Growing Your Book’s Reach with Email Marketing

You’ve published your new book—congratulations! The hard part is over. Now, it’s time to get it into the hands of your eager readers. 

You may have already sent flyers, attended book signing events, crafted social media posts, and created organic buzz around your new book. While you wait for these traditional marketing tactics to come to fruition and boost your book sales, let’s add email marketing to the mix. 

Email marketing is a form of online marketing that doesn’t force you to rely on a third party to reach your audience. This allows you to control your message and demographic cost-effectively. 

Be ready to make it your new best friend; most people utilize email regularly for social media, online ordering, or simply paying bills. When you market through email, you’re able to reach your audience more directly.

Some forms of email marketing include:

• Newsletters
• Lead nurturing 
• Promotional
  

As an author, you may already have a platform and a built-in email list to boot—but do you know how to utilize them? Let’s go over a few of the ways you can grow your book’s reach and audience with email marketing.

Build Your Book Community 

Establishing a newsletter might be the best way to reach your audience and build up your brand in the book community—all via email. And since newsletters are sent periodically to provide updates, they’re easy to incorporate in your email marketing strategy. 

Whether this is your first newsletter or your hundredth, you should always:  

• Nurture your audience with regular updates about your writing journey, book release, and upcoming events
• Share your creative process, anecdotes related to the book’s theme, and exciting news like preorder dates and book launch parties
• Engage your readers throughout the book’s lifespan, from conception to publication and beyond

Once your book is out, maintain a strong connection with your readers. Thank them for their support and celebrate your book’s release. You could encourage them to send feedback via book reviews on Amazon and Solution Tree. Thoughtful responses from your readers might even give you new ideas for things to write about. 

Pack your newsletter with: 

• Automatic welcome messages for new subscribers
• Personalization, like introducing yourself and addressing recipients by name
• Images, videos, or graphics to make your message visually appealing
• Snippets from your book—teasers are a great way to boost a reader’s interest! 
• Links to your book’s page or the Look-Inside* feature once your book is published
• A privacy policy that explains how you collect information
• An unsubscribe option in every email

Email marketing platforms such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or HubSpot offer great advice or templates for your newsletter. They also offer scheduling so you don’t have to slow down.

*Look-Insides are located under the book cover on the Solution Tree website.

Boost Your Email Subscriber List 

Growing your email subscriber list can seem like a daunting task at first. But fear not! There are readers out there for everyone—you simply have to connect with them. 

You’ll want to first create a dedicated landing page or website to capture email sign-ups, then include the link in any presentations you give. Inviting your professional and personal networks to join your email list is another way to build a readership. Promote your list on social media as well; your followers are already interested in you and should be equally interested in your updates.

Promotions and Lead Nurturing 

If you want to turn new readers into buyers and boost sales of your book, you should incorporate promotional messaging and lead nurturing into your email marketing strategy. 

Promotional emails encourage preorders and generate excitement around your release. When crafting a promotional email: 

• Create a clear call to action and a powerful subject line
• Use strong visuals such as the new cover of your book 
• Form a consistent email template; this ensures your audience is aware of the kind of promotional emails you send
• Send targeted emails to the right people in your email subscriber list

Lead nurturing emails aim to convert new subscribers into buyers. It puts your potential customers in the center, guiding them through a journey of familiarizing themselves with your work until they’re ready to make a purchase. 

Typically, a lead nurturing campaign begins with an introductory email and then continues with weekly emails offering valuable content, such as a free white paper or the first chapter of your book, at no additional cost.

Email marketing in itself might seem overwhelming initially but the rewards of email and newsletter marketing far outweigh the effort required. It not only allows you to engage with your readers and promote your book but also acts as an invaluable tool for you to establish your brand.  

So, don’t hesitate—start your email marketing journey today!