Step 4 - Capture Your Readers via Email Marketing
It's a fact of life for any writer promoting their works online that "social media creates the buzz but email marketing closes the sale." A rational and sensible
email marketing strategy can help writers drive readers to their works, and with an average Return On Investment determined by the Direct Marketing Association to be more than $42 per each dollar invested, it is clearly the budget-strapped author's best friend. A partnership with a reputable email service provider (ESP) will allow you to:
Design professional email newsletters
Provide attractive and functional email templates
Manage your contact list
Track and analyze your campaign through
real-time reportsIntegrate seamlessly with social networks
Supply sophisticated email subscription forms
Develop polls and surveys to engage your readership while you learn about their preferences
Assist you in segmenting your subscription lists according to demographics and behavior
Ensure optimal deliverability due to their established reputation with ISPs
ESPs can also facilitate messages to be automatically sent at any frequency of your choosing. Author Susan P. Ascher successfully used email
autoresponders to promote her Dude, Seriously, It's Not All About You to allow readers to sample brief excerpts that motivate them to purchase the book. Advanced ESPs such as Benchmark Email even have an
RSS-To-Email feature which automatically sends out a
missive to your subscribers whenever you update your blog or post anything that is relayed through RSS, and have designed newsletter templates specifically for that purpose.
By utilizing an ESP's template you'll also be assured that any multimedia of your choosing will embed and display properly.
Craft the Best Possible Newsletter
The importance of creating compelling content for your newsletter is indisputable, but there is much more to promoting your works through email marketing than just brilliant writing. To achieve success in email marketing a book, manuscript or online works you should:
Maintain a strict frequency schedule that adheres precisely to what your subscribers signed up for.
Provide a compelling
subject line: August Video Card Tech Newsletter is not as intriguing as Dog Days Radeon vs. Nvidia Shootout.
Have a consistent layout and structure for each issue to keep your readers from becoming confused.
Proofread and proofread again, as the slightest spelling or grammatical error will be taken more seriously coming from a professional writer.
Learn about the various testing processes and test every possible factor of your newsletter.
Have the unsubscribe and comment links prominently visible, and act immediately on all requests.
Exercise Mobile Mastery
The mobile revolution has gathered momentum to such a point that within a couple of years more emails will be read on smartphones and tablets than on desktop and laptop computers. The problem this presents writers marketing their works through email is that a newsletter formatted to display perfectly on a 15" laptop or 24" desktop screen may be almost unreadable on a tiny smartphone screen. The mobile consideration must apply to every aspect of your layout. What's the point of placing a large image of your book cover in your newsletter if a third of it falls off the edge of a typical Android or iPhone? ESPs can ride to your rescue in providing
email templates that scale to different sized screens, and offer the alternative of viewing mobile-specific versions.
Writers everywhere agree that email marketing forms the hub of their promotional efforts, and is the channel primarily responsible for attracting new readers and forging new connections. Partnering with an ESP that understands the very specific marketing needs of writers and is open to working with you to achieve your promotional goals can be the boost any writer needs to join the ranks of the illustrious literati.
