By Kristy Tate //
I made a mistake a couple of weeks ago. Typically, when I send out my weekly newsletter, I have two groups I exclude. One is a group of Kindle Scout Winners (because they weren’t really subscribers to my newsletter, but the Kindle Scout Winners newsletter) and the other is a collection of contest participants from a year ago. My mistake? Instead of excluding these two groups, they were the only ones who received that particular email. So instead of about 10,000 emails, I sent out roughly 300. The open rate was through the roof and the click-through was also high.
Ever since then, my newsletter open-rate and click-through have been dramatically higher. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
As an experiment, I offered a week of free and nearly free books. The catch? They had to respond to let me know they wanted in. (Not everyone would be interested in a daily email. Some, including me, would find that annoying.) Here’s what that looked like:
Do you love Halloween? I do. I love the costumes, decorating, and visiting with all the neighbors who come to our door. (Grendel, my dog, isn’t a fan, though. I’m afraid that for her, Halloween rivals the 4th of July for her least favorite day of the year.)
To celebrate, I’m offering a Freaky Week, October 18th-24th, of free or nearly free books. For one entire week, I’ll send a daily newsletter with links to bargain books. Want to play? Only those who reply will get the newsletters.
Of course, the open rate and click through for my Freaky Week campaign was stellar and ever since, my open-rate for the bulk of newsletters has been significantly higher. Was I on to something? Have the email providers decided to start prioritizing my messages? I’m not sure, but my new goal is to increase interaction with my list. To that end, I sent out this newsletter yesterday:
Want to read my holiday romance, The Christmas Coins? I’m offering it in exchange for your answer to four questions.
- Who are two of your must-read writers? (This is awesome information because it tells me not only what type of books my readers are looking for, but also provided a slew of new Amazon ad keywords.)
- Which of these images (for the book cover of my February release) do you like the best? (Also, great information.)
- What do you want to see in my newsletters? Personal messages? Recipes? Chapter excerpts? Inspirational thoughts? (This is tricky and also a little unnerving. Overwhelmingly, my readers want to hear about me. They want pictures of my daily life. As an introvert, I’m going to have to find a balance I find comfortable.)
- Have you ever bought a book you’ve seen advertised on Facebook? (I included this because I’ve had some success with Facebook ads, but they take babysitting. If you leave them unattended, they can plow through your ad budget. I decided if my readers have bought books off Facebook ads, I would suck it and commit to babysitting ads, not only running them, but also keeping them in line so they don’t run amuck. The answer was overwhelmingly yes. So, maybe next month I’ll be talking about Facebook ads.)
Thanks so much for a moment of your time. I hope you enjoy The Christmas Coins.
I got about fifty responses. Bonus, some people didn’t answer the questions, but just bought the book. (This was a book that hadn’t been selling at all.)
This morning, I sent the responders this:
Thanks so much for answering my questions. Your input is invaluable to me. I hope you enjoy Christmas Coins. Please let me know if you have any issues downloading it. Here’s the link to your free book. May all your stories have happy endings!
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/1l4bq4mfyx
How about you? How often do you send your newsletters? I send mine on most Thursday mornings. I generally include Bookfunnel promotions and one, but no more than two, newsletter swaps with other clean and wholesome romance writers. I’d love to hear your newsletter tips and tricks.
For more newsletter thoughts, check out my previous Marketing Mayhem article, Your Newsletter Is Like a Spork.
KRISTY TATE is the Social Media Director for O.C. Writers and a USA Today bestselling author. To date, her newsletter subscriber list is edging toward 15,000. www.KristyTate.com.