020 What Creators Need to Know About Email Marketing (Deep Dive)

Today we are going to talk about email.

But first, I would like to say we are not going to have an episode next week. I will be at the New Media Summit all week and won’t have a chance to record an episode.

Why Email is So Important for Creators

• Platform Independent, if YouTube or Facebook keeps you from contacting your subscribers you need a way to tell them you’ve moved to a new platform.
• While your fans may not see every Facebook post or YouTube notification they will get every email if you follow the advice I will give you in this episode.
• Email is often the primary driver of new Patrons and Backers. For my Kickstarter campaigns, it is not uncommon for 60-80% of the backers to come from email

Before we talk about email, let’s talk about how to have an excellent email newsletter, but first let’s talk a bit about respect.

Respect:

• Spam is in the eye of the beholder.
• Creepy / Charming (thin line in between)
• Permission

Tip 1 Give People A Good Reason to Subscribe

• The initial incentive you give someone to subscriber to your email list is called a “lead magnet.”
• If you are a band, give a free mp3 of one of your songs.
• If you are an artist, give a free wallpaper.
• If you are an author, give a free short story.
• If you are a guru, give a tip sheet or a resource guide.
• How to Create a Lead Magnet

Tip 2 Create an Onboarding Campaign

• The emails that automatically drip out to your subscribers is sometimes called a drip campaign.
• These emails are great for introducing new subscribers to you and your work.
• It allows you to focus on true fans in your periodic emails.  
• We having an example of this for authors at the Novel Marketing podcast.

Tip 3 Provide Consistent Value.

• Only send out emails that your fans want to read.
• New Book Announcements
• Concert in Your Area (MailChimp makes this easy)
• Fan Art for Your Book
• New Video on Youtube (if you don’t post often)

Tip 4 Use MailChimp at First

• It’s Free
• Everyone uses it so tutorials are easy to find
• Integrates with everything
• Has decent onboarding features
• I am an affiliate and have used MailChimp for over five years. If you want to support this show, use my affiliate link.
• Once you have over 10,000 subscribers, there may be reasons to move to something more powerful like Drip or Convert Kit.

Tip 5 Be Consistent

• Don’t Boost Your Frequency Without a Good Reason
• Don’t go dark for too long or you will hit spam traps.

Tip 6 Experiment

• Split Test Your Subjects
• Emotional Headline Analyzer

Tip 7 Measure Your Results

• Read your email campaign reports
• Poll Your Readers.
• Ask them what they want. www.SurveyMonkey.com.

Tip 8 Keep it Short and Simple.

• Beautiful emails are more likely to go to gmails “Promotions” tab
• Beautiful emails get fewer clicks
• Beautiful emails sell fewer products.
• Beautiful emails are more work to make.

Use Novel Marketing’s Patreon Affiliate Link to make an extra $50 for your first 30 backers.

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