5 Most-Used Ways to Build an Email List as Self Published Author
If you are taking the route to become a self published author, then you need to be systematic in your approach. Being a self published author means that you are not going to have the advantage of a strong marketing campaign.
This disadvantage can be overcome by utilising your email list. Email lists can have subscribers well above 10,000 if you give it proper time to grow. There have been stories where authors generate hundreds of sales directly from their email list, helping their books gain much needed traction on Amazon KDP.
What is an Email List?
Email is the most powerful marketing tool on the web, and for good reason. Email is easy to set up, easy to manage, and provides a very personalized way to communicate with your subscribers.
While you can see the power of email marketing, you may be wondering what’s the importance of building an email list.
First of all, when we talk about an email list, we do not mean email hosted by gmail, hotmail or yahoo. No, there are dedicated service providers like mailchimp that offer the ability to create email lists.
As a self published author, you are likely going to have your own website. Your website is going to have a mail subscription feature that allows your readers to subscribe to your mailing list to remain updated with the latest news and features coming from you.
As more and more people subscribe, your mailing list will grow. So in simple words, a mailing list is a database of email of your subscribers, who wish to stay connected with you. People cannot visit your site every day to check for the latest news, which is why websites commonly use the mailing list feature to keep their subscribers updated.
So now that we have an idea about what an email list is, let us move on to how to create an email list for your website.
How to Build a Mailing List?
Building a mailing list starts with your website. So if you are a self published author, then having your own website is absolutely vital. If you are not yet a self published author, then this is the right time to set up your website.
1- Personalized Call to action
According to Hubspot having a personalized call to action page can increase the subscribers by almost 42%. What most sites or blogs have is a simple call to action that says
“Subscribe to our newsletter”
or something similar. This is a random or generalized call to action that does not work as well as a personalized call to action, which targets the reader in a more specific manner. For instance if someone lands on a page about “Building your reading habit” then you can create a personalized call to action for them.
The personalized call to action can be something like
“Subscribe now and get a free book to help you build your reading habit”
Having a personalized call to action requires a bit of effort to figure out where your readers are coming from. You can use google analytics to figure this out. Now you obviously do not have to offer free books, it can be anything. You can offer free articles, tool kits, insights about your books or any other snippet of information that may make the readers interested.
Also See: 8 Tips To Earn More Money With Fiverr: How I Make An Average Of $35
2- Timed Pop Up Polls
Another good technique to get more subscribers into your mailing list is to use timed pop up polls. Timed pop ups, pop up when the reader has scrolled down a specific percentage of the page. The pop up poll contains a simple question that the reader can choose to answer.
How creative you want to make this poll is up to you. A generic poll is not going to create much interest, so if you want it to be effective then try to bring in some creativity. A generic poll is going to look like
Are you interested in signing up for the email list?
- Yes. Enter email ___________
- No
Whereas a more creative poll is going to look something like
You have read the page this far, would you like to get access to more content before anyone else?
- Absolutely yes
- Stop wasting my time
You can see that adding a bit of creativity, brings in that personal touch which makes the reader think and feel that there is a human behind the whole interface of the site.
3- Pitch Value in Your Call to Action
Trying to get more subscribers for your mailing list is just like getting more customers. You need a good sales strategy. For a self published author, trying to build up a mailing list, value selling can be a good way to attract more subscribers.
Your call to action buttons, should pitch some sort of value to the subscribers, to make them hit that subscribe button. The subscribers need to feel that they are getting something in return. So instead of simply saying “Join the mailing list”, add more value to your messaging.
We have already discussed that you can add free books, novellas or snippets. Offer this content with words such as “Exclusive content” or “Featured content for subscribers” or “Get your free book right now”.
Also See: How Much Do Authors Make Per ebook?
4- Use Your Social Media
It does not matter if you do not yet have a long email list, as long as you have got social media accounts you can always leverage them to gain more subscribers.
Use your social media accounts to ask your followers to subscribe to your mailing list. People who already follow you on social media, are already there for your content so simply get them to become your subscribers.
You can also add the email subscription link into your email signature, so that every time someone receives your mail, they get the link.
5- Create More Landing Pages
The more landing pages you have, the higher the likelihood of getting more subscribers will be. Personalize the landing pages so that you cater for the needs of different types of readers. Once again this is where the analytics of your site will help you.
Follow these basic tips to create more effective call to actions for your mailing list and start building up that mailing list.
Main Image Source: Pixabay
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