Scott Oldford Site

Tag: email list

  • Building an Email List for Your Book: 2 Effective Tactics to Try Now

    Building an Email List for Your Book: 2 Effective Tactics to Try Now

    As an author, your email list is your most valuable asset. We talked about this a bit last month.

    Your email list is your best direct line to your biggest fans, which no publisher, book store or giant drone conglomerate has any control over. But this also means it’s completely up to you to find those new readers and convince them you’re worth a slot in their inbox.

    This is no small task!

    At first, it can be easy to get new subscribers on your list, because you’re new to everybody. But once you exhaust your immediate social network, how do you continue expanding your reach and finding new readers?

    As far as I’ve seen, there are two major approaches used by authors to find new readers: cross-promotion giveaways and targeted social media ads.

    Which is better? I tried them both to do a side-by-side comparison and find out.

    1. Cross-promotion giveaways

    Services like Instafreebie and BookFunnel are an easy way to automate the delivery of your reader magnet. But one of their most popular features is the ability to connect with other authors in your genre to offer group giveaways. (This is fairly new for BookFunnel, as they try to keep up with Instafreebie.)

    How does it work? In short, you submit your book to the giveaway, and then all authors included (often between 20 and 100 of them) blast the giveaway out to their email lists and social media feeds to promote it over a short period of time, such as a week.

    The idea behind this approach is that readers love to find new authors and new great stories, and that by partnering with authors in the same genre, you can get in front of the readers most likely to be interested in your work.

    For this purpose, both services function well, and they certainly deliver on new subscriber activity (specific results depend on the giveaway size and reach of the authors involved).

    Overall both services are great, but I prefer BookFunnel. It’s actually not even because BookFunnel costs half as much for the same services. It’s because while Instrafreebie adds every new subscriber you get to their own book promo list too, BookFunnel’s policy is that your readers are yours not theirs.

    If you’re looking to grow your list quickly for overall subscriber quantity, or to simply get quick exposure for a new promo work, fire away. This approach will get the job done.

    But, I have to add the caveat that I have seen engagement on my list go down as my subscriber numbers grew from these giveaways.

    With this approach, I worry about lack of focus on readers beyond a genre label, and also about how many new readers you’re really getting exposed to over the long haul, if the same authors keep participating in the giveaways over and over. I’m also not a fan of blasting my readers with promo announcements all the time.

    But for $10-20 a month, this is a very reasonable and sustainable investment for what you get.

    2. Social media ads

    Some self published authors swear that listbuilding with a reader magnet and targeted social media ads propelled them to the bestseller list.

    And just like the cross-promotion giveaways, this can be done on a very small monthly budget.

    Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter allow users to access advertising at low budgets to reach an audience beyond their existing followers. All you need is some teaser content, a good image of your book and an idea of who will want to read it.

    Don’t let the extensive targeting options intimidate you — just use your common sense and imagination to focus on the people most likely to enjoy your book.

    The setup for a social media ad is a bit more extensive, and to get the best results you should test updating the ad’s elements regularly.

    You won’t see the rapid growth you would with a cross-promotion through these ads, but even $20 a month will give you a steady, healthy growth rate. And, because the approach is more targeted, this approach results in a much higher engagement rate, for me.

    Which approach is better?

    If you’ve got to choose one approach, my opinion is that a highly engaged email list is better than a rapidly growing one — so go with the social media ads.

    However, I do think there is a place for both, if your budget allows for it. I was surprised at just how much I got from my first giveaway promo — several hundred new subscribers in just a couple weeks. Call me superficial, but I think there is some value to having a decent number of overall subscribers, even if it’s simply to help you demonstrate your platform size to an agent or editor.

    Ultimately, the key is to never lose sight of what your email list is for. Like all author marketing, it’s about building relationships. When reaching out to new readers, and engaging your existing subscribers, always remember to consider what will motivate them to read more.

    How do you get in front of new readers?

  • How to Sell More Books and Grow Your Fan Base at Author Events

    How to Sell More Books and Grow Your Fan Base at Author Events

    When we talk about building your author platform, the inescapable challenge every author must face is marketing. Particularly, email marketing.

    You need an email list, not just to sell your book to subscribers, but to build relationships with readers and other writers so they’ll support your work and become fans in the process.

    In-person author events provide a unique opportunity to get more email subscribers — but only if you take some time to prepare for the event. Here’s a checklist that will help you walk away from your next author event feeling like it was a success.

    Don’t buy more than 20 books to sell

    Let’s say you’re going to some book fair that’s insanely popular with an attendance list numbering in the thousands. You’d think it would be a smart move to stock up on physical copies of your book, right?

    Wrong. If you’re an unknown author like me, the fact is you won’t sell many copies at an event. I had 20 books on hand for my event and only sold a handful.

    Sometimes readers need to time to research who you are, and they aren’t committed to buying just yet. “But what if I sell out?” you might ask. That’s great! Now you can tell visitors your book is sold out and possibly create demand due to scarcity — not a bad position to be in.

    So don’t order 100 copies of your novel just to be cautious, or you’ll be stuck lugging those books around for a while.

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    Use bookmarks as giveaways

    On the list of things every author should have on hand: bookmarks. Bookmarks are like business cards for authors.

    You can put your cover art on a bookmark, along with your website and any other details for potential readers. Get really creative with your bookmarks by adding a character sketch or a synopsis of the book on the back. Utilize QR codes and make it even easier for someone to access your website or your book’s sale page.

    Having lots of bookmarks to give away at your event is more important than having copies of your book. A visual reminder of you and your novel sticking out of someone’s book is an easy way to get more sales and reach more readers.

    Bring a poster of your book cover

    This one is optional, but it helped me get more visitors than I expected at my last in-person event.

    Dozens of people who stopped by my table remarked on how the poster of my book cover drew them in. If you’ve got a compelling cover, get a poster made and tack that bad boy on the front of your table or on an easel that’s easily visible.

    Images grab people’s attention, so take advantage of that to increase foot traffic to your booth.

    Smile and engage

    This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t look up from their laptops or mobile phones at these events.

    You should always have your game face on when someone is remotely close to your table or booth. Simply saying “Hi!” can mean the difference between that person coming over to check out your book or skipping you altogether. Leave the texting and social media for later.

    And finally: how to get those new email contacts

    When you put all the tips above into practice, you’ll get an influx of people visiting your table, which creates a great opportunity for you them to subscribe to your email list.

    But you’re not just going to tell them to do that… because they won’t.

    Instead, you’re going to lay out an incentive. Create a compelling raffle where they can receive a free signed copy of your book, a gift card to their favorite bookstore, or a bundle of ebooks they can download. Create a sign-up sheet with spots for names and emails to contact the winner(s).

    Don’t be spammy or shady. Explain in detail on the sign-up sheet that each entrant will be added to your email list and they can unsubscribe at any time. I added 100 subscribers to my email list at the event I attended.

    Sure, there will probably be a few people who just want the goodies and then will unsubscribe when they don’t win the raffle, but to date, I’ve only had around five unsubscribes, which is pretty good.

    Once you’ve wrapped up your time at the event, remember to pick a winner either through a drawing or a random number generator, then email everyone on the list with the results and send the prize promptly.

    To minimize the percentage of unsubscribes, I also created a consolation prize for non-winners that included a free short story and a book marketing PDF guide. It’s always nice to receive a prize in a contest, especially when you don’t win!

    Got any tips for getting the most out of an author event? Please share in the comments!