Show #10 Building Your Newsletter: Why It’s Just As Important As Your Books

Author Platform Rocket: Self Publishing, Marketing & Advertising Advice For Authors

Having a high quality newsletter is the best way to grow your book sales. Getting people to subscribe to that newsletter is the real challenge that requires strategy and action on your part. In this episode, you will discover three different approaches for achieving a high quality subscriber base. You’ll learn how to leverage online tools, such as Leadpages and Facebook Ads, to accelerate this process and why those who have read your books and subscribed need to be treated with extra care. Tune-in to find out which strategy is right for you and your budget, and the strengths and weaknesses of each.

• Newsletters are just as important as your books!
• Earn higher profits by structuring your newsletter in the correct manner
• Concentrate on growing your subscriber base
  • People do not like paying for leads to build a subscriber base
  • Newsletter ads on book subscriber sites tend to work well because they are pitching your book to a huge subscriber base
• Tier #1: The Golden Child Approach
  • People who subscribe to your newsletter after reading your book are the best kind of subscribers
  • They are invested in you as an author and are committed to receiving updates from you
  • Keep these subscribers on a separate list
  • They will give you the most bang for your buck
  • The only way to build an extensive subscriber list is through selling a large number of books
• The next group of people are those who connect with you via paid advertising
  • These subscribers typically subscribe via paid Facebook Ads
    • Facebook Ads are generally the most cost effective; they drive down your costs by testing your ad and landing page deliverability
• Tier #2: The Process-Driven Approach
  • Get a landing page generator like Leadpages
  • Go for the middle level membership costing $80 per month, which permits split testing
    • Allows you to get an email address in exchange of a free book or video
  • See which page turns people into subscribers faster—ideally, 25% of people who visit your page should become subscribers (even 70% conversions are not unheard of)
  • Run Facebook Ads to your landing page
  • Analyze your number every 7 days
  • Facebook’s AI yields better results as you run your ads for a longer duration
  • Do not let the high initial cost per click deter you; this cost will come down with the passage of time
  • Allows you to reach into the marketplace and pull the people who are going to be receptive to you
• Set your expectations right: there will be a percentage of people who unsubscribe to your newsletter, it is a self-selecting mechanism
• Building a newsletter gives you leverage; without a newsletter, you are at the mercy of Amazon or an author or blogger
  • In a previous episode, we have talked about “syndicate marketing” or joint level partnerships which leads to lot of politics
  • This system can help you grow your business in spite of your introvert nature
  • The bigger you get, the more power you have
• Once you have a sizeable and high quality subscriber base, you will see a lot of movement as you pitch your book to them.
• You’ll also experience a good open rate
• Get in touch with Author Platform Rocket if you have any questions or need help with your lead generation ads
• Tier #3: The “Knuckle Down” Approach
  • Ran these to kick off the launch of two new book ecosystems
  • Got 50 authors for each of these ecosystems for this joint promotion
  • Expectations need to be scaled down—it is quite common for 90% of initial subscribers to unsubscribe
  • Possible to clean the leads by weeding out the bad emails—you can acquire suppression lists from companies who provide this data
  • Cost effective option which can really balloon your email list to thousands of subscribers
• It is a well-known fact that growing your social media following does not translate into high sales—what matters is a high quality, email newsletter subscriber base
• Feel free to email Jonny your questions

3 Key Points:

1. People who subscribe to your newsletter AFTER reading your book are your best subscribers who will likely give you the most bang for your buck.
2. Use a process driven approach, such as Leadpages and Facebook ads, allows you to reach into the marketplace and pull the audience that will be most receptive to you.
3. Adjust your expectations when it comes to newsletter subscriptions—expect for a high percentage of people to unsubscribe from your list.

Resources Mentioned:

• Leadpages – A landing page generator
• Facebook Ads – Advertise on Facebook and Instagram