These days, the hardest part of selling a book isn’t the writing, it’s the marketing. If you want to build excitement around a book release and grow a loyal readership you must have a solid marketing strategy — there’s no way around it.
Though newer generations seem to prefer social media, reports show that Millenials and Gen Z still make up the largest percentage of email users at 93.6%, and even younger and older generations still sit close at around 90%.
So no matter which way you look at it, email marketing is still an essential way to reach and connect with your audience.
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The Benefits of Using Email Marketing as an Author
There are numerous benefits that come from utilizing email marketing as an author — let us count the ways.
- Helps you connect with your readers on a more personal level
- Leads to higher engagement rates
- It’s a more cost-effective marketing tool
- Helps you build your brand as an author
- It can increase your credibility
- Helps you grow a more dedicated fan base
- It’s a great way to gain valuable feedback through email surveys
If you use analytics tools, you can also use email marketing to easily track and measure how effective your marketing is, which can offer insights into what you might need to do differently to connect more with your readers and grow your fan base.
Different Types of Email Campaigns for Authors
So what kinds of emails should you be sending as an author? This depends on what you want to accomplish. There are many different types of email campaigns you can run and each type serves a different purpose.
- Newsletters: This is going to be your standard type of email that you’ll want to send regularly to connect with your readers. These emails can include personal stories, life updates, and updates on projects you are working on.
- Promotional: As the name suggests, you’re going to use these emails to promote something. You can promote a new book launch, a book signing event, a gift giveaway, or anything else that you want to highlight and draw attention to.
- Feedback: Feedback emails are great when you want to hear from your readers and gain valuable insights into what they think, such as sending them a survey about your latest book.
- Lead nurture: These are going to be the emails you use to grow your subscriber list. These are typically the emails you will send after promoting your email list, such as a welcome email to say hello to your new subscribers.
While these are the four main types of emails that you’ll want to use to attract and grow your reader base, this doesn’t mean you can’t think outside the box and send other types of emails if you so choose.
How to Get Started With Email Marketing as an Author
Now for the fun part. Let’s dive into the tips and tricks for sending quality emails that help you attract and retain loyal readers.
1. Develop a Strategy
First things first, every good email campaign starts with a strategic plan. This includes determining your end goal and objectives with the campaign as well as a timeline. You’ll also want a strategy for how you will execute the campaign, such as using email automation software.
In addition to having a strategy for your email campaigns, these are also important must-haves before you start:
- A landing page or website where your readers can easily subscribe to your emails.
- A privacy policy so your readers are fully informed on what information you might collect from them (i.e. user data).
It’s also important that all of your emails have an unsubscribe link so no one feels forced to continue receiving your emails if they decide they don’t want them anymore.
2. Write Quality Content
The content you include in your emails will play an important role in whether or not people continue to subscribe. This is where it might benefit you to consider taking an online marketing course to learn a thing or two to help.
There are numerous types of courses available that can help you better understand email marketing and what type of content to write to attract your readers.
Some of the basics that you might learn include writing catchy email subject lines, being friendly and personable to connect personally, writing compelling and engaging copy, and using CTAs to encourage your readers to take action—such as buying your new book.
3. Promote Your Email List
Your first campaign will likely need to be a lead-nurturing campaign, which is all about getting people to subscribe to your email list. To do this, you’ll need to promote your email list as much as possible. This can include telling people about it in person, promoting it on social media, running paid online ads, and promoting it on your website. Remember, you’ll also need a landing page where you will direct people to go to sign up for your email list.
4. Offer an Incentive
In the world of email marketing, an incentive to sign up is also known as a lead magnet. You’ll want to use a lead magnet when you are promoting your email list to entice people to sign up. Examples of lead magnets can include a giveaway, access to gated content, a sneak peek of your new book, or any other gifts and goodies you want to include.
5. Welcome Your Subscribers
After you’ve drawn people in and gotten them to sign up, it’s important to continue nurturing them to encourage them to stick around. “Never stop marketing” is one of the primary lessons that experts have for small businesses, and you are essentially running a small business. You can continue marketing by sending a welcome email or even a sequence of multiple welcome emails to your subscribers.
This is where you’ll want to thank them and show your gratitude. You can also tell them what they’ll get now that they are one of your special email subscribers, such as that sneak peek, access to gated content, giveaways, and more.
The idea is to show your subscribers how much you appreciate them and keep them coming back with plenty of incentives.
Final Thoughts
On a final note, one key marketing mistake to avoid is not measuring the effectiveness of your email campaigns. You don’t want to go through all the effort of planning and executing a campaign only to find out at the very end that it didn’t work. So make sure you use analytics tools and metrics along the way to see if what you’re doing is working or if you need to pivot and adapt.
Two key email metrics are open rates and click-through rates, which tell you if your emails are being opened and if people are engaging with them. If these numbers are low, then you might need to change your strategy and update your content. If these numbers look good, then you can sit back, relax, and watch the new subscribers come rolling in.
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