Why Email Marketing Benefits Your Book’s Sales

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Have you included e-newsletters and mobile-friendly email in your marketing plan? No?
What do you do after you have sold your novel on your website or during a book signing? Instead of waiting for readers to get in touch with you, newsletters offer you a way of interacting with ‘dormant’ readers. When it comes to reaching your readers, and creating a relationship, absolutely nothing is as cost-efficient as email marketing.

Unlike other forms of communication that are difficult and inconvenient to personalize, email
newsletters are a breeze. If you use a professional email marketing service provider, you can automatically add the recipient’s name to every newsletter for that extra bit of warmth.
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Benefits of email marketing:

• It’s simple and easy to use.
• Can be extremely personalized.
• It’s low cost.
• Functions round the clock.
• And produces much faster response.
• Quicker, wider reach

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Send out at least a couple newsletters each year and keep in contact with your readers.  Make sure there is a way for people to remove themselves from the newsletter so you are in compliance with anti-spam laws. Definitely make use of your email distribution list to announce the pre-sale and sale of your next book.
The next time you have a new release of a service or product, wait no longer than the click of a
button to let customers and prospects know about it. That’s because of the power of bulk email.
With your own company newsletter, you can reach millions of customers across the world.
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How to build an email list
After you have sold someone your novel, sell them the next one by building a relationship with them. The easiest book customer is the repeat customer. To do this, build an email list.
Anyone who emails you, write them back and add them to your emailing list. When you start out,
you can do individual emailings to your friends, followers and readers, but as this address list gets bigger than, say 30-50 people you should have an opt-in email list. You can collect email addresses from people at bookstore signings if you buy a little $10 bag of fine truffles and have a drawing, no purchase required. Get a fish-bowl and use it to collect email addresses / opt-in cards at every event you attend.
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Collect email addresses whenever you take part in book events
At all in-person events, display a guest book with a request for names and email addresses that
is clearly labeled with an invitation to subscribe to your blog or your newsletter. Be sure to let folks
know you won’t share their email address and display a clear “opt-in,” a.k.a. what you will be using the email for – book news? blog? If the venue provides Internet access or Wireless, open a browser and pull up your website so guests can subscribe on the spot.

Start your email list NOW
Even if you don’t have plans of sending out emails soon, it doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t cost
anything to add this opt-in feature to your website. (WordPress.com blogs don’t allow it, but
WordPress.org with your own domain name). Professional mailing companies help you
customize your sign-up form to match your brand, so you can share it on your website and
integrate it into your Facebook page. Tip: Put a clickable link to your mailing list at the back of all
your books; it should be one of the first things that readers see when they finish your book.
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Opt-in form for EMAILS
Do you have an email list of followers and friends? No? Be smart and start it immediately!
People who are signing up / opt in to receive emails (contain it to not more than once a month)
are really interested in getting your emails. New books, awards, new 5-star reviews … all
reasons to send emails out and remind people of your books. Reward them for signing up with a free short story or a free chapter or a report.
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Professional email marketing providers
Most mass email providers offer trial periods of a month, and have very moderate fees or they let
you send out certain amounts of emails / certain amount of subscribers for free. MailChimp.com
for example you can send 12,000 emails a month to a list of up to 2,000 subscribers. They also
allow Amazon affiliate links, so you can earn around 7% extra on any books sold via your email
blast.
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Carol Ann Quibell gives in an E-zine Article these tips:

• “Keep it simple, with a clear message / call to action
• Not more than 500 – 800 words in length
• Articles should be informative & create an interest in you and your books.
• Give your readers information they will use and want to keep on file for future reference”
• Easy to use HTML email templates
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Use free templates to design your newsletter
Almost all email marketing providers offer hundreds of pre-designed templates, so you won’t
have to worry about sending out something less than professional or to worry about html-coding.
Choose background color, font type and size, insert images, videos or surveys. Call contacts by
name in your emails.
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5 Steps in your email campaign:

• Sign up with your provider (see list below)
• Study their instructions / videos carefully
• Get the code for your opt-in list & set it up on your website / blog
• Copy/paste or drag/drop your text & attractive images into the email template
• Create a compelling headline
• Click the button: publish / mail and hundreds, thousands or ten-thousands of your readers
• receive your email.
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Give readers added value
The key to a successful email campaign is, to give readers an added value that they can’t get on
your website. For instance, include exclusive information behind the history of a new book and
talk about its unique features and appeal to book lovers.
The email newsletter should serve as the voice or spokesperson for your books. All exclusive
information should be delivered through that medium, reinforced with notions of exclusivity.
Additionally, don’t be afraid to share special offers with this specific group of customers. Let it be
known to them that they, the readers of your email newsletters, are the only ones receiving these
special deals or coupons.
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Sample of Email Marketing Providers:

http://www.MailChimp.com
http://www.AWeber.com
http://www.benchmarkemail.com/email-marketing
http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp

Get even more tips here:

http://www.copyblogger.com/email-landing-page/
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/why_email_marketing_is_king.html
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5837/The-First-Step-in-Email-Marketing-Optimization.aspx
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See also a review and price comparison of the top ten mailing service providers here and here, and read this useful article “How to reduce spam complaints” by Pamela Neely, author of 50 Ways to grow your email marketing list, available on Amazon Kindle.
And here are great tips by the most successful blogger Darren Rowse: “How I Use Email Newsletters to Drive Traffic and Make Money”.

Jeff Bullas gives more good reasons for email marketing in his blog:

• The average Facebook post only makes its way to 16 percent of your audience, while most people will at the very least see the subject line of your email when you send it to them.
• Then there’s the fact that Facebook and Twitter make up just 0.2 percent of the emails sent every day, and that total search engine traffic is just a hundredth of total email traffic. Email is also more personal. Conversations aren’t taking place in public, and people aren’t afraid that you’ll start spamming their friends if they give you their email address.
• About 91 percent of people check their email every day.

“Remember, giving somebody your email address is psychologically equivalent to paying for something. If you want somebody to give you their email address, you need to offer them something worth paying for. That’s how good it needs to be. And believe me, it will be worth it.  Repeat visitors are a must if you want your blog to succeed at retaining visitors and boosting lifetime value.”
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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

To advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo

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