As an indie author, social media is excellent for reaching out to your audience, but don’t ignore the opportunity a solid newsletter strategy can offer.
Email marketing typically has a high ROI compared to other sales channels. On average and across industries, every dollar spent on email marketing earns $36. But email marketing isn’t just about getting subscribers to read your books. It’s also about building a relationship with your audience.
Newsletter subscribers are most likely among your biggest fans and most reliable readers. Even if your list is mostly made up of contest entry emails, don’t discount their value. Indie romance readers are not only thirsty for new titles, they love to talk up the books they read. So much, in fact, that word-of-mouth recommendations from family and friends are one of the leading ways readers discover new authors.
If you aren’t leveraging this direct line to your audience, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to connect with readers and strengthen their engagement.
Wondering where to start? It’s easier than you think. Here are five ways to up your newsletter game.
1. Onboard your readers
You’ll hear this a lot but what does it mean? Think of it as your very own automated welcome wagon.
When a reader signs up for your newsletter, send them a welcome message letting them know what to expect. What do your newsletters include? How often do you send them? Thank them for joining your list and send them some goodies: character art, short stories, bonus content, etc. You can even survey them to find out what they want.
The point is to start engaging with them as soon as they click “subscribe.”
2. Set up automations
Every email provider offers some kind of automation service. These save time, energy, and are great for keeping readers engaged.
The first automation you create should be for onboarding your readers. It might look something like this:
Email 1: Newsletter sign up confirmation
Email 2: Bonus content
Email 3: Invite to follow you on social media
You can also use automations to send additional bonus content. Maybe you have a short story that can be broken into episodes and sent weekly to readers. There are a lot of ways to use these automation features to manage your list, so make sure to get a feel for how they work and what they can do.
3. Let readers unsubscribe
You don’t want subscribers who aren’t opening your emails. A lot of folks sign up for newsletters on a whim or for a contest. Some will turn into consistent followers, but a lot of them will just take up space on your list. This can not only cost more, but a newsletter list with a lot of inactive subscribers is more likely to get flagged as spam.
Your best bet is to make sure they can unsubscribe themselves, but you should also consider cleaning your list on a regular basis. This might be monthly or quarterly depending on how often you send messages.
Most email providers can segment inactive subscribers by how long they have been inactive. You could just deactivate these emails, but it would be even better to set up an automation giving them the option to unsubscribe. You can tempt them into engaging by offering something fresh, but don’t worry if they do decide to unsubscribe. Odds are they will come across your newsletter subscription again later and they can always add themselves back.
4. Stick to one call-to-action
As writers, this is going to be tricky because we know you’ve got plenty to say, but keep your newsletters short. The average consumer spends only 10 seconds on a branded email before moving on, so it’s important to make your emails scannable. Use headlines to break up content into chunks and stick to one main call to action.
Your readers want to hear from you. They want to connect with you as an author and person, but what do you want from them? Think of a call to action as an opportunity to hand hold your readers and guide them towards a specific action.
You can certainly include multiple links and CTAs but you will get better open and click rates if you keep things simple and easy to follow. That also means sticking your most important CTA in the beginning of the email. Don’t make them scroll to get to it.
5. Be consistent
Newsletter frequency depends on the content you have to offer and what you want from your list. Don’t worry about emailing weekly if you don’t have the content. Monthly is fine. The key is to be consistent and make sure you’re offering something your readers want.
Maybe you’ll have a monthly update on your current writing projects and another monthly message sharing your backlist. You could even have a separate newsletter with book recommendations or swaps. Think about the kinds of messages and information you want to share with readers and consider separating them into individual emails.
It is possible to email too much, but the content is what matters most. Offer readers something they want and they’ll be glad to read what you have to share.
DIY email marketing
There are a lot of ways to improve your email marketing strategy as an indie author, but you don’t have to hit them all. Do a little bit here and there, stick to your marketing goals, and make sure you’re giving good content. There is no one-size fits all approach to indie book marketing, but paying attention to what works for you and your readers will help you tweak your strategy and improve it bit by bit.
Morrigan Author Services 