Instafreebie: Mailing List Success
I paid quite a bit for Mark Dawson’s Facebook Ads for Author course, and I recommend it. However, I haven’t discovered the right mix to make my ads to work well, but that doesn’t mean the information in that course isn’t gold. While I continue to master that beast, I need an easy win when it comes to building my mailing list–the only marketing tactic that is proving successful time and time again for authors.
For $20 a month, I’m giving away a free book or two to eager readers willing to sign up to my mailing list. That’s a flat fee for “quality” signups. I’ve been using Instafreebie since October. After my free month trial–where I had gained new subscribers–I continued as a paying member and I’ve been happy with my results.
New Subscribers (Verified/Unverified).
October (30th-31st Part of my free month): 15/0
November (1st-28th Part of my free month): 191/41
December: 1270/213
January: 1166/185
February: 1044/130
March: 628/60
April (1st-9th): 276/49
Total (Verified/Unverified): 4590/678
Instafreebie Total (Verified/Unverified): 3510/442*
*Not sure why my math is so off from what Instafreebie is giving me. I’ve sent Instafreebie a message asking to explain the discrepancy. I even subtracted the unverified from the verified and still didn’t get 3510. I vaguely recall someone posting on Facebook about this issue, but I’d have to do some searching to be sure. Will update when I have an answer.
Going off of Instafreebie’s numbers, I’ve spent $100 and each VERIFIED subscriber has cost me approximately $0.028. This isn’t including UNVERIFIED subs, who tried to subscribe but for some reason–misspelled email, undelivered, etc.–their subscription wasn’t recorded. I’ve amassed total unverified subs. Authors will debate whether or not to add unverified subs to their mailing lists, as it’s possible theses aren’t “interested” subscribers. I’ve added most of them to my list and my attrition and open rates will explain why.
Attrition Rate.
Verified Imported Subscribers: 3131
Unsubscribed: 414
Unverified Imported Subscribers: 306
Unsubscribed: 54
As of April 9th, I’ve only lost about 13% of verified subs and 17% of unverified subs since October. This might seem high, but I’ve if you look at the cost of each subscriber, it only raises it to $0.0319. Each time I send a newsletter, about 25+ unsubscribe from both lists combined. That can be quite a shock to your system and ultimately depressing, but it’s akin to an instant culling of your list. You don’t want people subscribed who aren’t interested in you or your books.
Subscriber “Quality.”
Do these new subscribers actually open my newsletters? In truth, they do a much better job than those who’ve found my mailing list through my books/website/Amazon/other. Of the last 5 newsletters–not including today’s–I’ve averaged the following opening rates:
Verified Subscribers: 49.68%
Unverified Subscribers: 45.64%
Main Mailing List (787 subscribers): 37%
Although with each newsletter there is a drop in open rate, subscribers from Instafreebie–people who don’t know me and are not familiar with my work–are more likely to open my newsletter than those subscribers who have been with me much much longer. Of course, my most loyal fans open my newsletters all the time. If you don’t like these numbers, industry average is about 22%, according to Mailchimp.
I’ve found using an email sequence on these new subscribers increased my unsubscribe rate. I haven’t discovered the right approach to really make these readers fans, but so far less is better.
How I Attract Readers.
The best advice I can give is to participate in monthly cross promotions with other authors. Each author sends a newsletter to their mailing list promoting the free books. I only signup for one cross promo a month so as to not inundate my readers with newsletter “ads” about books that aren’t mine.
Will your readers get tired of these promotions? Of course a few will, but others will appreciate receiving notice about other free books they might enjoy from authors they may never have known existed. And I chose promotions that involve books that match my readers’ tastes.
Instafreebie asks you to promote your giveaway on multiple social media platforms, but I question the effectiveness of this practice. It might get eyes on your giveaway, and maybe a few signups, but mostly I allow the cross promotions do the work for me. The 80/20 rule.
You aren’t limited to novels; you can give away a novella, and even a sample of a novel. Pick a great book with an awesome cover. When you set up your giveaway, make it public to have the widest reach. You can limit by date and number of copies, if you want to experiment.
Instafreebie allows you to try their service free for 30 days. Why not give it a shot? Remember, I gained about 200 verified subscribers in that first free month and that was WITHOUT cross promoting; just near daily promoting on social media.
I’m going to continue using Instafreebie with the hope of gaining more quality subscribers. Time will tell if these subscribers continue on with reading my other books and whether or not they’ll be interested in my upcoming release.
Photo Credit: businessboutique.com
