Email marketing has become an essential part of any business strategy that wants to reach its maximum potential, and there’s no reason this couldn’t apply to authors, too.
When you start as an author, you want to build your list as fast as possible so you can get the most out of your marketing efforts later on down the line, and email lists are one of the best ways to do this. The best way to build an email list? Let your readers sign up!
Best Email Service for Authors
No matter how well you plan your email marketing as an author; hardly will you succeed if you use the wrong email marketing platform.
Therefore, this section reveals the best email service for authors. After detailed research, we found that the Getresponse email marketing service remains the best.
It has a built-in email marketing template for authors, so you don’t need to crack your brain on designing a template.
The platform has a high rate of email deliverability, which means you have a high chance of experiencing a high open rate.
You can start with the free version that has all the paid features as long as your leads do not exceed 500.
Above all, they have one-dial customer service that is always ready to help you out.
Why you should use Email Marketing
Many authors use email marketing as a way to keep in touch with their current and potential readers. Email allows authors to reach readers who are not following them on social media.
Also, it provides them with a platform that is more time efficient than managing multiple social media accounts. And it doesn’t feel invasive since it comes directly to the inbox of the person being contacted.
In the digital age, email marketing is one of the most popular marketing techniques because it’s inexpensive and easy to track. It is also easy to maintain and segment lists to communicate with specific audiences.
An email has proven results, sending nearly 170 billion emails each day. Eighty-six percent of people prefer receiving relevant content from brands via email newsletters as opposed to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In fact, a large number of companies have an 80%+ email open rate which significantly improves their response rates.
How To Use Email Marketing As An Author
To make sure you’re maximizing your marketing potential, we’ve laid out the three best practices below:
- Establish a newsletter with a call to action – Request readers to subscribe on your website or blog – Track engagement with content like clicks and opens – Send emails that are relevant to your target audience.
Send email newsletters with great frequency and do so personally, too.
Remember you’re more than an author, you’re an individual with your values, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and interests – all of which should be reflected in your tone of voice in every interaction you have online.
Your persona is just as important as your branding message! By sending emails at least monthly will show that your efforts is not for a one-time deal. When people hear from you consistently, they’ll know they can count on hearing from you again in the future.
That consistency will help build trust with your subscribers because they know they can come back to what they’re following any time of day or night and get updates from you when it’s convenient for them.
Don’t forget to personalize each email by including links to articles or other media related to the subject of your latest post.
It’s also a good idea to include a call-to-action at the end of each newsletter so your subscribers know how they can follow up with you for more information about your book, event schedule, or even the next blog post.
You might want to provide links where they can purchase your book, RSVP for your upcoming event, or sign up for notifications about new posts.
As a bonus, this also helps with tracking analytics since it gives you another way to keep tabs on who is reading your messages and who isn’t engaging with what you have to say.
Crafting your Email
Use a highly personalized email from the author, not a form letter. Each email should feel like it is written to a specific person. Include your name in the subject line and at least five personal questions from your upcoming book.
Answer any question you know the answer to, but don’t be afraid to say you’ll get back to them on others. Attach any book trailer or images of what you’ve done so far as attachments and feel free to include links.
You may also want to include an excerpt of your work that can be easily read. If you’re new to email marketing, start with smaller groups and work up to bigger ones over time. Make sure all recipients have opted-in before sending anything out.
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Advanced Tips on List Building
- Let your subscribers know when you publish a new book, by updating your mailing list at the same time. This will give them even more incentive to sign up and keep receiving your messages.
- Remind customers that they can purchase your work on Amazon by including an affiliate link in the signature block of each email.
This can increase the number of sales made to readers that do not know where to purchase your book yet.
- -Make sure to include social media buttons with every email sent out so people have access to your content without having to navigate away from their inbox. -Link back to articles from your blog or website to create traffic back into these pages as well as improve SEO rankings.
- Add links to YouTube videos of interviews, clips from speeches, or other videos that may be relevant to your audience.
- Provide exclusive discounts or freebies such as e-books (PDFs) or audiobooks (MP3s) to encourage people to join your list. Keep these special offers coming periodically throughout the year so it does not seem like all of your emails are advertisement based only. Offer something valuable that is worth subscribing to your list for; this is called a loss leader. For example, offer free short stories or another piece of marketing material if someone subscribes to your mailing list.
Email Marketing for Authors-Conclusion
The bottom line, email marketing is easy and affordable to use. If you are an author, I highly recommend you start incorporating email marketing into your digital marketing plan.
The result of doing so will yield higher engagement and new revenue streams for your business. Plus, it’s a great way to stay in touch with readers without bombarding them with ads and offers they may not like.
Best of all, emails can be tracked using traditional metrics such as opens, clicks, bounces back, and unsubscribes.