Are you afraid of email automation tools?
If you’re like me, you have subscribed to a not so small amount of newsletters. When I started my business, I was asking myself HOW all those people were creating and sending their email newsletters. If and how they get the attention they would love to have.
And just in case you’re asking yourself those question too, I’ll share a couple of tips and tricks with you.
Why should you think about sending a newsletter? A newsletter is a cost-effective and (if you’re using free versions) a free-to-start marketing tool. It allows you to connect with your followers on a deeper level, giving them insight into your creative path and the directions you’ve chosen.
What platform can you use? Utilizing free-to-start platforms, such as MailChimp, are great ways to get started because they grow as you grow. Additionally, MailChimp is straightforward, and there are a lot of great tutorials on the internet.
What is the best time to send out your newsletter? There are tons of studies and research on this, and most of them come to the same result: It doesn’t matter. Consistency is better than needlessly worrying about if your open rates are enough, or will be enough, or if people will even care. As long as you’re respecting everyone, and respecting means not bombarding, your email list will be just fine.
Other benefits of Email marketing platforms:
- Easily create sign-up forms which you can integrate into your website or social media accounts;
- Offer free reports and data insight into clicks and open rates;
- Allow you to automate and schedule your emails, so they go out on your time, whenever you want;
- Auto-update your email list and edit sections that auto-update across your emails;
- And your emails are auto-resizing, which means no matter what platform they’re being viewed on (mobile, web, or tablet), it will always be in in the most responsive way.
What Should You Include in Your Author Newsletter?
First of all, you should build your template; this will save you tons of time in the future. Your template should include your branding, social media, and website links, and maybe a few links to your books on Amazon.
Your followers would like to get to know you, your work, your thoughts, and your journey.
You can include book updates and promotions, recent blog posts for articles, brands, or services you’ve found useful, personal updates on your writing journey, upcoming events, and sneak peeks into your new books.
There are a million ways to go about adding your personal touches into every email, and not all of them require you to have dozens of books, blog articles, podcasts, or Youtube videos. Maybe you start with quarterly emails just sending out an update for your progress through your journey, or you send your newsletter out every other month alternating with updates on your work and personal things.
The beauty of newsletters is that they are your personal choice, you can share with your subscribers everything you want and give them as much information about your author’s life as you like. Yes, you will have people unsubscribing from your list, but you will build a stable relationship with the ones who stay, who are really interested in your work.
And, if after all this you still don’t know what you should include in your newsletter, sign up for a few of your favorite author’s newsletters and see what they send out. Don’t copy their work, but add your twists and turns and your personality, and soon, you’ll have thousands of subscribers.
Six ultimate tips about email marketing
Tip #1 Make your email stand out
Subject lines are a HUGE contributor to whether your mailing list will open your emails. Sure, they’re expecting something from you, and sure, they signed up for it, but you should offer them insight into the content of your newsletter.
You can check the Emotional Marketing Value of your headline with this free analyzer:
headlines.sharethrough
Tip #2 Be consistent but don’t drown them in emails
Be forward and forthcoming about what you’re sending and how often you’re sending it when people sign up. If you’re only sending emails monthly, then say, “Monthly Newsletter,” but if you’re sending them weekly, say “Weekly Newsletter.” This gives the reader an idea of what they should expect.
Tip #3 Create, test & send
Make sure your emails are beautifully executed and responsive across all platforms. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to send an email with incorrect information or broken links? All email marketing platforms offer you the possibility to send yourself a test mail, use this! This way, you’re sure your email looks as beautiful as you wanted, and every link is working.
Tip #4 Pay attention to the numbers
Check the performance of your emails with the automatically created reports within your Emailing platform. Do you see your click or opens rates decrease? Do you notice people are unsubscribing? Perhaps it’s time for you to evaluate your email marketing strategy. Are you providing quality? One great way to avoid this issue is by decreasing the frequency you send. This allows you more time to come up with quality information and content to share with your subscribers.
Tip #5 Hook them with free content
Don’t know how to get people to subscribe? Consider creating a free booklet, brochure, checklist, or other free downloadable to give away. Giving your subscribers something of value is a great way to grow your following.
Tip #6 Your email should be 90% information or educations, and 10% promotional
Your newsletter is FROM you, so the people receiving it know who you are and your products. It’s a bad idea to shove that information down their throats solely. Instead, ask your followers or readership what they’d like to hear about and send that type of information.
But most important: Have fun in sharing your thoughts and news with your audience and find your unique way for your love letters 🙂
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