by Penny Sansevieri
Many authors I’ve consulted with recently about their book marketing plan have reported that their advertising across multiple platforms including social media, Bookbub, and Amazon, to name a few, has become less effective, or at least more unpredictable.
If you’re seeing this too, know that many factors contribute to these phases of upset, including algorithm changes and increased competition, and even changes in buyer behavior.
These changes make a strong argument for not putting all your effort into such volatile book-marketing strategies. Let’s not forget the book-promotion elements we can control: your newsletter, for starters.
How a newsletter can help you sell more books
Your book-marketing plan should always include opportunities to communicate one-on-one with your readers, and a newsletter certainly checks off that box. And, if used correctly, it can be a great tool to sell more books for the long term.
But you have to remember it’s about them, not about you!
Sure, you can share personal details of your life, but keep in mind that oversharing in a newsletter and veering off point is disrespectful to your reader, and will likely encourage unsubscribes. Your goal is to sell more books, to encourage engagement, and to foster loyalty among your followers.
It’s hard to do that if you ramble on about your Aunt Ethel’s 86th birthday party. I mean, it’s awesome for Aunt Ethel, but your readers may not care so much. This is probably better shared on Facebook!
It’s harder and harder these days to stay top-of-mind with your readers. With so much coming at them, it’s easy for your marketing to get lost in the shuffle of everything else they have going on. So keep it super-relevant, exciting, and always have special bonuses or something unexpected to share.
What makes a newsletter great
So what does it take to create an outstanding newsletter everyone will want to read? Here are seven simple factors to consider when using a newsletter in your book-marketing plan:
Know your audience: This is first because it’s most important. Know who you’re writing for and who reads your newsletter. Make sure the information is relevant to them.
Go light on promotion: When it comes to promotional copy in a newsletter, I recommend the 95/5% rule: 95% helpful information and 5% sales copy. Trust me on this. I can’t tell you how many newsletters I delete that are overly self-promotional. If the newsletter/email campaign is good, it will sell you. I know you want to sell more books, just don’t be so blatant about it that you get a load of unsubscribes each time you send out a newsletter.
Share focused content: Create one focal point for your newsletter. Each newsletter should have just one goal. Decide what that is and make sure all the content reflects that. This doesn’t mean you can’t mention one or two other things, but keep the focus (the big article) on the main idea. As with anything, it’s good book-marketing strategy to stay focused and on message.
Consider using a collaboration: When you’re doing a newsletter, You may be worried that you don’t have the bandwidth to fill it yourself on a regular schedule. So consider collaborating with a few authors who are in your genre/industry and at the same success level you are. Leveraging other professionals’ platforms is a really smart addition to your book-marketing plan, and while it probably sounds daunting, it really works and takes a lot of pressure off.
Be smart about frequency: Watch this one very closely. The general rule of thumb is that the more frequent your newsletter, the shorter it should be. So if your newsletter goes out weekly, think of offering just a quick tip or update; if it goes out monthly it can be longer. Often when it comes to effective book marketing, think less is more.
Give your newsletter a voice: Give your newsletter a personality. You don’t want a stale, monotone, unfriendly book-marketing piece that doesn’t speak to your reader, do you? Show your personality and let it shine through. I like to think that our newsletter has a lot of our voice in it. In order to create voice you might want to follow some of the same rules that you do when blogging. Don’t hesitate to share an opinion, viewpoint, stance, advice, whatever. Speak to your reader, not at them.
Include a call to action: Make sure you have a strong call to action in your newsletter. If you have a few calls to action, that’s even better. Get your readers to do something. Engage them in what you’re writing, send them to helpful links, offer them bonuses, specials, exclusives. Remember, if they take the time to open and read your newsletter, they should get something besides great content. Great links to helpful sites, maybe even a free download, are enticing and will keep your reader coming back for more! Engaging them by pulling them into your message can help you sell more books, because readers may be inspired to share your content or buy your latest book!
Don’t sell fluff: Ok, I know I said I have seven tips, but I can’t help but add a bonus. (See what you get for reading all the way through this article? That’s what I mean by over-delivering.) Readers want the information and they want it fast. Don’t use a lot of fluff words or extra (and sometimes useless) content to puff up your newsletter to make it seem bigger. Give readers the information they want in clear, concise language and then send them on their way. Book-marketing rule 101: don’t use ten words when only two will do!
The timing of your newsletter depends on you and your audience. Our newsletter goes out once a month because it has a lot of content and would be too much to read if we sent it out more often.
Be sure your newsletter is edited. This is a big one. Nothing says unprofessional like a newsletter full of typos, bad grammar, and unneeded words.
Ideas for newsletter features
- Tips, marketing, business, whatever your area of expertise.
- Specials that are exclusive to your newsletter tribe.
- New books coming out, what you’re working on next.
- News: what exciting thing has happened that you’d like to share?
- A personal thank you to all of your readers, for reading and maybe sharing your newsletter.
- And speaking of sharing your newsletter, why not do a contest to anyone who invites five of their friends to sign up for your list? Offer them a $5 gift card just for getting five new folks to join.
Getting people to sign up for your newsletter
You do want folks to sign up on your website for your newsletter, but you’re going to have to give them something in return. That’s called an ethical bribe. An ethical bribe can be the first chapter or two of your next book. It can be a monthly drawing for a $5 Starbucks gift card (it sounds small, but folks love gift cards). You can also do a checklist or something else that seems to align with your audience. Using an ethical bribe in the right way can be a solid tool to pull in lots and lots of new subscribers and sell more books!
I recommend signing up for a free account at Mailchimp or Constant Contact. You can get a free account for up to 1,000 subscribers. If you’re above that number you’ll have to pay a small fee, but it’s 100% worth it. These services will handle your newsletter mailing. They have templates to make attractive newsletters, and they’ll also handle your unsubscribes. Don’t email folks manually; sending to as few as 20 people can raise issues with your email service provider. Most companies take big issue with spamming, and if one person complains your emails may be blocked.
Make collecting email addresses part of your book-marketing plan
If writing pieces for other blogs is one of your book-marketing strategies, make sure to mention in your piece that folks can sign up for your email newsletter (if it’s appropriate and the blogger will allow you do this). Outside of that you should always, always do newsletter sign-ups at your book signings, book events, and speaking gigs. Never go to a single event without an email address sign-up sheet.
Creating a one-on-one reader connection is vital to growing your book/brand and career. It’s also a great indie book-marketing strategy to get in front of your audience, time and time again. When done right, that can become a critical and very effective piece of your book-marketing plan. The bottom line is that a great newsletter can help you sell more books. We’ve had our newsletter for more than seventeen years, and I’d never consider being without it. It keeps us top of mind with folks who have expressed an interest in our services, which is more than most social media can do.
If you’re a fiction author or aren’t sure what direction you want to go with your newsletter, try experimenting with different messages before you land on one that fits. In most cases your readers/fans just want to get your updates. They want to know what’s going on, what’s coming up, and what are you working on. It’s a fabulous opportunity to open the door to direction communication and sales. Yes, this takes time and effort, but if done right, the pay-offs can be enormous.
Just remember that it all goes back to making it about the reader, and nothing helps you collect emails addresses better than special bonuses and fun giveaways; give them something in exchange for their email address, because you really are asking for a lot. Once you’ve brainstormed some ideas, you’ll be pleased to realize that you can use those ideas to support other strategies in your book-marketing plan!
Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and an adjunct professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.