Lack of Newsletter Love

 I'm going to let you in on a dirty little secret. I hate newsletters. Hates 'em, my precious. Don't read them. Don't write them. Don't send them. I subscribe to exactly three and they are all people I know and care about. Do I open them and read them? No. I get what I need from the subject line and I move on.

Time is a commodity. It has value - possibly the only value - because it is the measure of your finite life. I begrudge no one reading a newsletter, if that's their thing, but in a world that competes for time and attention, the newsletter feels -- I don't know -- not my cup of happy juice.

This is a long way of saying I am absolutely the wrong person to talk to about how to increase newsletter subscribers. I am so bad at sending newsletters that MailChimp fired me as a customer. Seriously. I hadn't served a newsletter in so long, they deleted my database of subscribers. All 60 of them. S'okay. I know all of them. If they want to know what I'm up to, they call or text to ask.

Still. We want to reach readers. We want to let readers know how to find out what we're doing and what's coming up. For some genres, I feel like newsletters are totally appropriate. For scifi, I wonder. I'm actually thinking that I might be better served to leverage a Tik Tok format for a pseudo newsletter-y type of thing. Or Discord. Or some other place where my fellow geeks hang out. This could all be rationalization for the fact that I'm bad at newsletters.

Suppose, though, that I *did* start some 'contact readers' push. How would I draw people to consume my content? Cross pollenization. It has to be done carefully, but you can leverage one platform's content on other social media platforms. Link them all back to a single landing page with you pertinent info - new release, find me at this place at this time! Whatever you want readers to know. The key to success is the same as it in newsletters - offer value. Something silly. Something charming. Something that makes readers feel. Control that and ask for responses. Engagement equals reach. Reach means more eyes. Does it work? Don't know yet. It would have to be tried and tested. The level of effort has to be weighed against the return.

And that's on each author.

Gaining Newsletter Subscribers

 This week's topic: How to Grow Your Newsletter (Subscriber Numbers)

Direct marketing to readers who are actively interested in your works is one of the top ways to sell books.  Finding those readers, getting through email delivery systems' spam blockers, and encouraging readers to not only open your email but also click through from your email to purchase your book is...a challenge for many small and midlist authors.  

Heck, it's a challenge across all industries. Take a look at your email inbox. Now, look at your trash box.  How many messages are from a sheet company, shoe company, pet toy company, grocery store, big box store, etc? See? Not just a you problem. So, don't be daunted by the marketing-must-do task of growing and maintaining your newsletter subscribers. 

The good news: for the media and publishing industry, the average unsubscribe rate was 0.12% That's one of the lowest by industry (according to Mailchimp). Our bounce rates are ~5% (according to SmartInsights). Our open rates are ~23% (according to CampaignMonitor) and our Click-Through Rate (CTR) is ~4%; yea though SmartInsights has Indie Artists with a 1.8 CTR (ouch).

According to topline metrics, once we get readers subscribed to our lists, they tend to stay with us. Yay! So, what can we do to attract more subscribers? My one piece of advice: 

Go Where You're Not Normally Seen.

On the assumption that your newsletter subscription links are obvious on your website, in the back matter of your books, and linked in your socials' profiles (if they're not, quick, get on that, that's the bare minimum); it's safe to say those readers who are looking for you have found you. Those who are interested have already subscribed to your newsletter. What you need to grow your list is to appear in spaces where readers may not know of you. So, where and how? And how to avoid being a buttinski? One suggestion:

Newsletter Swaps -- You promote a fellow author of your sub-genre and their works to your audience via your newsletter, they in turn promote you to theirs. There are pros and cons and issues of equitable exchange, so read up on expectations before approaching another author. 

Yes, there are more ways to attract new subscribers, so come back each day this week for more tips from our other bloggers!