Tag: email marketing

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Marketing Sense

Do You Really Need to Use Email? (Part Two)

Marketing sense

In Part One we discussed how very valuable email is to our platform, and why using an email provider such as Aweber, MailChimp, Active Campaign, or others, was the best way to experience continued growth. Let’s continue the discussion in this article.

Is There a Charge to Use an Email Provider?

Virtually all bulk email providers offer a free level to start. Fees are based upon how many subscribers are on your email list.

The more subscribers–whether they open your emails or not–the higher your monthly fee. But don’t fret. For most of us, it takes years to get enough subscribers to warrant a significant monthly fee. (NOTE: It’s relatively pain free to move to another email provider if you so desire.)

Though free, don’t use Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo to send emails to your subscribers. In the early Internet years, these services were safe and free. They were the cool kids in town. 🙂

Years ago the marketplace, weary of spam, made room for better options. Along came MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, and Active Campaign, among others.

Email regulations became stricter as the decades added up. The latest round of regulations, released in February of this year, tightened email requirements even further, in part to reduce spam, which is rampant.

So…Is It Hard to Learn How to Use Email?

The Big Dog email companies like Active Campaign, Constant Contact, etc., offer free training, usually via video, which I prefer. You, too? 

As you research these companies for yourself, consider not only their cost but also their customer support. Sooner or later, you’ll need help. So find out what each offers before you sign up. This will reduce frustration ahead of time.

Is their support available 24/7 or only Monday-Friday? Can you reach them by phone day or night? Is there an additional charge for one-on-one assistance? Or do they only offer help via email? This information could make the difference between email success or failure.

Also be aware that some email providers only offer help via text on FAQ pages, so it’ll be up to you to dig through their documentation to figure out how to use their service. I don’t care for that approach. I’m guessing you don’t, either.

After choosing a provider, don’t let your new account lie fallow. The majority of these companies offers a free 30-day trial period. Take advantage of that time to learn the basics.

And conduct trial runs during this time. Ask up to 6 friends to be Test Subjects (guinea pigs). 🙂  Go through the full process of writing, uploading, scheduling, and sending perhaps 3 emails over a week’s time to these volunteers, to get comfortable with the process.

You’ll experience glitches here and there. We call that “learning.” 🙂 Give yourself grace, keep moving forward, offer great content, and your audience will grow.

Last step?

Close your computer and take a well-deserved break. Happy emailing!

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

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Marketing Sense

Use Free Events to Grow Your Audience

Marketing sense

Your book is launching in 6 months. Reviewing your email list, you see 37 active subscribers (people who currently open your emails) and 236 dormant subscribers (people who subscribed long ago but then stopped opening new emails, so while they’re on your email list, you’re basically strangers).

This is not good. Your subscribers are VIPs…Very Important People. Other than your family and friends, they’re the ones most likely to buy and promote your book. It takes time to attract new subscribers and then 2-4 months to develop a relationship by serving them regularly via weekly or bi-monthly emails. So you’re tight on time. But don’t panic. You can do this!

Of all the potential options to build up your email list, consider offering one or more free online events.

That might mean one event. One every month. One every other month. One each day for a week. You choose.

You’ll need to make a basic plan, write several emails, promote each event in its turn and give people time to respond to your invitation. The cost to attendees? They only need to share their first name and email address to be added to your email list for one or more events. This allows you to serve them well before the event, keep them up to date about the events as they get nearer, and to follow-up afterwards to stay connected.

Event suggestions

Webinars (a “web-based seminar” focused on your book’s subject), free trainings (to teach attendees how to complete a single, basic task connected to your book’s topic), live Q&A, or interviews (with you as the host, or ask a friend to interview you) are all good choices.

The purpose of these special events is to attract potential book buyers, not by using sales tactics but by offering free, valuable education directly related to your book’s content.

If you don’t have many email subscribers or social media followers, most attendees won’t know you, so they won’t value your offer…yet. Some will attend just to get your free stuff. Then they’ll decide if they want to hear more from you. They’re expecting to see you in action offering your version of humor, help, and wisdom.

You don’t need to be a professional presenter; you need to be prepared.

Think of these events as an online get-together with friends who don’t yet know each other but they’re all interested in learning what you’re offering. Lord willing, they’ll warm up to you and each other as the event progresses. 🙂

A few tasks must be completed before you begin promoting and well before your event begins. Expect to work these tasks into your schedule for 2-4 weeks. You’ll be soooo glad you worked ahead.

You’ll want an “email provider,” a company that stores your attendees’ info so you don’t have to, which allows you to send out emails to all your attendees at once rather than emailing them individually from your personal computer (don’t ever do that!).

Invite interested parties to “sign up” or “opt in”

Create a page on your website dedicated for this purpose or by contacting your email provider (Aweber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, there are many to choose from) and requesting their help to build a “landing page.”  That’s super-simple once you know how to do it, and miraculously, most email providers offer to do it for you at no charge. Check with your provider.

Once created, that page will have a unique URL (link) you can share in your emails and social media promotions. You must get the word out if you want people to attend! Ask friends to share your promotional graphics on their social media.

It’s important to include subscribers who’ve gone dormant.

They were interested in your message once. Give them a chance to reconnect by sending a re-engagement email. See How to Reactivate a Dormant Email List.

After that email goes out, send them your regular weekly or bi-monthly emails so they won’t go dormant again. You want them on your email list to let them know about your upcoming free events.

For new subscribers, write a short series of Welcome emails and upload them to your email provider. For help with content ideas, see Welcome Email Series Part One and Parts Two-Four.

Write in your voice.

Help readers “see” your personality. Offer valuable advice. All in one 4-part email series. These emails should be roughly three short paragraphs. Then, with help from your email provider if necessary, send all your readers weekly or bi-monthly emails that you’ve written and uploaded ahead of time. Ask your email provider about an “email automation.”

Must you be the leading authority on your subject matter for your events to succeed? No, though it’s wonderful if you are. 🙂

Remember that you know more about your topic than your audience does. That’s why they’ll attend. They’ll want your content.

Free events require preparation time on the front-end, but by completing the various tasks mentioned above, you’re less likely to need paid ads (though they’re wonderful if you have the funds).

Book launches–and free events–have multiple moving parts. Do what you can, as you can, even if it’s less than you’d hoped to do. Christ sees all you’re juggling personally and professionally. Have peace that He knows you’ve done your best. That’s all He asks.

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission

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The Intentional Writer

Boost Your Author Platform with Newsletter Ninja

The intentional writer

Authors need to grow their platform. Authors want to sell books. One thing the marketing experts usually agree on is that an email list is a powerful way for authors to grow their platform. And writers usually grow their email list through offering a newsletter. That’s where the helpful book, Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque comes in. As the subtitle explains the book will teach you “how to become an author mailing list expert.”

One of the first topics in the book is explaining why email lists are powerful. Here are two reasons:

  1. You don’t own your relationship with social media followers. You must work through the social media platform to interact with them, and the platform can change its algorithms whenever it pleases. If you quit the platform, those contacts are lost. In contrast you own your email list. You have the ability to contact those people directly, whenever you want. And you can take your email list with you if you choose to switch email services.
  2. Email marketing converts better than social media marketing. In marketing, “convert” means getting the customer to complete a goal. In the case of author marketing, this is usually clicking a link or purchasing a book. You will bet more conversions with 1,000 emails than you will with 1,000 social media followers.

Based on that information, it makes sense that an intentional writer would want to become an email list expert. This book will help you. As the back cover explains:

Newsletter Ninja is a comprehensive resource designed to teach you how to build and maintain a strongly engaged email list—one full of actual fans willing to pay for the books you write, rather than free-seekers who will forget your name and never open your emails.

What does Newsletter Ninja teach?

The author does a good job of clearly and simply explaining the steps an author must take to create an email list, grow the list, and maintain a healthy list. (Newsletters are not do-once-and-forget-it sort of task. The goal is to be consistent and build engagement between the author and recipients.)

Topics cover everything from choosing an email service provider and writing your first newsletter, to creating engagement and purging dead weight. (Why would you want to get rid of email subscribers after you’ve spent all that effort to get them? Read chapter 18 to find out.)

In addition to step-by-step explanations, I appreciate how the author explains the why behind email lists. As the author explains, a great newsletter isn’t salesy or annoying. Rather the goal is to create newsletters that the recipients want to open, because they have content that is interesting and useful. That concept alone will help you rise above the crowd.

In addition, I appreciated the author’s engaging and humorous style, and her ability to explain these concepts clearly and in plain English. At 136 pages, the book is short and to the point. I found it an excellent resource for understanding the basics of how to utilize email lists to build your author platform and engage with your audience.

Check out Newsletter Ninja today

Newsletter Ninja: How to Become An Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi Labrecque

For more helpful information, visit the author’s website, NewsletterNinja.net

Other resources to help you build your email list

The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Authors from Written Word Media

The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Grow Your Audience from Kindlepreneur

How to Grow Your Fiction Email List Subscribers from The Creative Penn

Lisa E Betz

Lisa E. Betz is an engineer-turned-mystery-writer, entertaining speaker, and unconventional soul. She inspires others to become their best selves, living with authenticity, and purpose, and she infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her Livia Aemilia Mysteries, set in first-century Rome, have won several awards, including the Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021).

She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in her novels. Lisa directs church dramas, hikes the beautiful Pennsylvania woods, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit lisaebetz.com.

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Marketing Sense

Email Content Demystified

Marketing sense

One of the great mysteries new platform builders (aka Christian writers and speakers) seek to solve is, “What should I write about in my weekly email?”

Initially it’s a joy to have email readers, but as month after month passes, draining your content well (and your mind!), creating new, interesting email content can become, well, wearisome.

Here’s the good news: your message is broader than your book. It’s true, and aren’t you glad? You know scads and scads about your topic, only one part of which is your book. Share the email content your readers expect, then share the unexpected. They’ll thank you with their  loyalty.

Ideas to Take Your Emails Beyond the Same ‘Ol Same ‘Ol

May the two examples below revitalize your email content in 2022.

Option #1: Health and Fitness

Yes, we all know we should eat less sugar and drink more water. Though true, that’s old news and will drive readers away in droves. They anticipate suggestions about having fun on vacation without sabotaging themselves and how to make wise choices at the church potluck. Deliver that, then broaden your content’s reach.

Send emails about mindset and hope and goals and progress and confidence…without once bringing up the words “health” and “fitness.”

You have so much to offer your audience, no need to beat the same drum every week. They’re three-dimensional people with fears, challenges, and a past that, while not directly tied to your topic, impacts their ability to apply your message successfully. Weave insightful content into your emails without ignoring your primary message.  

Once readers realize your emails aren’t one-trick ponies, they’ll open, read, and apply your message more often, reaping the rewards you always knew they could (but that they doubted). You’ll become one of their trusted resources. Now you’re growing your platform!

Option #2: Fictional World War I Romance Set in England

Readers interested in this book’s storyline might also be drawn to Europe’s pre-WWI royal lineage and its multiple entanglements and intrigues. The main players were family, after all, and that means misunderstandings, pride issues, disappointments, and the like.

Perhaps these same readers would like to know which political decisions set the stage for this disastrous war, particularly if national or international politics are woven into your story.

Bringing it more current, consider sharing news of upcoming events in your story’s locale, along with links to find more info. Even if your readers can’t attend, they’ll enjoy discovering more about the area because your book sparked their interest.

For a fun idea, consider setting up a get-together with your readers either at your story’s locale or yours. An event gathering like-minded people builds community.

And the best part? Each idea mentioned above requires email content that is not–I repeat, not–formulaic, which gives you yet another chance to stand out from the crowd. Sweet!

The Ideas Are Limitless Once the Lid Is Ajar

Let these suggestions become thought-provoking ideas for the surprising (and interesting!) journeys you’ll take your readers on via email, for email is simply regular, written conversations between two people with similar interests and/or experiences, one of whom (you!) knows more about the subject matter. 🙂

As You Develop Your Content Plan, Remember…

How much your audience already knows–or thinks they know–about your topic. Create your content accordingly. Let Christ guide you, for He knows what He wants you to share with those He’s gifted you to serve.

In the first example above, the writer’s audience is well versed on the health and fitness topic, having read 100’s or 1,000’s of articles about health and fitness through the years. That also means they’ve read misinformation, too. Those may be the two top “content buckets” from which most health and fitness emails are drawn. Adequate, but since there are so many more possibilities that other experts don’t offer their audience, if you do, your emails will surely rise to the top.

Readers served by the WWI example may not know the basic, historical facts about that time in history, and while your emails shouldn’t be instructional, recognize that your readers don’t know as much about your topic as you do.

Draw them further into the intrigue of your book’s story. Share additional back story info without “stealing” from the book. Further flesh out that time in history, contrast the location from nearly 100 years ago to now, keep them informed about current events there…anything connected to your story will do, if it’s interesting to your audience. May writing emails that captivate your readers never be a mystery again!  

Patricia Durgin

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission

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Guest Posts

Why You Should Try Email Marketing

Guest posts

Email marketing is a tried and true practice in the marketing space and has been for a long time. This practice is used to attract and generate a list of potential customers. While some think it is a dead practice, it is hard to ignore its relevance. It is a cost-effective strategy that can lay a framework for an entire campaign or business plan. 

Email marketing is an umbrella term for two main categories of emails. Cold emails are prospecting emails to help introduce your business and engage the reader. Warm Emails are Marketing emails designed to build relationships with contacts and increase website traffic and conversions. 

The use of marketing automation goes hand in hand with an effective email campaign. Understanding the benefits of using emails and using marketing automation in your campaigns will give you an edge against your competitors. 

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation is an important part of digital marketing, especially when it comes to emails. Marketing automation is the use of software to automate repetitive tasks with email marketing campaigns. The process of marketing automation usually begins when the customer provides their contact information when purchasing a project or signing up for a newsletter/updates. 

The implementation of marketing automation can help capture new leads, turn leads into customers, and help potential clients develop an affinity for the brand. You can tailor which emails are sent to which clients based on if they put items in their cart, or if they continuously spend more time on one page than another. This personalization that can be created by marketing automation helps your potential customers through the buying process all autonomously. 

The Benefits of Using Email Marketing 

Email marketing campaigns can have a lot of valuable benefits for your business. They allow you to easily communicate with a large audience and make sure everyone on your list gets updated on your business. It also gives you the ability to personalize your emails with the individual names so they are more likely to open their emails. Like previously mentioned, when used with marketing automation you can tailor your emails based on what page they spend time on.  

Email marketing has a great ROI (return on investment). For every $1 you spend, email generates a $42 return on average. The ROI is one of email marketing’s biggest advantages, and that return is only growing as time goes on.   

The importance of quality

The source of the email campaign is the quality of the email you are sending. If you are sending an email that is poorly worded and does not have a strong call to action your campaign will yield negative results. You want to make sure that you are providing relevant content for the reader. Having a strong/compelling subject line with beneficial content only increases your chances of converting prospective clients or buyers. 

Working in content from your website into your emails is also a great way to keep your brand cohesive through your various networks. You can benefit from natural link growth and brand visibility from having a strong and consistent brand narrative in your email campaigns. 

Off to the Races  

Now that you have an idea of how email marketing campaigns work, it is time to go on and start your own! Using carefully crafted emails and a little bit of help from marketing automation you can create a very strong email campaign to get your name out there and convert prospects into sales.  

A true digital nomad, Emma Davis spends her time writing and traveling the globe in pursuit of her next great adventure. From travel guides to career advice, she hopes to help readers see the world as she experiences it—helping others craft a life where they can work hard and play often.

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Guest Posts

Top 7 Email Marketing Strategies for Self-Published Authors

Guest posts

Emails and newsletters are the most effective digital marketing tools to promote books by self-published authors. Sending an email is much cheaper than many other marketing tools, and yet it is more effective.

Campaign Monitor reported that for the past decade, email marketing has generated the highest ROI for businesses worldwide. In fact, for every 1$ marketers spend on email marketing, they receive $38 back.

 Given its affordability and its effectiveness, Email marketing is the best promotional tool at the disposal of self-published authors. Let’s take a look at 7 tried and tested strategies to help you get more bang for your buck through email marketing:

1. Segment your Email List

First things first, you must divide your email list into small segments based on geographic, behavioral, psychographic, and demographic factors. Your subscribers and potential readers will hardly be a homogenous bunch.

They will differ from each other in terms of preferences, interests, personalities, behaviors, and other features. Therefore, it makes sense to divide them into smaller groups and design email content specifically for each segment.

Geographic Area

Sort your email list based on their geographic location. Why? Research suggests that people are more likely to open emails at certain times of the day. Marketers consider midweek, between 1 – 3 PM, the ideal time for sending emails.

However, 1 PM in one part of the world means midnight at another place. If you send one email to all subscribers, only those in your time zone will end up opening it. Hence, it’s better to divide the subscriber list according to geographic area and send emails at the appropriate time.

Open rate, purchase history, and user status (new/old) are some other segments to consider when dividing your email list.

2. Develop an Email Sequence

Next comes the sequence of Emails. Are you bombarding the reader with information in the first go? If yes, then try a different tactic for more success. Make use of Drip marketing, a strategy in which you send multiple emails to your subscribers at certain times and dates in order.

What does this do? Instead of an in-your-face sales pitchy approach, the email sequence prepares the reader for purchase by providing them the information they will find useful and interesting.

Here is a sequence that you can try:

  1. A welcome email to new subscribers.
  2. Email containing an excerpt from your book based on the reader’s previous reading history with a CTA button.
  3. Email containing an incentive such as sale price, reward, bundle pricing, etc., with a CTA.
  4. Email containing a limited time only offer with a CTA.

You will need an email automation tool to set up this sequential email marketing strategy, which brings us to our next step.

3. Get a Reliable Email Service Provider

You may be thinking that johndoe_01@gmail.com is a good enough address for your email marketing campaign, but rest assured it’s not! ESP accounts are more likely to end up unread in the spam folder.

Hence, you should get an official email account such as Gmail business suite, MailChimp, MailLite, and more. If you have an official website, you can even install a plugin, which will allow you to create emails from your own server.

Secondly, you will need email automation tools. Mailchimp and MailLite have their own automation tools. You can also use third-party software for email automation, such as software from Hubstaff or Moosend.

Email automation will help you keep track of your emails, what has been sent, what is scheduled, and so forth.

4. Focus on your Strength

Many self-published authors bog themselves down by worrying about email design. They end up wasting a lot of time on the perfect font, image, and style, that they forget the essence of the email.

Yes, it is true that emails with multimedia are more likely to succeed. However, it is not a given. You can simply write to your readers in a natural way to get a conversion. If you want to add design, you can use premade templates from your email marketing software instead of wasting hours designing the perfect layout.

5. Be As Natural As Possible

You are a writer, so do what you do best; write. Write the content of the email from your heart rather than adopting a corporate-esque stoicism. You readers, the ones who subscribed to your website because they love your writing, are more likely to respond to your words than some formal, template-style email.

Here are a few tips that you can keep in mind:

  • Use a friendly tone and talk to the subscribers as though you are familiar with them. It will invite them to continue reading your email to learn more.
  • Use simple language; resist the urge to add hard to read, fancy words. People connect with what they understand and what feels real to them.
  • Speak to them like you are speaking to a friend. If you are sending emails to old readers, share an inside joke, catchphrase, quote, or poem from your previous book to make them feel like they are a part of an exclusive club.

6. Freebies do Work

Take a hint from Software as a Service model and offer free previews to hook your readers. If you are selling e-books, then you can include a free preview for the first few chapters to entice the reader into buying.

Similarly, you can offer discounts, additional perks like buy 1 book and get the audiobook free, and so on. Perks and rewards never fail to convert if done in a classy way.

7. Include a CTA

Always include a clear and visible Call To Action (CTA) button in your email. What do you want to achieve with the email? Do you want the reader to subscribe? Purchase? View? Download?

Whatever your intended result, include a CTA to drive action. You can include the CTA at the end of your email and highlight it, so it pops up.

A few examples of popular CTA are:

  1. Subscribe Today
  2. Download Now
  3. Purchase Here

You can experiment with the CTAs and see what works for you.

Arslan Hassan is an electrical engineer with a passion for writing, designing, and anything tech-related. His educational background in the technical field has given him the edge to write on many topics. He occasionally writes blog articles for Dynamologic Solutions.

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Marketing Sense

Email Marketing: Your Most Powerful Promotional Tool

Marketing sense

As a professional writer you aren’t satisfied writing grocery lists. You long to deliver God’s message and see lives turned around. That will never happen until you have an audience, a group of people interested in your message. This includes people you haven’t met yet. They’re not looking for you; they don’t yet know how your message can help them. You must regularly reach beyond your family and friends to help new people discover you.

Once connected with them, you want to build a relationship, serving them consistently, becoming a valued resource. This is best done through email, not through social media. Why?

Imagine moving to Texas during the summer, into a neighborhood filled with walkers. Eager to make new friends, you sit on your front porch, offering first this and then that person a cool drink.

Some wave and thank you but move on. You might see them every day for years, but they rarely if ever accept your offer to chat one-on-one. These people represent your social media followers. Friendly from a distance but no solid connection.

Other walkers slow their pace and join you. As you visit, a seed of friendship is planted. Some will become dear friends. Even if they move away, the connection will remain strong because it’s deep. These people represent your email subscribers, those who have said by their actions, “I want to hear more from you. Please stay in touch via email.”

Years ago, a potential client said she didn’t have an email list and saw no reason to bother, because she had over 10,000 Twitter followers. I asked how many of those followers she could contact directly by email, to share her message or promote her book. “None,” she replied. Oh.

She used the “spray and pray” marketing approach, sharing her message with as many (in her case) Twitter followers as possible, praying that somewhere, somehow, some of those random people would purchase her book. Oy!

If you only invest in one marketing outreach, develop your email list. It’s the foundation of your platform. Social media followers are the whipped cream on top of your sundae.

What is an “email list”?

It’s a collection of names and email addresses. Ideally, each represents a human being interested in 1) you, 2) your topic, or 3) both. By “signing up” (voluntarily sharing their name and email address with you), they’re giving you permission to serve them AND promote your message, book, or event to them anytime you want (within reason).

Doesn’t an email list cost money?

Yes. You’ll need an account with an email marketing service, which is a company that stores or houses the names and email addresses of those who sign-up or “opt-in” to receive—by email—your newsletter, devotions, book launch promotions, podcast replay links…whatever you promised to share with them when they signed up.

It’s not possible to send out separate emails to each individual on your list from your personal computer, so companies such as Aweber, Active Campaign, MailChimp, and others do that for you. Many offer a low or no cost offer to start. As your list grows, they charge on a sliding scale, based upon the number of names in your account.

Myth: You don’t need an email service if you use WordPress.com.

When readers sign up to receive your latest blog post, WordPress.com stores their name and email address. You never have access to that information. So, you might have 5,000 readers (hooray!) but no way to contact them directly (boo!).

In that case, bypass WordPress.com’s sign-up box and share a link to one on your email provider’s site. Contact them to find out how.

Email marketing is targeted marketing.

If your email list is a hodgepodge of email addresses from old college roommates, people you met at a conference five years ago, and your second cousin twice-removed, it’s of no value. (Sorry, but somebody’s gotta tell you.)

But if the majority of your readers are people who’ve read your content elsewhere or heard you on a podcast interview and then digitally raised their hands to say, “I want to hear more from you!” you’re on your way.

Create content exclusively for your ideal audience and your email list will grow. These are the people God has gifted you to serve. Focus your content on them. Offer solutions to their problems. Answer their questions. Engage with them everywhere you can, always inviting them (never badgering them!) to sign up for whatever free resource you’re offering at that moment.

It takes time to build an email list (add more names to it). It takes more time to maintain it (stay connected to your readers). You’ll always be glad you did, for this is how your email list can be your most powerful promotional tool.

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: https://marketersonamission.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarketersOnAMission