This article is about the Proxi admin app at app.proxi.co.
A newsletter, a mailing list, an email list, a subscriber list, a text list for quick updates, or just a "join our list" form on your website — whatever you call it, this guide starts one from scratch and makes sure everyone who joins hears back from you right away. We'll use a made-up "Fairhaven Main Street" and their weekly note, "Fairhaven Weekly."
Worth saying why this is worth an afternoon: your list is the one audience you actually own. Social feeds change what they show, ads get more expensive every year, and a great Saturday downtown is forgotten by Sunday. A few hundred people who raised their hand are still there next season, and they're the ones who show up.
1. Decide What You're Starting
Two kinds of list, and it's worth a minute of thought before you build anything:
An email list is your roundup — this week's events, a new business, the parking change for Saturday. There's room to write, you can include photos and links, and nobody minds a weekly note in their inbox.
A text list gets read in minutes, which makes it perfect for short and timely: "Market's on despite the forecast — see you at 9." People are protective of their number, so only ask when the payoff is obvious.
You pick which one when you create the form, and it can't be switched afterwards — a list of one kind can't become the other. If you want both, make one of each. Most groups do better starting with email and adding a text list later, once they have something worth interrupting someone's day for.
2. Build the Form
In the left sidebar, open Messaging, go to the Signup Forms tab, and click New Signup Form.
Choose Email List. Give the form a name only you'll see ("Fairhaven Weekly") and name the list it feeds ("Newsletter Subscribers").
Under What You Collect, keep it short. Email is always asked. First & Last Name is worth having if you'll ever greet people by name — but every extra question costs you signups, so stop there.
Switch on Send a welcome when someone joins. We'll shape what it says in step 4.
Click Create and you'll land on the form's own page, where you write the headline and description, pick a Look, and watch a live preview update as you go. View Live opens the real thing.
That's the quick version — every setting is covered in Signup Forms: Grow a Mailing or Text List from Anywhere.
3. Put It Where People Already Are
This is the step that decides whether you end up with 40 subscribers or 4,000. Open Share & Embed on the form's page and use more than one of these:
On your website, in the page — copy the Inline snippet onto the pages people already read: your events page, your "visit downtown" page, the bottom of every blog post. It sits in the page like it was always there.
As a button that opens a pop-up — the Button snippet keeps the page uncluttered. You can also switch on Open it on its own so it appears without anyone clicking; if you do, set the Wait to fifteen or twenty seconds so people get to read something first. Anyone who closes it won't see it again for a month.
On paper — the QR tab gives you a code for table tents at participating restaurants, window clings, the back of your printed event map, the sandwich board at the market. Always put one line of context beside it: "Scan for Thursday's what's-on" beats a bare code every time.
The plain link, everywhere else — from the Link tab. Your social bios, your email signature, the last slide of your board presentation, the thank-you note after an event.
One thing worth knowing from events: QR codes get scanned when people are waiting — in line for a drink, at the info booth, standing at the entrance figuring out where to start. Put your code there rather than on a flyer that goes in a tote bag.
4. Turn On the Welcome
On the form's page, find Welcome Message and switch on Send a welcome when someone joins. It goes out on its own, once per new subscriber — an email right after someone joins an email list, or a text right after they confirm the code on a text list. You'll see exactly what it says right there, and once you save, Edit this message lets you reword it.
Don't skip this. The moment someone signs up is the one moment you can be sure you have their attention — they just went looking for you. A welcome that arrives while they're still on your page tells them it worked, and reminds them who you are three weeks later when your first real note lands.
5. Make the Welcome Sound Like You
The pre-written one is fine to launch with, but two minutes of editing makes it much better. A good welcome does four things:
Says what they'll get, and how often. "A short note most Thursdays: what's open, what's new, and one thing worth walking over for." Now they know what they said yes to, and they're far less likely to unsubscribe later.
Gives them something right now — a link to your events calendar, your downtown map, this season's guide. They're curious at this exact moment; don't make them wait a week.
Sounds like a person. Sign it with a real name and title. "— Dana, Fairhaven Main Street" reads better than anything written by a committee.
Stays short on a text list. A line or two is plenty. We add the reply-STOP reminder to the bottom of every text automatically, so leave it out of your own wording rather than saying it twice.
The welcome is saved as an automatic message on your list, so you can revisit it any time. See Automatic Messages: Send the Right Note at the Right Moment.
6. Send Your First Real Message
Don't wait for the list to get big. Forty people who signed up last month are worth more than four hundred who've forgotten who you are. From the Signup Forms tab, click Messages next to your form — or open the list itself under Audiences — and write one.
Then pick a rhythm you can actually keep. Every other Thursday, forever, beats weekly for a month and then silence. If you're stuck on what to put in it, three things is a full issue: what's happening this week, one business worth a visit, and one piece of news. See Sending Messages: Email or Text the People on Your Maps.
7. Keep It Growing
The Signup Forms tab shows each form's list, how many people have joined, and whether it's Live or Paused. Watching that subscriber number tick up after you add a QR code somewhere tells you which spots are actually working.
Need to stop for a while — a seasonal list, a form on a page you're rebuilding? Pause stops new signups and leaves your list and everyone on it exactly as they are. Resume when you're ready.
The same person signing up twice won't create a duplicate. Proxi recognizes them and keeps one contact.
Your signup form isn't your only source. Challenge sign-ups, event and place submissions, program members, and your listing contacts all build lists on their own — see What You Can Send from Each Kind of Audience.
When you find yourself writing very different notes to very different people, make a second form with its own promise ("Business Owner Updates" alongside the public newsletter) rather than sending everything to everyone.
Beyond the Signup Form: What Makes a List Worth Having
Make the promise specific. "Join our mailing list" asks people to sign up for an unknown. "Get Thursday's what's-on in your inbox" tells them exactly what lands and when — and signs up far more of them.
Ask for one thing. Every extra question is a reason to close the tab. You can always learn someone's name later; you can't un-lose the signup.
Only ever add people who asked. Don't buy a list, and don't upload the business cards from a bowl unless the card was dropped in for that reason. A small list of people expecting you outperforms a big list of strangers, every time.
Texting has a higher bar than email. People need to clearly agree before you text them, and they need an easy way out. The confirmation code step handles the first part and the automatic STOP line handles the second — so keep your texts to the kind of thing you promised at signup.
Send it to yourself first. Read it on your phone before it goes out. Most people will read it there.
Worth a read on the Proxi blog: digital main street maps, how Downtown Kalamazoo's chili challenge turned a weekend into a contact list, and St. John's Riverkeeper reaching 500 supporters with a brewery passport. Beyond Proxi: the FTC's plain-English guide to the rules for commercial email, the wireless industry's messaging principles on consent and opt-outs, Nielsen Norman Group's research on what makes newsletters readable, and Main Street America on building relationships that outlast a single event.
Related articles: Signup Forms: Grow a Mailing or Text List from Anywhere · Audiences: Lists That Keep Themselves Up to Date · Sending Messages: Email or Text the People on Your Maps · Automatic Messages: Send the Right Note at the Right Moment