Autoresponders Author List Management
Resources and Links (From Mailchimp slides) Authors: ● http://adamcroft.net/ ● http://jfpenn.com/ Links: ● https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/ ● Ebook marketing 101 (youtube) ● The Perfect Year (YA Huss) ● www.writers-coop.com/members Mailchimp/Mailerlite Information: ● Start to Finish Mailchimp tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE0k7tuKEa0 ● Getting started Mailer Lite turorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAe4aJV5iBQ
HOT TAKE! - SFFM Podcast #223 ● Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast #222 ● @17:30 in the Question: “What would you do if you were just starting out?” ● “Have a website and a mailing list ready before you get started...I would do two books, one full length and one novella...the novel is what you’ll try to make money off of and the other is used to drive people to your mailing list or to give out as a sample that then drives people to book one.”
Assumptions You have the following: ● Basic understanding of mailchimp (review earlier slides for more info) ● Have an account set up ● Have a lead magnet (free book, first three chapters, etc) ● Ability to promote your optin (webpage, facebook page, twitter page) ● Pick one of the two platforms to do group promotion (Prolific Reader, Bookfunnel)
What providers are out there? ● MailerLite - Free up to 1000 subscribers ● Mailchimp - Free up to 2000 subscribers ● Both Mailchimp and Mailerlite support free autoresponders in their free package.
Beautiful Content and Traffic Content Traffic (Level 1) Newsletter Book(s) Website Driving Readers Platforms Autoresponder Social Media (Amazon, etc)
Key Term (1 of 2) - Conversion Rate ● The rate at which a person is willing to buy your book ● Driven by factors (in order of importance): ○ Cover image ○ Value of the reviews ○ Number of reviews ○ Price ○ Book blurb ○ Everything else... ● Conversion Rate is zero without traffic...
Key Term (2 of 2) - Traffic ● The numbers of people who are driven to and organically find your book ● Ways to drive traffic: ○ Newsletters/Autoresponders ○ Paid Traffic (Facebook or AMS) ○ Organic traffic (rankings or search) ○ Search engine traffic ○ 3rd party websites (youtube, blogs, social media, author sites like wattpad)
What is an Autoresponder? ● An email or series of emails sent to new subscribers to direct them to take a action ○ Buy Books ○ Give them a reason to like and trust you ○ Stay on the list ○ Create an Advanced Reader Team
Newsletter vs. Autoresponder Newsletter use case Send New 1st of the Main List Campaign to Subscriber month Main List Autoresponder use case Periodic New Graduate to AR List #1 Sequence of Subscriber Main List emails sent Send 1st of the Campaign to month Main List
Ability to Create Multiple Lists
Why Have Multiple Lists? ● You know what Lead Magnet subscribers are coming from ● You want to know where the subscribers are coming from ● You may want to know genre to segregate readers ● You may have different autoresponder sequences (A/B testing) ● You want to segregate readers from the main list ● Each list can get a separate autoresponder ● Key here? Data Data Data...
Autoresponder Terms ● Sequence - Clear set of emails that drives the user to an action ● Triggers - What triggers the next email in the sequence (Time or Action) ● Templates - Email templates that create consistency and “brandability”. Your readers see an email they expect something. Focus on the content, not some flashy new graphic or template layout.
More than a “Welcome” email ● Autoresponders are more than just welcome emails, you are trying to build a more compelling experience for the reader and follower. ● Allows you to build goodwill with a new reader. ● The Gary Vaynerchuk ‘ Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook . ○ Give give give give give, and then the ask. ● Build that trust over a series of short emails, instead of one massive email. ● Every email should be giving something to the reader (experience, understanding, enjoyment, etc) that will lead them to take action .
Tips for Using Autoresponders ● Schedule emails , bundle online tasks ● Define specific intervals based on the subscribe date ● Don’t number the messages ● Don't overwhelm your subscribes ● People are more likely to read messages that are short and focused ● You should be the first person to subscribe to this list so you can experience it first ● Help your audience get to know you and trust you . You are what's being sold as much as your books. ● Plan out the entire sequence before you start writing ● Don’t oversell in every email
Keep It Simple (10 day sequence) ● Welcome email ○ link to download their freebie again, just in case they missed it. ● +3 Days ● More information on the free book they got ○ What is your inspiration for writing it? ● +3 Days ● You can get the next book here (Sell or giveaway) ● +3 Days ● Would you like to be part of my advanced reader team?
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It’s Easy to Talk About It! …..So let's actually do it!
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