10 Ideas How to Grow Your E-mail List as a Published Author
Email marketing has defied many
critics in recent years to provide an impressive return on investment for
marketers and authors alike. That is to say, email marketing is far
from dead and possibly the most effective way to communicate
with a large audience.
But what about email marketing for
authors in particular?
The truth is, most of the ideas on
this list could prove useful for any type of business. However, given the
products on hand for authors, you should find that these ideas are especially
relevant when it comes to giveaways, free ebooks and other incentives.
Email Marketing for Authors: 10 Ideas to Grow an E-mail List
1. Understand the Power of Blogging
If you don’t have a blog on your
website, you really need to start one. Blog articles produce content that
enables your website to climb the rankings on search engines. As more users
visit your website, you can also use this content to advertise things like your
newsletter, promotions or weekly updates in exchange for an email address.
At the same time, this content
needs to be optimized for the right keywords. Also, gaining an understanding of
search engine optimization (SEO) is a good idea when it comes to email
marketing for authors. Similarly, getting traffic to your website is great, but
there’s little point if you fail to convert those visitors which highlights the
importance of creating a quality call to action or “lead magnet”.
2. Create an Irresistible Lead Magnet
As you
may know, a lead magnet is a free product or service that you can give to
visitors in return for their email address. What’s more, this exchange also
includes permission to send them future emails with newsletters, promotions or
similar.
The truth is, people love free stuff. Also, most people take time out of their busy schedules to pass along useful information, products, or services. Needless to say, this is exactly what can happen with a high-quality lead magnet. More specifically, in return for a quality course, ebook, or webinar, you can often generate a swath of email addresses.
Now, it’s not just a case of giving something away but rather about creating a piece of content that offers genuine value to the website visitor. That is to say, many lead magnets are simply too vague or bland but a quality lead magnet will prove irresistible to visitors. Either way, email marketing for authors should involve thinking about the user, and brainstorming around what they might find irresistible!
3.
Use MailerLite for Email Newsletters that Actually Work
While most authors are far from being marketing experts, MailerLite provides advanced tools which make email marketing for authors a lot easier. Aside from useful features related to automation and landing pages, MailerLite is a very powerful software that can significantly improve your email marketing, while connecting to other web services. And then there’s the immense customer data which allows first-time users to better understand website visitors and leverage this data to attract more sign ups by the day. With this in mind, MailerLite requires no knowledge or experience and even features an easy drag and drop editor for producing clean email newsletters that actually work.
4. Use Facebook Ads to Drive Traffic to Your Optin Page
Paid Facebook ads or search ads can be used to drive traffic to an optin landing page. What’s more, such platforms can qualify this traffic and ensure you have information or value for which online users are searching. In case you might be asking yourself, Facebook Ads are probably the best paid advertising option available. After all, you can use highly detailed targeting and placement for these ads, while the audience is larger than any other social media platform. That being said, email marketing for authors is not restricted to Facebook so feel free to try advertising on Google, Instagram or any other platform.
5. Rethink the Timing of Your Signup Pop-Up Form
Even if
you have the perfect copy, lead magnet or signup form, you stand to lose every
opportunity with bad timing. In other words, you will see a huge increase in
the number of signups with positioning your signup request to be in the right
place, at the right time.
For
instance, displaying a popup the very instant a visitor arrives at your site is
going to frustrate them. Similarly, interrupting an important stage of the
visitor experience is likely to make them close the popup, in spite of what it
had to say. In short, if you can think about your own encounters with pop ups,
this should help guide you in terms of where to place the pop ups and how long
to wait until you show them to the visitor.
6. Sneak Peek and Sign Up for More
Savvy
marketers are always trying to come up with “sneak peek” content that
encourages website visitors to sign up for more of the same. As for email
marketing for authors, this sneak peek might be an interesting snippet or page,
while the signup form will present the entire ebook for free. It’s important
for this snippet or sneak peek to be of high value and if the user enjoys this
piece, you can be sure they will sign up for the freebie on offer.
7. Host Webinars and Give Free Information
Just so you know, Zoom and YouTube Live now offer a free tool for hosting webinars. While YouTube can sometimes provide a sizable audience, live video and webinars offer high perceived value. That is to say, most people appreciate the transparent and exciting nature of a live webinar. As if that’s not enough, this is free information or entertainment and everyone loves a freebie. But where does the signup come into play?
Firstly, you can ask people to
sign up for a newsletter, promotion of information during the free webinar.
However, it’s easier to amass emails by requiring participants to sign up prior
to the webinar with their email address.
8. Purchasing Email Addresses for the First Contact
Believe it or not, some authors purchase email lists and use this data to generate leads. However, as you might expect, this is often an unreliable and even unethical way of getting more email addresses. In fact, these leads are not qualified which means your email will often come across as spam to the receiver. What’s more, these users are unlikely to respond in any way which makes this option a rather risky investment.
9. Answer
Questions on Facebook, Linkedin & Quora
For many experts, demonstrating authority
is a powerful way to attract attention. But you need somewhere to demonstrate
this knowledge and relevant Facebook and Linkedin groups are great places to
start. That being said, it often pays to think outside the box.
For instance, Quora is a questions and
answers website that receives a rather large amount of traffic from search
engines. Just so you know, this is a platform on which you can not only post
questions but also answer queries relating to your profession or areas of
interest. When you provide high quality information, other users can “upvote”
your answer which means that more and more people will see what you have to
say.
Now, that’s not to say you’re in this for the upvotes and adoration. You see, Quora allows users to insert links to an opt-in landing page. Also, you can choose to answer specific questions that relate to your lead magnet, newsletter, or website which will increase the chances of these users having enough interest or curiosity to interact.
10. Add Signup Links Absolutely Everywhere
Let’s be honest, most people are
sick of signup forms. It’s true, marketers will go to any length to get hold of
email addresses. However, we must acknowledge the persistence of these
marketers and the techniques which continue to work, time and time again. In
this case, it’s better to display a sign up link to your email signature or
Instagram bio. Similarly, there’s no reason not to have a link to your signup
form in the description of a YouTube video. In fact, you should try to include
this signup form absolutely everywhere that allows one and remember this
persistence will most often result in success.
As you can see, email marketing for authors is quite the same as for any
business or entrepreneur. That being said, you should know that email marketing
is far from dead and the growth of your email list will depend on the amount of
time and effort you put into each of the above ideas.
The post 10 Ideas How to Grow Your E-mail List as a Published Author appeared first on Slaven Vujic.
