Newsletters Part III: Welcome Sequence How To

Posted on June 12, 2023 by Sue Coletta

If you missed any parts of this newsletter series or need a refresher, find both here: Part I or Part II As I mentioned earlier, I use MailerLite. I made the switch from MailChimp, and have never looked back. So, these instructions and screenshots may look a little different on your dashboard if you use a different provider, but it should be similar enough to get you started. Today’s post forced me to re-evaluate how I welcome new subscribers. Hopefully, it’ll do the same for you.

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On your dashboard, go to Automation. Then click “Create Workflow.” That’s what MailerLite calls a welcome or onboarding sequence.

The first thing we do is pick a trigger. For a welcome sequence choose “When someone subscribes to a form.” It’ll then ask which form, and you’ll choose your Newsletter form from the dropdown menu.

This window shows the trigger once we have it in place.

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If you click the + you’ll see four options, all of which we’ll use as we build the Workflow. For now, we want Email.

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On the right-hand side (pictured below), you’ll see we can name our Workflow. So, for example, if you have a popup form and an embedded form, you may want to segregate who subscribed from where. Or if you have one form for blog subscribers and another for Newsletters. You can even segregate a separate Workflow for people who subscribed from social media. Conveniently, you can make a copy of the Workflow at the end, so you don’t need to build another one from scratch (unless you want to).

Next, you’ll dazzle subscribers with a subject line. Mine says: Welcome, Readers! Yeah, I really flexed the creative muscles for that one. LOL Then you’ll either create a welcome email or choose it from your list. Make sure you include a link to your free book (or whatever).

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Once that’s done, your Workflow should look like this (below). The trigger at the top, then your welcome email.

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After you send that initial email, you probably don’t want to slam them with your next email right away. So, when you click the + beneath the welcome email, choose delay.

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On the right-hand side, you’ll choose how long of a delay before your next email goes out. I chose 3 days, but I know others who prefer 2 days.

Once your delay is in place, it’s time to create your next email. Now, as an author, it should probably be book-related. But you do you.

Since I want to push my Indie titles, I wrote an email entitled Welcome to the World of Shawnee Daniels (my main character). In which, I share two or three paragraphs about her early childhood, her fears, her goals, why she has trust and abandonment issues, and who she is today—all without spoiling the character arc of the series. It’s a tricky email for those with ongoing series, especially if they’re several books long. I bullet-pointed her life on scrap paper, and chose the most compelling elements to include. Whatever works for you and your series IS THE RIGHT WAY. I also include another link to my freebie in case they missed the Welcome Email.

After we get our 2nd email in place, the Workflow will look like this…

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Trigger

Welcome email

Delay

Character email

Can you guess what’s next? You got it. Another 2 or 3 day delay.

For the 3rd email, we need to show the reader who we are and why they’ll want to stick around. I shared ten truths about me. Now, you don’t have to be as transparent as me, but please don’t just slap down your bio and call it a day. Readers want to know the person behind the books they love. Do your best to show your humanity and character. Only then do I include a linked photo of my series with a Learn More button, but no hard sell.

I think three emails are plenty, but again, you do you. Once all three emails are in place, the Workflow looks like this…

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Trigger

Welcome Email

Delay

Character Email

Delay

All About Author Email

Now we need to decide what to do with that subscriber. Before we do anything, give them a chance to check their inbox by adding a 7 day delay.

After one week, we’ll want to know if they opened any or all of the three emails. If they didn’t, they may’ve just wanted your freebie. Here’s where things get tricky.

When we click the + this time, choose Condition.

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You can choose Any Rule or All Rules. For now, choose Any Rule. From the dropdown menu below, we want Workflow Activity. Then decide what condition you want to set. I chose Welcome, Character, and Author emails “was opened.” You need to set each condition separately, hence why it’s not “were opened.”

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Once you set the conditions, the Workflow should look like this…

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When you click the + this time, choose “Action” then “Workflow Activity” and set the parameters.

If it’s yes (green thumbs-up), “copy” that subscriber to a new list entitled “Active Newsletter Subscribers” or something equally telling, so you can target them in the future.

If the subscriber hasn’t opened any of your emails (red thumbs-down), you have a choice to make. Some authors “unsubscribe the subscriber” right there.

I think that’s a little harsh. After all, what if the metrics are wrong? Plus, we don’t know what’s going on in that subscriber’s life. So, I “copy to Non-Active Newsletter” and send one last email, entitled Stay on List? In which, I explain that email providers make mistakes and if they’re enjoying my emails to click the big button that says, “I’m happy.”

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If they click that button (green thumbs-up), I “copy to Semi-Active Newsletter.” If they don’t (red thumbs-down), I unsubscribe. No sense paying for them if they’re not happy.

And that’s it. Toggle on your Workflow and you’re good to go.

For those who have an onboarding sequence set up, did I miss anything?

For those who don’t, I promise this isn’t as difficult as it seems. Once you start, these directions should take the guesswork out of it. How are you feeling about this? Any questions?

Three unconventional eco-warriors are on a mission to save polar bears from the nation’s largest animal trafficking organization—one dead poacher at a time.

Preorder Tracking Mayhem

Releases June 26, 2023

Tips to Improve Newsletters Part II: Design

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Sue Coletta

Designing an author newsletter can be a daunting task. Whether you‘re a seasoned veteran or a first–time author, it‘s important to create an effective newsletter to nurture the author/reader relationship and expand your audience.

Ready to roll up your sleeves and dive in? Cool. Let’s do this.

K.I.S.S.

A simple design works best. As JSB mentioned in the comments of Part I, many of us suffer from newsletter fatigue, so don’t confuse readers by adding more than a few key features. A minimalist style keeps the focus on the content.

Email services like MailerLite or MailChimp offer multiple templates that don’t require any tech skills to customize. Most are drag & drop.

Header Image

A high-quality header image sets the tone for your newsletter. I use the same header as my website, so readers instantly recognize the email is from me.

Catchy Headline

If your headline allows the reader to think, “Meh. I’ll read it later” chances are they’ll never get around to reading the newsletter. An irresistible headline encourages the reader to open your email as soon as it hits their inbox. Headlines aren’t easy. I still haven’t mastered them, but I have learned a few tricks.

Make readers feel like they’ll learn something. Example: How to Decipher Crow Language
Or focus on actionable steps. Example: Befriend Crows in 5 Easy Steps
Or solve a problem. Example: 6 Ways to Spend Less Money on Crows (if any of you ever receive an email with this headline, please forward it to me. LOL)

Once you have your header image and headline, it’s time to focus on your content.

Content

As I mentioned in Part I, give more than you receive. The majority of your newsletters should not ask your audience to buy anything. Condition them to click links, yes, but not a purchase link. For example, to match one of the above headlines, I could include a link to a live feed of crows building a new nest. Which, by the way, often includes weaving metal wires into the base to strengthen the foundation.

By giving more than you receive, you build trust. After all, you wouldn’t shove your book(s) in the face of someone you just met in person. Correct? Same principles apply.

The content should be concise, focused, and relevant to your theme. For a refresher on theme, read Part I. One of the easiest ways to lose subscribers is to overwhelm readers with too much information. No one will take the time to read a lengthy newsletter. Instead, fulfill the promise in your headline. Nothing more, nothing less. If you have more to say on the subject, save it for next time. The perfect length for a newsletter, so it’s worth your readers’ time but not time-consuming, is about 3-4 paragraphs.

Call To Action

At the end of your newsletter, include a clickable call-to-action button with compelling language like “Watch Live Feed” or “Download Free Book.” One of my favorite calls-to-action is “Hit Reply.”

Before the CTA, I ask a question. A few examples are:

Tell me about your favorite childhood pet.
Have you ever seen a bald eagle up close? What about a golden eagle? What was that experience like for you?
Have you ever been whale watching? How’d you feel when the whale breeched?

Note the words in bold. When you ask readers to hit reply, you are initiating a friendly conversation. Not only do you get to know your readers but you’re nurturing the author/reader relationship. And you’d be surprised how much people appreciate an author asking them anything, even if it’s only, “How’s your day going? You doin’ all right today?”

Too many authors toss out orders without giving two sh*ts about the people who read their books. Things like, buy my books, review my books, tell all your friends about my books, preorder my new release, follow me on every social media site and share all my posts. I saw your review on Amazon, but why didn’t you also review on BookBub and Goodreads and B&N and Apple and Google Play and Kobo?

Sadly, I’m not exaggerating as much as one might think. Not long ago, I unsubscribed from a well-known author’s newsletter after she told me to buy two copies of her new book, one for me and one for a friend. Seriously? I don’t care who you are. I’m not buying two $20 paperbacks because Miss Bigshot Author ordered me to do it. In fact, I stopped reading her books altogether. I’d rather support authors who appreciate their readers. How ’bout you?

Another author messaged me on social media to tell me she thanked me for my help in the acknowledgments, then had the audacity to say, “Buy the book to see your name.” If that wasn’t bad enough, she then asked if I could buy it that second — not later that night or in the morning — I had to buy the book right then. And, get this, send her a screenshot of the confirmation page as proof of purchase! The nerve of some people.

Ahem. Anyway…

By asking a simple question at the end of my newsletter, I’ve received some truly heartwarming responses. Readers just want to know they’re more than a sale to us. They want to be seen. Don’t we all? So, be genuine, be kind, and show your humanity.

Okie doke. Well, since we didn’t get to onboarding sequences and other time-savers, stay tuned for Part III.

Amidst a rising tide of poachers, three unlikely eco-warriors take a stand to save endangered Eastern Gray Wolves—even if it means the slow slaughter of their captors.

Restless Mayhem is available at all online retailers.

Mailing Lists

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Joe Moore

Nancy J. Cohen

Newly published authors often ask how to get readers on their mailing list for email newsletters. This process should start before you get a publisher. Once your book is sold, you’ll have an incredible amount of marketing to do. It’ll be helpful if you have already started collecting names.

The approach is two-fold: online and in person.

I send my quarterly email newsletter to nearly 5000 readers, booksellers, and librarians. How did I gain these numbers? In the past month alone, I’ve added 36 names of people I’ve met in person. Each one personally signed up for my mailing list. These came from three separate speaking engagements. Once you begin making public appearances, bring along a sign-up sheet to each event. I print out mine from Excel. One column is for the person’s full name. The other column is for their email address.

In the early days, I collected street addresses as well, but since the cost of postage has escalated, I no longer send postcards. Now all my mailings are online. However, if you plan to send out snail mail, you’ll need those home addresses. Or if you want to send a targeted email to fans announcing a signing or speaking engagement in their area, you’ll need their city and state.

So how else do you collect names, especially if you are unpublished? When you attend conferences, be sure to exchange business cards with everyone you meet.

Ask if people would like to be added to your email newsletter list. In the old days, I didn’t have to get permission. Anyone I met at a conference got added to my list, but promo materials got sent by snail mail back then. Nowadays people are spam conscious, so you have to be careful.

Sit with strangers at sponsored lunches or dinners and meet the people at your table. Hang out at the bar and give a friendly greeting to anyone wearing a conference name tag. Introduce yourself to strangers while waiting in lines to go into a meal or to an event. Your mailing list will build this way and over time you may gain lifelong fans.

After your book is published, you’ll start to receive fan mail. Ask if you may add the reader to your mailing list or direct them to your online opt-in form.

I categorize my lists so they separate into Booksellers, Contests, Fans, Librarians, Reviewers, and more. For example, I might want to send a notice only to my readers when a new book comes out. Several months before, I might want to notify booksellers, librarians, and reviewers about an upcoming release. Friends and Family are on my lists too, although I rarely bother them with announcements.

Holding a contest is a great way to collect names for your lists. Rafflecopter is the easiest method. Go to http://www.rafflecopter.com/ and sign up for a free account. The program automatically does everything for you. You can add bonus entries and have people Like your Facebook author page or tweet your contest.

You can join with other authors to offer a bigger prize and share the mailing list. For an example, visit Booklover’s Bench at http://bookloversbench.com, where I’ve joined with seven other writers. We offer monthly contests and cross promote each other in our personal newsletters, offering giveaways from our colleagues and sharing the entrants’ information.

Another great site to hold a contest and get a mailing list of over 1000 entrants is Fresh Fiction at http://www.freshfiction.com/ . It costs $129 but if you do this once every few years, it adds substantially to your newsletter list. (How to get people to Open your newsletter email would be another topic to address here—any takers, fellow authors?)

When you accumulate too many names to send out individual emails, consider using a mass email newsletter program such as AWeber (http://www.aweber.com/), Vertical Response, (http://www.verticalresponse.com), Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com), Mail Chimp (http://mailchimp.com/) or Your Mailing List Provider (http://www.ymlp.com/). I use Vertical Response and upload lists from my Excel program. I pay per email but you can pay a monthly fee if you’d rather do so, depending on your needs.

Put sign-up widgets on your website, blog, and Facebook Author Page. Periodically request your fans on Facebook and Twitter to sign up for your mailing list. In case one of these social networking sites goes defunct, you don’t want to lose your friends. Back up your email lists on your computer, your external drive, etc. They’re a valuable commodity, and you don’t want to lose them.

What other methods have you found helpful for adding names to your email campaign lists?

Now please go to my Website at http://nancyjcohen.com and sign up for my newsletter in the Sidebar.

My Fumble Recovery

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Joe Moore

By John Gilstrap
www.johngilstrap.com

A couple of months ago, I ran into a longtime friend I hadn’t seen in years, and he asked me why I’d stopped writing. The last book of mine that he’d read was Scott Free, which came out in 2003. When I told him that I’d written two books since then, he expressed shock and asked why I hadn’t told him.

In the pantheon of really good questions, that one shoots right to the top. I thought I had told him. I mean, I’m on Facebook, right? And I tweet and I’ve got a website. I spent a lot of money on publicity and advertising for No Mercy. How could he not know? Even as I type those words, I realize how impossibly naïve I sound.

When At All Costs was published in 1998, my wife and I developed a comprehensive mailing list of 1,500 people. This included everyone from family to old high school classmates I hadn’t spoken to in years. It even included my wife’s old classmates. We entered all of the data into a mailing list program, and we mailed a ton of postcards announcing the birth of the book. Hands down, At All Costs was my bestselling book.

Running into this longtime buddy was my wake-up call to how thoroughly my publicity efforts have deteriorated. When I really looked, it’s obvious where I dropped the ball.

In retrospect, I made a couple of critical errors. First, it was a mistake to use a mailing list program instead of a simple Excel spreadsheet. After a series of computer upgrades, the mailing list became unreadable. We failed to collect email addresses at all, but given that it was 1998 and email was not the ubiquitous presence that it is today, I cut myself a break there. Finally, we had no way to keep track of people as they moved. If you don’t actively farm your mailing list, it becomes useless with astonishing speed.

My biggest mistake along these lines came in 2004 with the publication of Six Minutes to Freedom, my nonfiction collaboration on the rescue of Kurt Muse from a Panamanian prison. I talked myself into ceding the lion’s share of promotion to Kurt himself, figuring that people would rather hear from the coauthor who actually lived the story than the guy who merely put it in writing. I neglected to consider that my fans are my fans, not Kurt’s.

As a practical matter, then, until No Mercy was released last summer, fans of my work thought I’d disappeared for six years. And publishing years are like dog years. Never again.

A week ago, I sent my first email newsletter. Even though I’ve lost most of my old snail mail list, I’ve captured lots and lots of email addresses over the years, and I’m letting everybody know what’s going on in my writing life. I haven’t yet decided how often the newsletter will come out, but I’m pledging two things: 1) that I won’t release one unless I have something to say; and 2) it will never be longer than a single page.

I’ve been resistant to such emails in the past primarily because of the hassle of keeping the mailing list current. Who needs the agony of removing people who unsubscribe, or culling the addresses that are no longer valid? Even adding individual subscribers is ultimately time consuming.

Well, wouldn’t you know? There are websites that do all of that for you. I found one that is extraordinarily affordable. Of the 1,200 addresses in my initial email list, 200 turned out to be bad, and the program eliminated them. Twenty or so have asked to be removed from the list, and the program handled that, too. Thirty-five people have clicked the link to subscribe, which means that they’ve either visited my website or clicked the newsletter link to see a sample and subscribe.

Best of all, I’ve received emails from several dozen people who were unaware that I was still writing books. Of course, that didn’t touch the number of people who wrote to tell me about the typo in the first news item. Hey, at least they’re reading.

I’m sure there are a number of sites that do this sort of thing, but I’ll be happy to share this particular site with anyone who drops me an email.

So what about you? How do you keep in touch with your long-time fans? Do you like author newsletters, or are they annoying pains in the hindquarters? (I can go either way on that one.) Let us hear from you.

Social Networking Showdown

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Joe Moore

by Michelle Gagnon

At Left Coast Crime a few weeks ago, I was part of a great panel on utilizing the Internet to market your book. This is a bit of a double-edged sword: now that much of the marketing burden falls on authors’ shoulders, being able to reach people without an insanely expensive direct mailing is invaluable. However, online networking can also become a tremendous time suck, drawing valuable hours away from what writers should primarily focus on: their manuscripts. Today I’ll discuss which sites I’ve found most valuable in a head-to-head match up, as well as sharing how I stay on top of them without losing my mind.

Facebook vs. MySpace

I confess to being one of the “old people who joined up and ruined Facebook.” I now have more than a thousand friends, and probably post something to the page once or twice a week. I’m also on MySpace, but have found Facebook to be far more user-friendly to someone as technologically challenged as myself. (However, if I was working on a YA novel, MySpace would probably be where I devoted more of my focus). A couple of things to bear in mind when using these or other social networking sites:

Public vs. Private: I keep my pages public, and will friend anyone who asks. So anything that’s truly personal, such as family photos, etc, doesn’t get posted there. And if anyone tags me or mine in such a photo, I immediately remove the tag.
In order to maintain my sanity, I go onto each site once a week (Facebook on Mondays, MySpace on Tuesdays). That’s when I accept friends, answer emails, and respond to comments. If I stumble across an interesting article online, I have the “share on facebook” tab incorporated into my browser, which makes it oh-so-easy to post it to my page (another clear benefit of Facebook over MySpace).
The cocktail party rule: I rarely post anything political on any of my pages. Again, this is a matter of personal preference, but I would rather discuss my books or interesting developments in publishing than who I voted for.

Shelfari vs. GoodReads

The trick to these is joining groups that read books similar to yours. I’ve generally found Shelfari to be more useful, although I do get updates from GoodReads discussions as well. The Shelfari groups just seem to more active, especially the “Suspense/Thrillers” one, which graciously invited me to lead a discussion of Boneyard last August. Every so often I’ll remember to log in and update my home page with the books I’ve read recently.

One caveat: if I don’t like a book, I don’t review it, period. Other authors have no problem posting negative reviews, so it’s largely a matter of personal preference. But I know authors whose feelings were hurt when one of their peers negatively reviewed their book on these sites, and figure it’s better to follow the, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” rule. The crime fiction writing community is a small one, filled with people who possess an encyclopedic knowledge base of how to kill someone and get away with it. Bear that in mind when you’re considering giving a book one star out of five.
I join in whenever people are discussing a book I really enjoyed, or an author whose work I admired. After all, I’m a reader as well as a writer.
Be careful in how you participate. When someone I’ve never heard of joins one of the discussions and proceeds to blatantly flog their own work, it’s a huge turn off. Probably better not to participate than to do that. This isn’t to say that you should never mention your book- but other members will be more receptive if you’re someone they’re already familiar with.

Twitter

I’m not a big tweeter. I post links to my Kill Zone posts (and guest posts,) and occasionally link to articles or posts that I found interesting, but I simply don’t have time to announce what I had for lunch every day.

Crimespace et al

I know other crime fiction authors love Crimespace, but I haven’t used it much. Most of the Ning circles (and I’m part of five) don’t seem very active to me. This could be my own failing- I find them challenging to navigate, and frankly my other pages are so easier I forget about these. Same goes for Gather, Bebo, Linked In, etc. You might have better luck. If you write books with a Siamese Cat sleuth, and there’s a Siamese cat appreciation group on one of the social networks, by all means take advantage.

Newsletters:

I have a pet peeve. Say we met at a conference and chatted about marketing. I offered to continue the discussion by email. Then, I find myself getting a deluge of newsletters from you, none of which I signed up for. Or worse yet, you mined my email address from a mass email sent by a mutual friend (note: always bcc people on those emails). This has happened to me more times than I can count. DO NOT add people to your newsletter unless they have specifically asked to be included. Have a sign up sheet on your website, and make it easy for people to unsubscribe.

And that’s my two cents. So what have the rest of you found to be useful? Any tips to share?