How often do you email your readers? Three or four times a year when you’ve got a new release? Maybe a few additional times a quarter when you can squeeze in a message between all the other author business tasks on your plate? What happens if a reader signs up during one of your exceptionally busy email dead zone periods? Will that potential customer even remember who you are when she gets that first email?
You Need to Connect with Your Readers
To put it another way, here’s a new twist on an old saying: When a new reader signs up to your list just after a new release or during one of your email dry spells, does he become a fan? In this short attention span world of constant entertainment, the answer is probably no.
Before you get out your digital pitchforks, this isn’t an anti-MailChimp article. It isn’t even an anti-free post. Instead, let’s call it a proposed solution to the problem of a reader who joins your list when you’re too busy to email him. The solution is an automatic sequence of emails that you can write, set, and forget to take care of new readers when you’re off doing other things. The solution is an email autoresponder sequence.
Get Marketing Peace of Mind with Automation
Maybe you’ve heard of this mythical email autoresponder sequence. You’ve sure as heck been on one if you’ve joined the lists of some of the top-tier indie authors. Even if you aren’t following the likes of Mark Dawson, Steve Scott, and Nick Stephenson, most companies on the Internet use email autoresponders to move you along from a casual browser to a lifelong fan. Fortunately for you, the process to create your own series of automatic emails isn’t secret and it isn’t even expensive.
For instance, MailChimp allows you to add “Automation” (its version of the email autoresponder sequence) to your account for just $10 a month if you have under 500 subscribers. In return, you gain the ability to send out a pre-written set of emails to your readers over the course of a week, a month, a year, or even longer. With automatic emails in place, a wide range of opportunities opens up for you and your marketing.
You can deliver a free series starter to your new subscribers, and you can check in to make sure they’ve read it. You can pitch the second book to newer readers automatically while you’re off working on the third one. You can even start recruiting members of the elusive “street team” that big-time authors keep talking about on all the self-publishing podcasts. The sky’s the limit when you do your email copywriting ahead of time.
It’s scary to spend money, especially when being a successful author is far from a sure thing. In order to push forward, however, you must decide on a few things that are worth the money. The ability to automatically contact your new followers and turn readers into fans with your copywriting is incredibly valuable. You’ve already fallen in love with passive income. It’s time to find that same joy in passive marketing as well.
What Would You Do with Automatic Emails?
If you were able to send a series of automated emails to new fans, what would you send to them and why? Sound off in the comments below.
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