Three Things Authors Need to Start Their Newsletter
EPISODE FIFTY TWO
Newsletters are an important element to an author's marketing strategy, but what's actually involved? How does an author get started? In this episode Jenn walks you through the three major elements authors need to get their newsletter started.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to the book Marketing Simplified Podcast. I'm Jenn Hanson-dePaula.
When we talk about and consider marketing tools and the things that we need to actually market and sell our books, many times we automatically go to social media, growing an audience on social media or having an ad budget or getting tools in place to help us promote our book. But many times we do not consider one of the most important elements that we need in our marketing toolkit, and that is our newsletter in all reality.
Your newsletter as an author is one of the most important elements that you need to really help nurture your connections and also lead these connections to an actual sale. So in today's episode, we are going to talk about the three elements that you need to really amp up your newsletter and to get things started. So let's jump on in.
The very first thing that you need to think about when you are going to get started with your newsletter is what we call a newsletter management system. Now there are many different choices that you can choose from. There's MailerLite, there is MailChimp, there's Constant Contact. There are so many options that you can choose from. But here are three things that you should really consider to figure out which outlet is best for you.
First of all, you want to find a newsletter subscription service that is easy to embed in your website. Now, this is going to be the place where people go to actually subscribe for your newsletter. And so having an embedded sign up place is going to be key. So finding an outlet that makes that process easy is going to be very important.
And then the second detail that you want to pay attention to is making sure that it's easy to design and distribute your newsletter. So you want to make sure that the way your newsletter looks and is formatted is easy for you to actually prepare and send out.
And the third detail is cost. Obviously, now all of the newsletter management services have free options or free trials that you can give a whirl and to see if they work for you. But you also want to consider what it is that you can pay per month in order to sustain your newsletter.
So considering the cost, the design elements and how easy it is to embed are the three key elements that you want to think about when subscribing to a newsletter management service. And then the second thing that you want to really consider with your newsletter is a newsletter incentive. So a newsletter incentive is a free download that you provide for your newsletter subscribers when they actually subscribe to our newsletter.
You can't just say, “Subscribe to my newsletter for updates or to find out what is going on with my book.” That's not enough to get people to actually give you their email address. You want to give them something that is going to give them a quick win or something that's going to provide some insight into your book or what you actually write about.
It can be a free novella. It can be some sample chapters. It can be something of substance that your readers will find enticing to make them actually want to sign up for your newsletter. It doesn't need to be anything that you send them in the mail. It doesn't have to be a physical thing. It's something that they can very easily download from their computer or smartphone or iPad.
And then the third detail that you want to get in place as you start your newsletter is actually getting a plan in order. Now, a plan involves several different things. First of all, you want to consider how often you want to send out your newsletter. So think about how often you can realistically send out a newsletter in order to be consistent.
If this is something that's brand new to you, I would encourage you to start off with once a month. And then as it becomes more of a habit and it becomes more of an easy thing for you to do. Increase the number to twice a month and then maybe you can even go to once a week. But if you write fiction, I would say sending out a newsletter once a month or twice a month is great.
If you write nonfiction, starting off with once a month and then easing into weekly would be key for your book. All in all, making sure that you keep this sustainable for the long term, keeping it consistent. What is realistic for you?
And then the next part of your plan is to think about what content you already have with a newsletter. Many authors think that they have to reinvent the wheel, that they have to come up with something completely new to talk about in their newsletter. And that isn't necessarily the case.
Think about what you already have. So if you do a weekly podcast or a weekly blog, or if you have some really great social media content that you share, or if you have a backlog of information that you have used in the past that is still relevant to your book and to the content that you're creating, thinking about what you already have, and then using that as your newsletter content is a great way to not only get started, but it's how you can reuse your content and really reiterate what you are talking about in your blog and your podcast, on your social media and across the board.
And then third is coming up with some sort of schedule. So really planning things out. If you're planning on doing a monthly newsletter, that's only 12 topics that you have to come up with. So sitting down at your calendar and then writing out what each topic is going to be per month is going to help ease that stress in creating your newsletter.
But it's also going to help you be strategic and intentional with the content that you share in your newsletter. So thinking about the day that you want to send out your newsletter is also going to be key, keeping it consistent. So what I would encourage you to do is look at your calendar, write down the topic on the day that you're going to send it out, and then plan accordingly to that.
All in all, your newsletter does not have to be a huge burden, and it's not something that's adding a ton of work to your already very busy schedule. What this is is taking content that you already have and repurposing it. And it's also going to really nurture the connections that you already have and really usher them from just being a mere window shopper on social media into an actual book buyer.
And if the newsletter is something that is still a little and easy for you, I have you covered because we have an incredible resource called The Author Circle. It's our monthly membership and in there we provide templates. We provide a welcome sequence for your newsletter. We provide a plan and a structure and everything that you need to really make your newsletter successful.
And we also provide additional book marketing and social media information, tips, templates, everything that you need. But most importantly, we have the most incredible community of your fellow authors that are there in the circle with you. So click the link in the show notes for more information on that.
(Automatic transcript by Adobe Premiere Pro’s Speech to Text)