SFA 056 – Using Your Newsletter to Sell More Books (Part 1)

This week and next week, Andrea, Jo, and Lindsay talk advanced newsletter tactics for authors. We share the providers/hosts we use, how we recruit subscribers, what we email them about, and how we use those emails to sell books.

After that, it’s into a thorough question and answer session with Andrea. She’s been doing a ton of research for the Advanced Newsletter Marketing course she’s put together over at https://selfpublishstrongcourses.com/ (if you’re interested in taking it, you can get 25% off with the coupon code SIMPLIFY), so Lindsay and Jo grilled her for tons of information for you guys.

Newsletter Hosts/Providers that we use:

• Lindsay: Aweber
• Jo: Mailchimp
• Andrea: Mailjet

Here are some of the questions we asked in the first part of this two-part episode:

• When it comes to newsletters, what are some mistakes authors are making?
• What can we do to avoid getting shunted into spam/promos folders?
• Sincerity vs. Clickbait: It seems like a lot of newsletter marketing is balancing sincerity and being genuine with getting people to bypass their brain and just click the email. How do we balance out our tactics to avoid being (or at least seeming) overtly manipulative?
• Any tips for subject lines that are more likely to get opened?
• How long should those subject lines be?
• Is there a way to do A/B testing with newsletter providers, and is there a case where you would recommend that?
• Does the amount of testing you do change with how often you do a newsletter? For instance, if you are the sort of person who runs a “new release only” newsletter and only puts out an email every month or two, should you be doing more or less testing than someone who rigorously sticks to a weekly email schedule?
• Could you talk about what an auto-responder sequence is?
• What should go into the emails in an auto-responder or follow-up sequence?
• Is there a target size for a newsletter, or should we always strive for more? Given the fact that most newsletter providers charge more for larger lists, it seems like at some point there’s a cost benefit analysis to be done.

That’s where we broke to end this first episode. We’ve got even more Q&A in next week’s show. Thanks for listening!