No matter what some people say, email has been a important marketing technique that has stuck around despite the new ways to communicate. An email newsletter is a great way of getting in front of the right audience. How do you know they’re the right audience? Because they subscribed to your newsletter!

Step One:

What’s the first step to creating a successful newsletter? You need to create a plan! How many times are you going to send out a newsletter? What will your newsletter consist of? What will you offer to new subscribers? In other words, what is the benefit to the potential subscriber that will make them sign up for your newsletter? You’ve seen them before. Businesses sometimes use giveaways or discounts to new subscribers. Some offer a list of tips or steps for a topic discussed in their book or blog.

Step Two:

Once you’ve figured out your plan, you need the tools to succeed. You need to find a tool for email marketing. A lot of people use Mailchimp or Constant Contact as these are both easy and cheap to use. Mailchimp also has a free membership plan that allows up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 can be sent per month. After finding the email marketing software, you need a website. If you’re promoting your book through your emails, your landing website should include information about your book. You should also set up a Author Facebook page, therefore making it easier to find subscribers. Make sure you are prepared with the giveaway or discount code for the newsletter sign up offer.

Step Three:

Create the giveaway page! This is crucial in pulling in new subscribers. This page should be promoted throughout your website and on your social media accounts. The giveaway page itself should be very simple and straightforward, don’t give people a reason to turn away because entering is too hard or complicated.

Step Four:

The next step would be create an email capture form using your email marketing tool. Mailchimp has an article on how to do this through their service. Make sure to at least capture the subscribers most basic information, i.e. their name and email address. This will be important if you want to send out personalized emails in the future.

Step Five:

Don’t forget to thank your new subscriber. This email marketing tool is a great way of connecting with your reader early. From there you could easily direct them to another part of your website, perhaps a blog post you recently wrote or maybe it directs them to the introduction page. Jane Friedman directs her new subscribers to like her Facebook page so they can keep an eye out for the giveaway winners.

Once you’ve gotten a couple sign ups, you’re ready to send out your first newsletter!

If you’re interested in learning how to gain more subscribers with Facebook Advertising Jane Friedman has some interesting tips.

You also might find this blog post from Hybrid Global interesting, especially if you’re a new author.