Hey, Today we have something pretty cool — help to level up your email game based on where you are at personally right now. I'm a mind-reader, I suppose. Either that or I sketched out 10 levels of email proficiency, and then gave everyone action steps on how to level up, as well as resources to help them get there. You'll see for yourself, right after our sponsor's message.
In partnership with Plottr. Introducing a new way to visualize your stories Have you ever wished for a powerful visual interface for outlining (or revising) your books within Acts? Plottr, the popular book planning and story bible software, is excited to introduce Act Structure 1.0 – one of their biggest updates ever – featuring three unique modes for structuring your story. Sign up for a live preview and see how Plottr may just completely change your approach to organizing your books. Find Your Email LevelEveryone is at a different place with email. Find your level below, and see what steps you need to take to improve your proficiency with email marketing — the most powerful tool for building a career. I recommend scanning it all, regardless of your level, because you may have skipped a step or two along the way. That's cool, you can circle back and fill it in. This is pretty detailed, so we're going to run through Levels 1-5 this week, and then Levels 6-10 next week. In other words, we're going to start super basic, and then get to expert level by the end. So this isn't just targeting advice for you to follow right now, it's an entire plan for you to master email. Oh yes. No more excuses — now you will find out exactly where you're at and what to do about it. I've even included some bonuses for all the swots out there. Level 1You have no email list at all — either that or you send newsletters in a more… analogue way, like by using Gmail or something else which is not a dedicated email marketing service. (Also known as an EMS.) Level Up!This is straightforward. You need a proper EMS for a billion different reasons. And there is no reason not to do it. Please don't try and operate a mailing list from your Gmail account. Open a MailerLite account instead. That is an affiliate link, but Mailerlite plans are free for the first 1,000 subscribers. I have been a MailerLite user for 5 or 6 years now and it's one of two services I continually recommend to authors (more on the other in a moment). It's the most suitable choice for most authors starting out because it's a good service, cheaper than most, and the free plan is not as restrictive. MailerLite also has some helpful resources and videos for those starting out with email marketing. ConvertKit has a good free plan too — also an affiliate link, but it's my favorite email marketing service right now, and has been since I moved my non-fiction list here around two years ago. So I do personally use both of the services I am recommending, and have done for some time. MailerLite is what I use for my fiction, ConvertKit for non-fiction. You might wonder why. Well, MailerLite is my go-to pick for fiction authors, and probably most non-fiction authors starting out simply because it is a cheaper place to grow after you exceed 1000 subscribers, when money is often tighter. However, for a certain kind of non-fiction author, or those with more cash to spend, or those more likely to use complex automations or teach courses or do any e-commerce stuff beyond selling ebooks on Amazon, then ConvertKit is my #1 pick. It's more expensive, but it is a premium EMS. It can do a lot more than MailerLite and is a little more robust generally — as you will see when we get to the more advanced levels on this list. But that's for later on, when your list grows, your business grows, and you have more need for advanced features… and more money to pay for them. Right now, you can totally make do with a simpler platform, which is good as the free plans tend to have some features stripped out until you switch to paid. But they are totally fine to get going with. Open an account with an EMS today, even if you haven't finished your first book yet. You can start building your list immediately — and should. If you are not convinced, read this blog post to understand the full power of email marketing, how critical it is for anyone who wants a sustainable career. Don't pick a service just because you see its name everywhere — avoid Mailchimp, for example — or just because it's cheaper, or on some lifetime deal. I don't personally think those services come anywhere near MailerLite or ConvertKit. This is the most important part of your author platform. This will become the most powerful marketing tool at your disposal. A reputable provider is essential to ensure your emails get delivered. Choose wisely. Extra CreditSign up to three author newsletters in your niche. Pick authors who you like reading, not necessarily the most successful. And take note of the things that reader-you likes, and dislikes. I'm talking about the sign-up process, the content, the tone — try and view things as a reader would. Level 2You have an account with an EMS, but you don't have a great way for people to sign up for your newsletter. Maybe you don't ask for emails at the back of your books. Perhaps you haven't a clear pathway to signing up on your site. Or possibly the sign-up page isn't fully optimized to capture the maximum amount of readers — or isn't owned by you, which restricts you in important ways. Level Up!Create an optimized sign-up page on your own website (only use a temporary landing page from the likes of MailerLite in a pinch). If you don't know how to do that the steps are here on the Resources page for my book Following. And if you need to review Chapter 2 of Following again to set up your website/landing page properly, then download it again from BookFunnel or just read it in your browser at that same link; it is quite short. Place the link to your optimized sign-up page on your social bios, your homepage, your navbar — clear, obvious, ubiquitous. Readers shouldn't have to hunt for this; don't be shy. Definitely one of those times to don the pimp suit. Craft some hooky sales copy to entice readers to sign-up at the back of all your books too. Put it right after The End — where you just got them in the feels. Extra CreditMake a cool image in a free program like Canva to attract even more sign-ups in your books. You can follow my YouTube guides if you need a tutorial. Those videos are ostensibly about making ad graphics for Facebook and BookBub, but it's the same thing — you're making an ad for your mailing list and putting it in your books. You can use it on social media also. Put that "ad" front and back. Gotta catch 'em all! Level 3You have a nice, optimized newsletter sign-up page on your site, a strong push to that page in all your books, and the link is plastered all over your socials. But you don't really offer something to new subscribers to reel them in. Level Up!Give them a cookie — according to my research, earthlings are powerless to resist cookies. Your cookie can be a free book or short story or some kind of "extra" which fans would love. Books and stories work best, for obvious reasons, especially for hooking newer readers. However, sometimes a really fun extra can work — particularly for those readers just finishing Book 1. They're gonna miss their new book friends after all! "But how do we do it?" says everyone who didn't read this email.
Extra CreditCome up with TWO cookies. One which appeals more to fans, and one which appeals more to fresh readers. You will be able to use both these lures in lots of different ways so no work here will be wasted. And if you only have the concept for the second cookie right now, that's totally fine. Level 4You use a proper EMS, have an optimized sign-up page, and drop some killer sales copy right there at The End of your books and dangle a cookie to ensure they bite. BUT after they do… crickets. You don't give them anything other than the promised cookie. If the next launch is a while away, readers might not hear from you for quite some time — and could forget who you are, even if they really enjoyed your book. Sometimes they forget who you are to the point of marking that crucial new release email as Spam. Yikes! Level Up!Craft a proper welcome sequence, which goes beyond giving them their cookie and which creates real engagement with your readers — as you sleep and/or eat macaroons. This welcome sequence can also drive sales of your existing books, while also ensuring that readers open your next launch email, whenever that happens to be. It's your emails which will keep them interested between books. This is the magic trick. Giving them more of those words of yours is the secret reader glue. Who would have thunk it? (Remember this when we talk about Level 5 in a sec.) But to build your own automated welcome sequence of this kind, my email from January lays it out step-by-step (with screenshots). I'll also have a video guide soon for anyone still struggling.
Extra CreditHave TWO welcome sequences — one for hot subscribers and one for cold. We're not separating out the 10s here, just handling the welcome slightly differently, depending on how much of a fan they are already. For example, a competition entrant or someone coming from a group promotion or a Facebook Ad or something else inorganic of this nature will likely be "cold" — you haven't wooed them with your words yet. On the other hand, a reader coming in through your organic social media posts might be warmer, one signing up off her own steam on your website is warmer again, and then those coming in at the back of your books are hot AF. You should consider handling hot and cold subscribers slightly differently for best results. This idea also came from Tammi Labrecque BTW, author of the best book about email. She is full of brilliant ideas; I recommend checking out her stuff if you haven't already.
Level 5You have a nice welcome sequence which doles out your cookie and keeps readers engaged, while driving sales of your back catalogue too. You only really send newsletters when you have a new release or some other important news, and that seems to work fine for you. Problem is, your list can kind of go… stale — there's no other word for it, readers just seem to stop opening your emails over time. Some days it feels like you are running to stand still with email, trying new ways to get more subscribers but never going much further than replacing those who "naturally" fall away. You want a way to grow things faster. And you're willing to spend to achieve this goal. Level Up!Stop! Exercise volition. Don't run off in the wrong direction. Fix that, leaky bucket first, or you'll develop an insatiable thirst. For emails, names, and addresses — OK, I'll stop. My lawyer has asked me to take this opportunity to apologize to Vanilla Ice and indeed the entire Ice family. What I'm trying to say is that you need to make an important decision right now. And that's to email your readers regularly. Once a month is fine for fiction authors. More frequently is fine as well if that suits you and your audience. Non-fiction authors might see a lot of value with increasing the cadence. This newsletter is weekly, for example, but bi-weekly can work well for my fellow NFers also. I don't recommend being much more frequent than that, even if you write like a demon and work 25 hours a day. There seems to be a trend now for daily emails, especially in certain non-fiction circles. I think this is a bad idea. The number of people I have seen make this work — over an extended period — is literally handful. As in a literal hand full of people. AKA no people. None. No one can make this work over an extended period. I've never seen it anyway, and maybe this is subjective, but there isn't anyone I want to hear from on a daily basis. (I don't even look into the mirror on Tuesdays.) Whatever frequency you go with, the emails need to be good. If you don't put the effort in and push through those uncomfortable moments, people will glaze over, switch off, stop opening, and then forget about you altogether. Oblivion might be fine and dandy on a Friday night, but it's sub-optimal for audience retention. You must write more emails now, as you might have deduced. As they need to be more frequent, and gooder than before, it might be helpful to make some kind of content plan, or otherwise "bank" a few evergreen emails which you can pull out of the bag when swamped. You will thank me later! But perhaps not now. You might be cursing me now. Well save some of those curses, youngblood; you don't know what's coming… Seriously though, you only need maybe eight or ten good ideas for emails every year, as you will presumably be launching books and doing various Things On The Internet which you can talk about now and then. But inbetween those moments, you can pull an email from your imaginary Content Bank — see how you are growing in power already? — and send it out to delight your fans, without doing much more than copying and pasting. "But what do we write about?" says everyone who missed this email a while back. Extra CreditWant to one-up Old Muggins here? Turn that Content Bank metaphor into a reality. Plot out 5 emails and you're covered for half the year. Do 9 or 10 if you're an overachiever. Bullet points are fine at this stage if you prefer. And then save your email ideas in a folder called "Content Bank." Welcome to the 1% (of content). By the way, if you need more concrete ideas for all this new content, or if you want a better way to plan out the ideas you already have, just wait for next week's email, he says, creating a modicum of anticipation. Next Week: We Go To The MoonThings are going to get crazy on Friday as we build on this solid foundation and explore Levels 6 to 10 of email marketing — I have some wild stuff in there for even those most advanced users, so make sure to check that out next week. Talk to you then, Dave P.S. Writing music this week is the beautiful Netta Perseus by Lankum.
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Friday, March 31, 2023
Level up by doing this with email 👉
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