Author Marketing Tip: Email Newsletters Sell Books

– I know you’ve been looking
for the magic bullet, that one thing you need
to do to sell more books and even build a business
around your book. This is it! This is the tip! It’s not social media, it’s
not Facebook Messenger bots, or some AI robot selling
your book in malls, although that’s a pretty
cool idea, isn’t it? Stick around, I’ll reveal
what you need to do. (upbeat music) Hey, I’m Julie Broad, award winning author and founder of Book Launchers. A company that helps entrepreneurs
and professionals write, publish and sell a
fantastic non-fiction book. Today, I wanna share the single
most powerful marketing tool for your book and beyond. But before I do that, make sure
you subscribe to our channel and hit that little notification symbol so you’ll get notified
when a new video comes out and when I go live. That’s your best chance
to interact with me, ask questions, and hang out on YouTube. So let’s get to it. That single most important piece
of marketing for your book, for your business, I’m
talking about an email list. Regular email contact with your readers keeps you top of mind. When someone who runs an
association needs a speaker, a book club needs a new book to read, media needs someone to interview, or someone asks for a referral to someone who does what you do, you’ll be much more likely
to be the first name they say if you’ve had regular
contact with them via email. Emails may be ignored,
but they won’t be missed like a 24-hour story that disappears, or a post that drops down in a
feed, never to be seen again. Or worse, something that Facebook or some other social media site
decides nobody needs to see, so they just don’t show it to anybody. When I launched my books, it was my email readers
who were the first people to buy my books, write
reviews, and tell others. Both times, my email readers got my book into the Top 100 overall on Amazon. That’s pretty powerful. So start building your
email newsletter list today if you aren’t already
connecting with readers in an email newsletter. First, of course, I recommend
you go to booklaunchers.com and grab our bi-weekly launch letter. Every other Monday I send out some tips to help you as an author. And you will also get
some valuable insights into what makes for a fairly
successful email newsletter. And if you wanna see
what I do as an author, and see a newsletter that regularly gets 30 to 40 percent open rates,
extremely high in the industry, go to juliebroad.com and get my monthly Broad Thoughts newsletter. Both are examples of
content driven newsletters that are designed to create a connection and build a relationship with the readers, which is what you wanna do as an author looking to sell your books. So how do you start? Number one, decide how often
you’ll send a newsletter. Pick a frequency you can maintain. Be warned though, if you
choose a low frequency, bi-monthly, or quarterly, you run the risk of people
forgetting they signed up, which then leads to unsubscribes
or worse, span flagging. Who is that email from? Who? I don’t remember that person. If you’re going to send infrequently, I recommend you set up
something that’s called, an auto responder that will
send three to five emails over the next few weeks so
they can get to know you, so they’ll remember signing
up for your newsletter and know who you are. Number two, choose a newsletter service. Focus on a company that
has great deliverability, integrates easily with your
website, and most importantly, is one that you’ll use. In other words, you like the interface and feel comfortable there. Don’t worry about making this
newsletter look super pretty. Plain emails actually perform really well. A lot of people like MailChimp. I used to use AWeber and loved them, they had high deliverability, which means more people
actually got the emails versus them going into spam or just floating somewhere in cyberspace. Services like ConvertKit are getting a lot of love these days because they’re a company that’s designed their email system for creatives. I’m not an affiliate but I hear amazing things
about their service. So it you’re committed
to your author business, they could be perfect for you. Bottom line, you can get going for free with a lot of services and
then as your email list grows, then you will start to
pay for that service. Number three, didn’t I already do three? Four, four, three. Set it up on your website. Most services have an embed form. It’s really easy, you
don’t need to know code. But you can always pay someone five bucks on fiverr.com to do it. Just change your password after. When you set this up,
be specific and honest about what people are signing up for and you should create some sort
of a form that tells people what they’ll get if they subscribe, how often you’ll email them, and what they’ll get when
they get your emails. Never add people without their permission. That’s gross and in most countries it’s actually against the law. In Canada, you are required to
get people to double opt in. And my internet lawyer recently emailed me about what’s going on in Europe and the privacy laws are going crazy. And you have to prove
that you have permission to email people there. So, collecting info from Europeans, means that you really
have to set this up right. Ew! I didn’t sign up for that! That’s gross. (slams shut)
(dramatic music) Be compliant and don’t be a spammer. A spammer is anyone who
sends unwanted emails. Spamming is like being
that drunk guy at the bar trying to pick up the
happily married woman. – You know what’s on the menu? – No. – Me ‘N U. (wah, wah, wah music – Now that it’s set up, you’ll wanna work on creating
something that entices people to sign up for your newsletter. Like, the Book Selling
Gameplan which you can get free at booklauncers.com/sellbooks. Basically, you need to
create something so awesome people would otherwise pay for it. If you’re writing a book,
one of your fabulous chapters will work well for now, or if
you have a great checklist, or a tool that’s in your book, give that away as an incentive to sign up for your newsletter. I always go back to my
real estate background with this analogy. When you rely on any other platform to connect with your
readers, you’re squatting. You don’t own that property, you’re just loitering there for free and that landlord can change
the rules at any time. So, build your business
on something you own. Build a great email newsletter list with readers who can’t wait
to get your next newsletter. In another video, we’ll cover
what to put in your newsletter to keep that engagement high and build a strong
relationship with your readers and your potential readers. Until then, don’t be a spammer. (buzz)
(snaps fingers) Smash that thumbs up button
if you like this video and want more. I’ll see you on the next video. (upbeat music) – Hey, does this place have WI-FI? ‘Cause I feel a connection. – Ooh! Good one. (laughs)