How to Use E-Mail Marketing to Reach Your Readers

November 3, 2009 at 1:38 pm mbutler22 Leave a comment

E-mail Marketing Campaign

E-mail marketing is dually a challenging and effective option for extending you and your book’s presence to new and current readers. While e-mail usage is daily, getting your e-mail noticed in a full inbox with a catchy subject and powerful first line that pulls your readers in becomes a task lost in cyber space or dumped into a bin along with other hopefuls. Here is a piece of the puzzle: targeted e-mail lists for promoting your book.

Relationships begin with conversation. Initiate a conversation by e-mail and invite potential readers into your world. Get readers to sign up for your relevant and informative e-mails by including a link or subscription form on your Web site, home page or blog. Your registration field should ask for just enough necessary information from readers to create a marketing relationship relevant to your customer, but not enough information to betray their privacy — something that can turn readers away.

The registered subscriber wants to know their sign-up was successful — they have asked you to market to them. Engage immediately, as too much of a time lapse and your subscriber may forget ever signing up. You can design an e-mail that automatically acknowledges your reader, welcomes them and thanks them for viewing your site and subscribing to your e-mail marketing list. You are essentially building a pool of supporters who have previously shown interest in your work to which you may market.

Explore the many different options of what you can include in your e-mails. Be creative. Some ideas of how to use your e-mail marketing tool include:

Announce that your book is available for purchase and inform readers of a book signing or promotional event.
Involve readers in your current work’s progress by sending a “sneak peek” sample of your writing.
Offer a promotion in which anyone who purchases a book receives a free bookmark or t-shirt.

Remember that your Web site or blog is an active place for readers, so you want to keep them engaged and coming back. Don’t go overboard with excessive e-mails which can actually annoy your readers. Keep your e-mails simple and relevant to your audience.

When performed correctly, a targeted e-mail campaign as part of your marketing mix establishes a list of potential loyal readers and buyers. With a reach exceeding geographic and time zone barriers, your e-mail campaign is quick, flexible, cost-effective and allows for customization for each reader or event.

Visit sites that offer free templates for both your registration and e-mails. Browse through www.emailtemplatepro.com or www.campaignmonitor.com and begin setting up your list of opt-in readers to which you can market your book.

- Melissa

Entry filed under: Marketing. Tags: e-mail, E-mail campaign, E-mail lists, E-mail marketing, E-mail promotions, Marketing, Self-Publishing, Writing.

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Imagine a setting or situation in which you would be an outsider. Say it’s your first day learning karate and the rest of your class are black belts. Or perhaps you find yourself smack dab in the middle of an NRA conference and you adamantly oppose firearms. How would you react? How would you feel? Being an outsider can often provide the perfect springboard into your character’s mentalities as well as an objective viewpoint that can be used to describe settings more naturally. (2/4/11)

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Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing