by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Writers read a lot about the importance of our author newsletter. Industry expert Jane Friedman explains it well in her post “Email Newsletters for Authors: Get Started Guide“:
“Emails can’t be missed like a social media post that disappears in readers’ feeds as more posts follow it. You truly own your email list, unlike Facebook or Twitter accounts. And if you use people’s email addresses with respect (more on that in a minute), those addresses can become resources that grow more valuable over time.”
I was a slow adopter to email newsletters, unfortunately. I couldn’t believe that readers really wanted to hear from me in their email inboxes. Once I finally realized the value of newsletters and that readers were volunteering to hear from me, I had a good deal of catching up to do.
There are a variety of different ways of getting readers to sign up for our newsletters. Some of them, I think, are more obnoxious than others. Here are some various methods and my opinion on their pros and cons:
The website popup:
Pros: popups boast a high success rate in converting readers to subscribers. They can also be modified–you can set the time when they pop up on your site. Recently, the most popular trend has been to use ‘exit popups’ that appear when readers are about to click away from your site. Cons: Many readers will find popups of any kind annoying. As a curator, I’m not actually leaving when the popups appear: I’m pointing my cursor up at the Hootsuite extension to share the post. The popup covers the material I’m curating, and I have to either rely on my memory for a good headline or else close the popup. I’ve also heard from sight-impaired writers (there are at least two who follow me on Twitter) that the popups make blog reading very difficult for them as it’s not easy for them to figure out how to close the popup to read the blog article.
Facebook ads:
Another method, popularized by author Mark Dawson, is using Facebook ads to generate newsletter signups. Mark gave away a starter library in return for newsletter subscriptions and grew his list significantly. Pros: If done well (Mark teaches a course on doing it well), authors can find quick success in growing their email subscription lists. Authors have the ability on Facebook to target a very particular audience on the site and reach users that they couldn’t otherwise reach. I had success with this method and quickly added subscribers. Cons: Obviously, when running ads, there is cost involved, although we can set parameters for that cost through Facebook. Another con, for me, was the time-sucking aspect…it’s important to monitor results so we can quickly pull ads that aren’t effective. The process of creating an effective ad and monitoring results did impact my writing time.
Group giveaways/newsletter signups:
I’ve been asked several times to participate in group giveaways with other cozy mystery authors. I’m participating in one even now. This tends to work well–all the participating authors share the giveaway opportunity with their lists and social media contacts. The readers sign up for the authors’ email lists in exchange for a chance to win a book or other prizes. My results have been good with this approach. Pros: You’re much more likely to end up with readers who will actually buy and read your books since authors in your genre are targeting their readers with the giveaway. Cons: You must share the giveaway info with your readers to make this successful and fair to the other authors participating…but must tread the thin line to avoid spamming. Important: Need to make sure that readers understand they’re giving permission to be on authors’ email lists for newsletters.
Email tagline:
Here you merely add a signup link to your newsletter signup page as a tagline or signature for your emails. Pros: Incredibly passive. Cons: Might annoy friends and relatives with whom we frequently correspond? If it does, they haven’t told me. :)
How do you find newsletter subscribers?
Newsletter signup tactics and their pros and cons: Click To Tweet
I find popups annoying.
Not sure the IWSG is ready to spend money on Facebook to get more signups. And one of my admins would have to set it up since I’m not on Facebook.
Alex–Oh, Facebook is a pain. I did have some success with my FB campaigns, but it has to be a really good ad and you really have to set a cap on the spending (I think you can set a per diem or a campaign limit).
I have a friend who does Facebook ads for her Mary Kay business and there’s a real science to doing it right.
Diane–I took Mark’s whole class on it and I was still sort of confused! But I had good results, so I must have understood it all better than I thought I did…
Thanks, Elizabeth. These are really solid ideas for getting people to sign up for a newsletter. And as long as your newsletter content is really interesting to readers, it’s another great way to reach them.
Margot–Good point on keeping our readers in mind as we create content for the newsletter!
Thank you for the great information! I always look forward to your posts.
As far as I can tell, most of my newsletter sign-ups have come a link I put at the beginning and end of my e-books that says, “For a deeper taste of Joanna’s world, don’t miss the monthly e-newsletter reflecting what she—and the author— love. The newsletters are full of good things: cocktail recipes, gorgeous old gowns, fashion advice from Edith Head, book reviews, and more.” (The word “newsletter” has a hot link. My series features a vintage clothing store owner named Joanna, as you can probably tell.) Naturally, I include an update on recent releases or works in progress in the newsletter.
Angela–Wow! You should be writing this post! Seriously, that sounds like some really fun, interesting content for your readers…clearly, you’re offering them a lot of value.
I love the pros and cons with this post. That’s super helpful. There is a website can’t think which one now that if I click on anything or (it seems) wiggle my mouse at anytime, the newsletter box pops up. A little annoying. I’ve only run into this on one website, so it could be a mistake, the over popping. :)
Teresa
Teresa–Oh, that would be super annoying! Maybe the person set up the trigger for the pop-up wrong. Of course, I don’t think there *is* a good way to do a pop-up, ha!
I don’t particularly like newsletters myself, so like you, I’m a little amazed that readers would want to hear from me. Because of this, I’m even slower than you at jumping on this bandwagon. I’d planned finally to do it this fall, but I’m running behind. I think now it will be January. Thanks for posting this. I’ve bookmarked it in my newsletter folder.
Carol–I’m always stumped by it, but they do seem to like the newsletters. It’s cool to see the bump in sales right after a newsletter goes out…pretty extraordinary. A valuable tool, even though I’m still baffled by why someone might want more emails. :)
Bookmarking! This is something I’ve wondered about a bit. I’ve signed up for several myself, but didn’t know how to go about it :)
Jemi–It’s easy enough and there are options for the biggest introverts to biggest extroverts among us! Which is nice.
I still find it hard to believe that anyone would be interested in anything I put into a newsletter, especially before I even publish my first book. Until then, I’m just observing how other writers are doing their newsletters and figuring out what might work best for me. Thanks for the post.
Ken–Believe me, I know what you mean. But readers appear fascinated by my meager newsletter content. :) Hope the post helps you for later on.
Hi Elizabeth – thanks for the reminder re Jane Friedman’s post … like Ken – I’m learning from you and others … I tend to ignore emails – as I get them in Feedly – which has really become my ‘master’ …
In fact I know I signed up for your newsletter – but am unsure if I get it … I will now keep an eye out and check! Cheers Hilary
It appears I hadn’t … but have now! H
Thanks so much, Hilary! And I’m a Feedly girl, too. :)
With Facebook’s latest tweak to its algorithm, Facebook page posts, organically, penetrate about 2% of your page fans’ news feeds. What this means is that few people will see what you post on your Facebook page. Those fans/readers who consistently like, comment on, and share your content will see your status updates but others won’t. To penetrate the news feeds and give your posts greater visibility, Facebook ads are becoming increasingly important. I took a Facebook advertising courses from Mari Smith years ago and am now taking a course from Andrea Vahl because Facebook changes and even with advertising you need to keep up with those changes if we want to buy ads. Andrea: I’d love to hear more about your experience with Mark’s Facebook advertising course. I know he’s enjoyed tremendous success.
Frances–Great tip! Facebook keeps changing its algorithm, usually to our detriment. Nice to get ideas for penetrating more of the news feeds.
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