Is email marketing the right step for you as an author? Absolutely! This marketing channel has the ability to increase your book sales and improve your author brand awareness. It’s a valuable tool that you need to learn how to use as soon as possible. This article is going to guide you through email marketing for eBooks and will teach you how to build and nurture your reader list. 

Email Marketing for Authors: Why Is It Important?

In a world that’s becoming more digital each day, email marketing is crucial for authors and their success. Research indicates that most millennials actually want business communication through email rather than the other avenues available. Most consumers look at their emails every single day, and it is the most preferred method of receiving updates from their favorite brands. Here’s a list of reasons why it’s important to implement email marketing as an author:

• Email marketing allows you to create content that is tailored to your targeted audience. Customization can become quite personalized by including the names of the people in your audience. You can also create content within an email that suits that particular audience.
• Your targeting becomes very thorough because you’re able to separate people who have purchased from people who are still browsing, and you can even communicate with those who might have an eBook in their cart but have not yet purchased. Access to this kind of information allows you to target them specifically by offering them incentives that apply only to those contacts. 
• Email marketing allows you to generate more traffic to your website because all links within your marketing campaigns will send your audience to a particular page, deal, or information on your website that you would like them to see. 
• You will be able to have more optimized marketing since you will be able to send your marketing campaigns at the right time for particular audiences, depending on where in the world or what time of the day it is. You’ll be able to segment your audience and send these emails in the morning based on their open activity or in the evening. 
• Email marketing is also lighter on your wallet because you don’t have the cost of printing and distribution. Most of the time, email marketing will just require content writers and graphic designers, who can sometimes be the same person, so you will also be reducing labor fees. 
• Email marketing also allows you to increase your brand awareness because you will be communicating with your customers directly and will be able to cultivate a relationship with them, constantly keeping your brand at the front of their minds. Including social media content and links in your email campaigns will encourage them to follow you on your social media channels, which means that your brand will be recognized there as well. 

Building a Reader List for Ebooks: Email List Strategies for Authors

Once you’re all set with what email marketing entails, it’s time to take the next step and gather your email subscribers. It might be confusing when you’re starting out because you have no idea where to find the subscribers. Take a look at these strategies you’ll need to build your reader list:

• Find your readers: The first thing you want to do is make a small list of where you think your readers are. Doing this will give you an idea of how to attract them.
• Attract subscribers: One of the best ways to get subscribers is by having an overlay or a pop-up form on your website that will ask visitors to sign up for your newsletter. Once they provide the necessary information, they will be entered into your main subscriber list on your email marketing platform. 
• Lead magnets: Most people are very particular with whom they provide their information to. Creating lead magnets will be beneficial to you since you will be offering an incentive to your potential customer in exchange for their contact details. This will allow you to generate leads to add to your subscriber list. Incentives could be things like a 10% off coupon on their first purchase, a free eBook, or loyalty points if you have a loyalty program. 
• Ensure your landing pages are optimized to capture email addresses: When you create your landing page or forms for lead capturing, you need to make sure that they are user-friendly and it’s easy to type in the information you are asking for. If this landing page is buggy, difficult to understand, or cumbersome for users to enter the information, they will simply leave the page, and you will lose out on a subscriber.
• Use your channels: Finally, make sure that you make use of your website and social media channels to promote your newsletter. Add the sign up links in your bio and anywhere else it fits. Post it on your Instagram stories and even on your feed, encouraging people to sign up.

Growing Readership Through Email Marketing

Once your subscriber list is created, you need to build a group of loyal readers. It can be tough with email marketing because you’re missing that normal human interaction. It isn’t just about sending emails to your new subscriber list; it’s about making a meaningful connection with your readers. Let’s discuss some strategies to implement in your email marketing that will help grow your readership and keep them coming back for more. 

Building Author-Subscriber Connections

• When your subscribers receive your emails for the first time, you don’t want to bombard them with content about your sales and new book launches. Ensure that they go through an automated welcome series flow that you can set up with your emailing platform. In this welcome series, ensure that you are sending them emails thanking them for subscribing and informing them about the kind of content that they can expect to receive from you. If you promised them a discount for subscribing, ensure that you follow through at this stage.
• Make sure that you are providing valuable content and information that is relevant to your audience. If you know that they are fans of romance novels, ensure that you apply the correct filters to your automations and segmentation so that they don’t receive content about your new horror releases, for example. 
• Try personalizing your emails so that it’s addressing your subscribers by their first names. This gives your content a more personal touch that makes your reader feel closer to you. They are more likely to engage with content like this.
• Always leave a call to action, encouraging readers to engage and provide feedback. It’s always useful to add a button that takes them to a form where they can tell you how they feel about the content or your book.

Nurturing Relationships With Readers

It’s important to always try to improve your relationship with your readers. To do this, simply ensure that:

• You always reply to any questions, feedback, or messages that they send to you.
• You create surveys and questionnaires that allow your readers to let you know if they have any issues or concerns.
• Make use of the information that you gather about your reader’s preferences by sending them recommendations of your other books or content that is personalized to their liking.
• Create engaging content like sneak peeks, processes, behind-the-scenes videos, pictures, or content you might have.
• If you have an author website, it’s a great idea to ensure that your content or certain keywords within your content link back to this website. If you don’t have one, consider working on this soon since it will be critical to your email marketing success.

Author Newsletter Tips: Ebook Launch and Email Campaigns

You might have heard this a million times, but, of course, it remains the ultimate technique: always have engaging content in your newsletters that your readers relate to. Here are a few other lesser-known tips that will be helpful in your email marketing success:

• Send your emails at the right time. Learn your audience and make use of the analytics tools your email service provider offers to discover the days and times that your audience is most responsive and engaging with your content.
• Although you want to be promoting your book sales and new books that are being launched, make sure that your content is not solely focused on these sales or they will become repetitive and boring.
• Creating a series of emails when a new book is being launched is a creative way to build anticipation and create excitement for your subscribers so that they look forward to any new releases. Here, you can offer teasers and book snippets to give them a taste of what’s coming. 
• Remember to incorporate call to actions such as “click here,” “join the waiting list,” or “pre-order now” within your content to remind them to purchase or find out more about your book launches.
• Don’t forget to encourage readers to leave reviews and share your content. 
• Using SEO-optimized content is so important in your emails to ensure you reach the right audience. If you’re worried about not having the right skills for this, we have the best SEO packages and a ton of experts who can help!

Final Thoughts

Email marketing is a tool that can be very powerful. It allows you to communicate directly with your audience, keeping them updated constantly. You can build a loyal audience and increase your brand awareness. If you make use of the valuable insight and guidance offered in this article, you’ll be on your way to all kinds of email marketing success as an author. Get ready for growth in readership and a loyal audience!