Most small businesses put real effort into social media. They post consistently, build a following, and then a platform changes its algorithm and organic reach collapses overnight. You don't own those followers. You can't contact them directly. You're renting attention from someone else's platform, on their terms.
An email list is different. You own it. When someone hands over their email address, you have a direct line to their inbox, one that no algorithm can cut off. That's why email regularly delivers some of the best returns of any marketing channel for small businesses, and why building a list is worth doing even before you have a product to sell.
This guide walks through the whole process: choosing a tool, setting up your first sign-up form, deciding what to offer subscribers, writing a welcome sequence, and keeping the list growing over time. Both MailerLite and GetResponse have permanently free plans that are more than enough to get started.
If you want to get moving today, try MailerLite free and have your first sign-up form live in under an hour.
The short answer is ownership. Unlike followers on Instagram or Facebook, your email subscribers are yours. If a social platform shuts down, changes its rules, or charges you to reach the people who followed you, your email list is unaffected.
The commercial case is strong too. Email consistently delivers a higher return per pound spent than most other digital channels. That's not because it's a secret weapon. It's because a list of people who actively asked to hear from you is genuinely valuable. They've raised their hand. They want the information.
For most UK small businesses, the goal isn't to build a list for its own sake. It's to have a reliable way to announce new products, fill event seats, stay in front of customers between purchases, or promote a time-limited offer without paying for ad space every time. Email does all of that.
There's one more reason to start now rather than later. List building takes time. The earlier you start collecting subscribers, the more useful your list will be when you have something important to say.
For a UK small business starting from zero, two tools stand out clearly: MailerLite and GetResponse. Both are free to start, both handle sign-up forms, email campaigns, and basic automation, and neither requires any technical knowledge to set up.
Once you've picked your tool, setting up a sign-up form takes roughly 20 minutes. Here's how to do it.
Your form is now ready to place. Where you put it determines how many people actually see it.
A lead magnet is something you offer in exchange for an email address. It could be a discount, a free guide, a checklist, a template, a short course, or early access to something. The purpose is to give people a clear reason to subscribe rather than asking them to hand over their email out of goodwill.
You don't need one to get started. If your business is well established and people already trust your brand, "get our newsletter" can work on its own. But for most businesses building a list from scratch, a lead magnet makes the process noticeably faster.
Some ideas that work well for UK small businesses:
Keep it simple. The best lead magnets are quick to consume and immediately useful. A tight two-page checklist will outperform a 40-page e-book almost every time.
Once you've settled on something, update your sign-up form headline to reference it directly. "Download our free venue checklist" will always beat "Join our mailing list."
A form buried at the bottom of your contact page won't collect many subscribers. The key is to place forms where visitors are already paying attention, at the moment when signing up is a natural next step.
Homepage, above the fold. If lead generation matters to your business, a sign-up call to action in the first visible section of your homepage is one of the highest-converting placements on the site. Lead with the benefit, not the mechanics.
Blog posts and articles. Visitors who reach the end of a post have already shown interest in your topic. An embedded form at the close of the post, or halfway through a longer piece, converts well because the timing is right.
Footer. A footer form works quietly in the background. It's not your strongest placement, but it catches visitors who scroll all the way down and adds subscribers with no effort once it's in place.
Exit-intent pop-ups. These trigger when a visitor moves to close the tab. Used with a clear offer, they can recover subscribers you'd otherwise lose. Both MailerLite and GetResponse include pop-up builders in their free plans.
Post-checkout or booking confirmation. Someone who has just bought from you or made a booking is warm. Offering to add them to your list at this point, with clear consent, is one of the most efficient ways to build a list of genuinely engaged people.
Start with the homepage and your best blog posts. Add the others once the basics are in place.
When someone joins your list, the first email they receive from you is the most important one you'll ever send them. Open rates on welcome emails are significantly higher than regular campaigns. The subscriber is curious, engaged, and expecting to hear from you.
A welcome sequence is a short series of automated emails sent over the first few days after someone signs up. You set it up once, and your tool sends it automatically to every new subscriber. Here's what to include.
Email 1 (immediate): The welcome. Send this within minutes of sign-up. Thank the subscriber, deliver the lead magnet if you offered one, and set expectations: who you are, what you'll be sending, and how often. Keep it short.
Email 2 (1-2 days later): Your story or proof. Introduce yourself or your business with a bit more depth. What problem do you solve? Who do you typically work with? A quick customer result or case study here builds credibility quickly without feeling like a sales pitch.
Email 3 (3-5 days later): Something useful. Round out the sequence with something of genuine value. This could be a helpful guide, a product recommendation, an invitation to book a call, or a limited-time offer. The goal is to make the subscriber glad they signed up.
Keep the tone conversational and direct. Welcome sequences that read like press releases don't convert. Write as if you're following up with someone you've just met.
MailerLite's free plan includes automation workflows, so you can build this three-email sequence before you spend a penny.
Getting your first 100 subscribers takes effort. Getting to 1,000 is mostly about consistency and a few reliable habits.
Send regularly. A list you email once a month is one that forgets you exist. Weekly works well for most small businesses, but fortnightly is enough if the content is worth opening. Consistent, useful emails build more trust than occasional long ones.
Promote your sign-up page on social media. Add a link to your sign-up form or landing page in your social media bios. Share a clear "what subscribers get" post every few months. If you can show people a sample of what they'd receive, that helps.
Ask for referrals. A simple line at the bottom of your emails ("know someone who'd find this useful? forward it on") costs nothing and works. MailerLite includes a referral link feature that tracks new subscribers brought in by existing ones.
Run occasional lead magnet campaigns. If you create a new guide, checklist, or resource, promote it actively for a week or two. Short bursts like these often bring in a wave of new subscribers who then remain on the list.
Keep your list clean. Remove subscribers who haven't opened an email in six months. It sounds counterintuitive, but a smaller, engaged list delivers better results than a large, inactive one. It also protects your deliverability score, which affects how often your emails reach the inbox.
Building an email list from scratch is one of the most straightforward investments a UK small business can make. It takes a few hours to set up and consistent effort to grow, but the result is a direct line to people who have asked to hear from you.
Here's what to do next:
Nothing here needs to be perfect before you start. A clean form, a clear offer, and a simple welcome email is all it takes to get going. The rest improves with practice.
Head to our email marketing tools page to compare MailerLite, GetResponse, and other options we've tested, with scored reviews and honest trade-offs for each.
MailerLite is the simpler of the two. Its email editor is one of the best in the category, and the interface makes sense from the first time you log in. The free plan includes automation workflows, which means you can set up a welcome sequence without spending anything. We'd recommend it to anyone who wants to get started quickly and keep the setup as low-friction as possible.
GetResponse takes a slightly broader approach. Its free plan includes a landing page builder, which is useful if you want a dedicated page to capture subscribers rather than relying on forms embedded in your existing site. The paid tiers also add webinars and a fuller CRM, so it suits businesses that expect to grow into those features over time.
Both tools connect cleanly to the most common UK website builders and e-commerce platforms, so linking them to your current site is straightforward.
For most people reading this guide, MailerLite is where we'd point you first. It's the faster start and the better experience at the free tier. If you know you want a standalone landing page from day one, GetResponse is worth looking at instead. You can compare both in more detail on our email marketing tools page.
