EMAIL, YOUR HARDEST WORKING SALES FORCE
Of all the marketing options available, one stands above the others…email marketing. More specifically, an email newsletter if you’re an author. There are solid reasons why email works harder for you than other options. And it’s important to learn the ins and outs of using email to its fullest potential. This article cannot go in-depth on email because it is a huge topic, but it can get you started in the right direction. Remember, most people check their email every day, multiple times. So why is email your hardest working sales force?
Email is crucial to a good marketing plan. It’s low cost when compared to running ads and other marketing options. The ROI, on average, is $43 for every $1 spent. Used correctly, email can generate high conversions and sales. Every business needs to use email. If you don’t, you’re leaving money on the table.
So, if you don’t have an email list, it’s time to start building one. You’ll need an ESP (email service provider). You cannot email customers and potential customers from a personal email account such as Gmail or Yahoo. Doing so will land you in hot water fast. There are many international laws and regulations regarding marketing emails. ESPs know the laws and regulations and make sure your emails are in compliance before they will be mailed out. ESPs do this to safeguard their service and the other businesses depending on the ESP. They are incentivized to make sure you are in compliance with the law.
Additionally, most ESPs offer a free account until you reach a certain number of subscribers. Look for an ESP with many features, good documentation to help you use the platform, and a good support team. An ESP is not an option. You’ll have to find one that works for you. Some ESPs even have landing pages you can use to send traffic to if you don’t have a website.
If you do have a website, you need to have a signup form. There are many ways to use popups that won’t annoy visitors to your website. Done correctly, popup forms are the most effective way to get new contacts to join your list. You should also include a link on every page for visitors to sign-up for your list.
You will need a free lead magnet to offer in exchange for someone trusting you with their name and email address. Ideally, your lead magnet should be something short. One page is best. But it must give value to your subscribers. Many people use something like a checklist. Something that can be printed out or easily referenced is a good choice…as long as it’s valuable.
Implementing an email list isn’t difficult. Many good ESPs offer tutorials and have lots of articles to help you. All good ESPs have excellent support teams to answer any questions and assist with any issues in getting set-up and building campaigns. And you don’t need to know how to code. Good ESPs also make it easy to track and measure the success of your emails and campaigns.
Email marketing can be integrated with other marketing strategies such as social media accounts and content marketing. All you have to do is provide links and post reminders for your followers to sign-up for your newsletter. This brings in higher quality, more qualified leads. Be sure to let them know about your free lead magnet.
And don’t forget the one place outside of your website and social media that you definitely want to drive email sign-ups from. If possible, place a link in the front or back matter of your book. Make it easy for people to join your email list.
Once you start getting sign-ups, email has a wide reach. It’s limited only by the size of your list. And your list should always be growing with new sign-ups. You want constant growth, because you will need to keep your list healthy by removing inactive subscribers. After a certain amount of time, inactive subscribers can harm your delivery rates. This is an extensive topic that can’t be covered in this article, but you don’t want to keep people on your list who never open your emails after they have signed-up.
ESPs allow you to use targeting, known as segmenting, to send the right message to the right customer or prospect at the right time. This gives you high engagement as the email is sent to people who have opted to receive communications from you, and want to hear from you. This tactic makes it more likely that your emails will be opened. Segmenting your list allows you to make the most efficient use of email to the right people. This also makes it easy to build and nurture relationships with your subscribers.
There are many different kinds of emails you can send, too many for this article to address. But many authors develop a newsletter in addition to emails. Most ESPs have templates you can play around with until you find one you like that works well for your brand.
Some people elect to send plain text emails. And there are valid reasons for doing that. One issue you should be aware of is that sending a graphics-heavy email can result in the email being sent to spam. Authors tend to love sending pretty newsletters, which is understandable. And in reality, unless you have a huge backlist and for some reason want to showcase each book cover in a single issue with sales links, it probably isn’t going to be an issue. But you should be aware of the potential for problems with using too many graphics and sales links in an email.
Another thing you want to avoid is sending nothing but “buy my stuff” emails. That is not a good email marketing strategy and will do more harm than good in the long term. If that is all you send, people will start tuning out your emails and not even opening them. Or worse. They may start marking them as spam even though they signed-up to receive them. There is also the danger of having your emails hitting the promotions tab in Gmail. You don’t want that to happen either. Email marketing must be a balance between promoting and relationship building. Every email you send should provide some kind of value to your readers. That could be something as simple as making them feel good, giving them a laugh, or it could be a checklist or cheat sheet to print out and use. And when you write to your list, you should have a good understanding of your audience and who they are. Write as if you are writing to one person, a friend. This sets the best tone for most emails.
Once you start building your list, even if there’s only one person on it, set your emailing schedule and start sending email. You will have to learn how often you should email. Some people do it every day. Would that work for you? Probably not, but it depends on your business and how receptive your readers are. Many people opt to email once a week or every other week. At the very least, you should email no less than once a month. You don’t want to collect sign-ups and then not email them. This is a huge mistake. People may forget who you are and then wonder why you are emailing them. They may mark your email as spam. Once you start your list and get a sign-up, start emailing, and don’t stop.
All ESPs should have the ability to create workflows, also known as automation. Automation is a series of emails that are automatically sent out. The triggers to fire off an email series are typical behavior based (but not always). One of the first automations, and in some cases, the only automation used, is a welcome series. Many people think it is okay to send out a single email welcoming a new contact to their list and that’s all that’s needed. But this isn’t true. Even if it’s only a series of three emails, it will be better than just sending one. In the first email, welcome them to your list and tell them how to get the lead magnet. In general, selling in the first email is downplayed, but if you insist on doing it, place the pitch at the very end and make it a small part of the email.
Your second email in the automation could be sent the same day, perhaps an hour later, but no later than the following day. The second email is your message to your reader. It tells who you are, what you do, and why you do it. You might offer a discount code or coupon (you do not want to do this often or regularly though, people learn to wait for sales, discounts, etc. and you will end up losing money in the long run.) Can you sell in the second email? Absolutely. You also want to let your readers know what to expect. How often you will email them, and what day of the week you will email. Let them know upfront what to expect from you. Let them know how many welcome emails you will be sending. Be very upfront. If you will be sending ten emails in your welcome sequence, let them know.
Your next welcome sequence email can be about your product, with sales links, of course. If you have a backlist of books, send more emails in your automated sequence to introduce them to your readers.
Once you have your system in place, email marketing will work harder for you than any other marketing tactic. This is one marketing piece that is vital to get right. When you invest the time to get this right, the ROI will be more than worth the time it takes to implement.
Credit: J. Coy