Do you really need to grow an author email list? Is having an author newsletter worth it, what's the point? Can't you just do everything on social media? Email marketing sounds like a lot of effort, is it really worth bothering with?
These are all valid questions and I get asked them often.
And I say Yes! An author email list is 100% worth bothering with. Yes, it does take persistence, it does take effort, but anything that's worth doing takes hard work.
In this post, I am going to give you three good reasons why you should be growing your author email list.
1. You own your author email list
If you're growing an audience on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media channel, you do not own that audience. Facebook, Twitter or Instagram owns your followers.
As an example, TikTok has been in the news recently because it has faced getting banned in the US. If you are growing an audience on TikTok and it's banned and the platform disappears, you lose your audience.
So it's crucial that even if you are growing an audience on a social media platform, that you move fans and followers to your author email list, which you own.
Even if your email service provider (I recommend Mailerlite) goes bust or it disappears overnight, you still own that data and you can move it to another provider.
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2. You can develop meaningful relationships with email
Even though it's considered a 1:many marketing channel, meaning, you send one email and it goes out to hundreds or thousands of subscribers, each individual that receives your email feels like it's a personal message to them. This is especially true if you use personalization in your emails to address people by their first name, for example. So, email is your opportunity to get into somebody's inbox and start a conversation with them.
When you post on social media, often your messages will go unseen. Firstly, your post may not be shown to all of your followers. Secondly, even if your post does appear in a follower's feed, you are competing with so much content they may not notice it.
But people still check their email often. They may not open every email every time, but they will see you in their inbox and that's a powerful way of staying top of mind.
3. Email can lead to book sales
Email is a great way of taking somebody on a journey with you that leads to a sale. Whereas Facebook ads may interrupt and annoy a potential reader when they are trying to catch up with friends, email can be less intrusive. Your readers can choose when they engage with your emails and you can take your time warming them up. You can take your readers on a journey and you don't have to sell in every single email. With each email you can be strengthening your relationship until that leads to a sale that doesn't feel awkward or icky or uncomfortable.
Your greatest book marketing asset
So there are my top 3 reasons why you need an author email list. Your author email list is an important marketing tool and a great way to connect with your readers. And having an engaged author email list will support future book launches. If you haven't been successful at launching a book in the past, focus on growing your author email list. That will ensure your future launches are much more successful.
If you want to know how email marketing fits into the bigger book marketing system that I teach, grab my free 7-step guide to growing your author platform and that will show you where email fits.
