The single most effective marketing method for book sales remains the power of a personal recommendation. It’s advertising you just can’t buy.
Hence so much focus on reviews and endorsements for your book.
This also explains the current appeal of social media marketing in an author’s marketing toolkit. If your friend on Facebook likes a book, you might too. Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, and Twitter are sexy new ways to gain exposure for you and your book. LinkedIn and especially GoodReads rely on the sales principle of recommendations for books through your professional networks and social circles.
But authors shouldn’t be distracted by bright shiny objects over the power of personalized email messages. Publicity is one thing. Sales are another. A personal email closes a book sales deal better than social media. Converting hits into sales is most effective with email.
Email is effective because it’s permission-based. Sending out unsolicited emails is called spam. An author needs to start building a list of email contacts who opt-in to receive messages about you and your writing projects. People on your email list have given you a green light. They’ve already bought into your project and are invested in its success.
Authors need to invite visitors to their website and blog to subscribe by email. All those contacts are potential customers and you and your publisher will work together toward getting your book into the hands of these readers. One of the most effective ways of converting contacts into book buyers is through email.
With the proper tools, you can easily manage your own email marketing campaigns. There are two very popular and reliable platforms many small businesses use as a service to create, manage, and distribute email. Constant Contact and MailChimp.
These are the two most frequently used. You can try Constant Contact for 60 days free and then a basic monthly fee of $15.00
Very similar in its ease and reliability is MailChimp. Users with 2,000 or fewer on their master list can send up to 12,000 emails a month for FREE. Here’s a video on how to sign-up for MailChimp specifically with authors in mind. Once you have created an account, here’s another video that shows you how simple it is to create a list.
Here’s why Swenson Book Development llc uses MailChimp to deliver its blogs and enewsletters.
- MailChimp is free. If you are starting to build your audience platform, you probably don’t have more than 2,000 names. It takes many authors years to build a good-sized list.
- MailChimp plays nice with other software and social media platforms. MailChimp integrates with LessAnnoyingCRM to make management of your contacts a snap. It even lets you share your message with Twitter followers with one click.
- MailChimp provides social media metrics on the effectiveness of your messages. Easy to understand reports tell you how many emails were opened and links clicked.
- MailChimp is easy to use. Video guides, email marketing guides, and intuitive interface make it simple.
- MailChimp keeps you out of the spam folder.
Helping you with the business of being an author is our business. Let us know if we can help.