select the file or + Select a file from anywhere on the web to open a dialog box where you can upload a file. If you’ve never used a CSV file, take a few moments to read up on it.
- Mulberry (this is the CSV file you’ll need to upload)
- Metadata (this allows you to enter a metadata tag; this could be something like “blogger,” “wordpress,” or “emails”)
- Website URL (this is the URL for your website)
When you’ve uploaded your CSV file, you can click the Update button to go back and edit the list. You can use this button to replace some of the data within the file. For example, you may want to replace all of the email addresses within the file with a special code that allows you to monitor the opens and clicks for each email.
Step three: Style your blogs
Now that you have a WordPress blog set up, you can begin to style it with a few clicks of a mouse. To do this, go back to your HostGator account and navigate to the Tools section. From here, you can click the XML Sitemap button to create a new XML sitemap. XML sitemap is an extension that WordPress provides to allow for better structured, mobile-friendly web content.
To create a new XML sitemap, click the XML Sitemap button and then click the Save button. This will take you to a new page where you can see your newly created sitemap. To begin styling your blog, simply click the XML Sitemap button at the top of the page to bring up your XML sitemap. You can use this extension to add and remove blog posts, change the order of the posts, or even add other types of content to your blog (such as videos).