Week Wrapup

Thanks PK Hrezo for her great post on how having a newsletter is an important part of promotion. And good luck to Cate Masters on her ongoing promotional tour for Goddess, Awakened.

A few words of wisdom from my Old Farmer's Almanac planner.

If there be no remedy, why worry? (Old Spanish Proverb) I tried to pass this on to my students shortly after 9/11. Three Mile Island, the nuclear plant, is actually in our school district. There was lots of extra security there for a while and a few false alarms when fighter jets took to the sky looking for threats. There is an airport not far from TMI and for weeks after 9/11 most of what we saw in the skies while we were outside for PE classes were military aircraft. Some flew very low. Now our school has a intricate evacuation plan if anything happened at TMI but truthfully, no way would the buses get out on the congested highways they'd have to travel. So when those low flying planes would go over and my students would get nervous, I told them not to worry. If the worse happened, we were all going to die and rather quickly. There was nothing we could do about it so why worry. For some reason it didn't comfort them the way it should have. Kids!

Tomorrow is also the full moon, known as the Buck Moon this month. And if your garden tools are rusty, the Almanac suggest you soak them for several hours in a bucket of cool, strong black tea.

Hope you enjoyed my Almanac wisdom and carry it forth into your weekend. Would you have been comforted if you were my students. Ever try that cure for rusty metal? Did you design a newsletter yet?

The Marketing Funnel by PK Hrezo

The Marketing Funnel

Thanks so much to Susan for letting me take over her blog today. I always enjoy her posts so it’s a pleasure to be here. When she told me she thought a post on marketing would be good, I got all excited. That’s because I just finished a month long course on the subject, and want to share it.

So what’s a marketing funnel? I’m glad you asked. It’s what every author needs in order to maintain an active relationship with readers, fans, and customers. This is done by having an email list or newsletter.

I know you’ve all heard how important it is to have a newsletter/email list before, just as I had, but having its relevance broken down to me over the recent course really drove it home. Here’s why:

It’s a proven fact that email recipients are more likely to buy your book over anyone who sees it on social media. Social media is NOT a reliable marketing tool. Most of the time ads and promos just pass by as white noise or don’t get seen at all. Someone who signs up for your email list/newsletter, however, is actively agreeing to become accessible to you.

How does the funnel come into play? Well I mentioned that social media isn’t reliable for selling books, but it is reliable in harnessing potential email recipients, therefore turning all your social media outlets into a single funnel for your main marketing tool: the email list/newsletter.

They work together. Let’s say you run a clever blog, but don’t get on Twitter or Facebook much. No problem. Just make sure you have a place for people to sign up for your email list on your blog. Make sure it’s visible.

Same for Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn … If you use them regularly and have fun status updates and participation, make sure your home page filters back to your email list. You’re collecting and funneling potential customers and clients into this list, so that when you do send out your newsletter announcement of a new book or special offer, they will absolutely %100 see it.

Everyone uses email. Everyone.

If you’re like me, you’re inundated with emails and the thought of getting more makes you cringe. But not everyone out there is a writer who gets the amounts of email we do, so give them the chance to connect with you in a reliable way that will make your contact with them personal, and allow it to grow.

Think of social media as your tools and use them to funnel in strangers so that they become real fans. This allows you to connect with new readers.

Make a plan and stick to the tools you’re good at. You can’t do all of them well so don’t try. And if you want a surefire way to bring people into your email list, give away something for free when they sign up. Things that work well are first eBooks in a series, or PDF reports of what works for you--like tips on craft or cover designs. This is the age of DIY and if you offer something useful, they will come.

You don’t want your newsletter to be JUST promo stuff either. Give your readers something of value each time, whether it be content you’ve already shared on your blog or directing them to a recent post ON your blog. Then, include your latest announcement or offer. This will keep the people on your list opening your emails.

Share what you’re learning while you’re on this journey and offer to help others.

Many of you are like me and have worked hard on maintaining a blog presence, so this idea of adding another job to an already time consuming one is a bit daunting. I get that. But the problem with blogs nowadays is that people are not going out to look for them anymore. Your followers may or may not see your posts, but the same details in an email list WILL be seen when it’s convenient for the person to open their email.

This is some of what I learned from Tim Grahl’s marketing course. I took it because I’m not good with marketing—I’m a creative person, an artist, and I’m better at the actual production. But I knew I needed to change that attitude, especially since I’m indie and in charge of ALL my marketing.

If you’re not familiar with Tim, he’s the successful author of Your First 1000 Copies, which he indie published last year and has just hit 10k in sales. He shares his story here in this link—about what worked and what didn’t, and I highly suggest listening to it.

http://outthinkgroup.com/webinars/how-to-sell-10000-copies-a-celebration?

Thanks so much for stopping by here today! If you have any questions on using email and newsletters as a marketing tool, just ask in the comments and I’ll answer to the best of my ability. If you’d like to sign up for my email list, here’s the link: http://eepurl.com/O0s5b
I give my email list an exclusive first peek at what I’m working on and special offers only available to them.

Tell me, what have you found to be a successful marketing tool? Is there anything you dislike seeing? Do you think we’re too overloaded with promos on social media? Please share … 

 PK Hrezo is the author of Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc. and Diary of a Teenage Time Traveler. Her sequel, Induction Day, is due out late summer. You can find her on her blog: http://pk-hrezo.blogspot.com/

Or website: http://down-the-rabbithole.com/

Thanks, PK, for taking over my blog today. You're very convincing about the newsletter. You've given my so much to think about. What do all you readers think?

Goddess, Awakened

Congrats to Cate Masters on her newest release. Her latest is set in a contemporary world but prepare yourself for all kinds of magical shenanigans. Here's a short blurb from Goddess, Awakened.

With a little help from a goddess, battling evil is a piece of cake for Jocelyn Gibson.
A descendant of the goddess Isis, Jocelyn Gibson may have forgotten about the realm of magic, but it hasn’t forgotten her. When Eric Hendricks is targeted by a demon, Joss must step in to battle the evil and save the town’s awkward, but endearing, vet…who also happens to be the man she loves. Joss’s new inn, a culinary career specializing in cooking with lavender and a new love all make for a fine recipe of disaster. She needs to embrace her inner goddess and harness the powers she never knew she had before it’s too late.

Hope over to Cate's blog. She has a lot planned for the next few weeks in promotion.

The summer if flying by and I'm loving this warm weather. It does distract me from writing so I'm back to doing most of my creative work at night after the sun sets. My next book has grabbed me and the word count is mounting quicker than I expected. I wish I could write as fast as Cate and some other writers I know but I've learned to accept my own pace. If I write two to three thousand words per day I feel like I'm flying.

Have you visited Cate yet? How many words a day do you usually write? Does a pretty day distract you? Don't forget to visit the IWSG blog today for some bits of wisdom.

Please make sure you visit on Wednesday when PK Hrezo guests on my blog with a compelling post about marketing.