Email Listservs
A recent conversation over at the toot-place makes me believe that too many people don't understand the value of having a listserv. I want to offer a perspective that's, perhaps, contrary to popular opinion.
If you think you can't afford to have an email listserv because you've got umpty-thousand people following you on social media, you're right. You can't afford it.
If you think you need those umpty-thousand people on your list, you're missing the most important part. Big lists matter less than responsive ones.
Who believes that bigger is better?
- Email listserv providers
- People who have big-ticket, high margin products
Of course the companies that provide such services want you to have big lists. The more people on that list, the more money they can charge. Most services come with a tiered pricing structure based on the number of subscribers. The services can vary based on the number of messages you sent, the kinds of special services you might want, and a host of other possible bells and whistles.
For any self-published writer, the question should be: What do I need?
A bare-bones service might offer the ability to collect email addresses via some kind of link or widget on your webpage along with the ability for you to send email to those addresses – usually on-demand or by a schedule.
That's bare-bones.
Nice-to-haves involve some kind of scripting that lets you set up an automated reply welcoming new subscribers, perhaps allowing you to create an on-boarding process to make sure this new person feels at home and valued. Maybe some statistical tracking would be handy.
Side-note: It's getting harder to tell if somebody actually opened the email or not. Take those numbers with a very large grain of salt, if you see them.
A lot of services offer a free tier for up to about 1000 addresses. For a self-published author – particularly one starting from zero – these represent money in the bank.
Where do the people come from?
A sticky wicket, this. A lot depends on what kind of list you want.
The providers want you to have a large list. They use mass market examples of people finding success with tens of thousands of addresses. They make a compelling argument by holding up success stories of people who started their business with $10 and a dream and now earn mid-six-figure incomes.
Yes. Those people exist.
No. You're probably not one of them.
The success stories are almost universally people with big ticket, high margin products. They're people selling courses at a few hundred bucks a pop. They're life-coaches and book doctors. They're non-fiction authors with a book who make their money from all the other stuff they do based on their subject matter expertise. They may need as few as a dozen sales a year to cover the cost of their list.
They're using mass media tools in a mass media channel. Their goal is to get their messages in front of as many people as possible, as often as possible, in the hope that some fractional percentage of those messages will hit home. Sure, it's still a niche product but the low-volume, high margin products matter.
Make no mistake, they work, but they take deep pockets.
Self-publishing authors do not operate in that market. Using those tools – their benchmark metrics – becomes a problem because self-pubbers operate in niche markets with low value, high margin products. In effect, we're taking that mass market tool and using it to serve our niche (social media) messages. The goal is to get your messages in front of only those people who want to see them in the hope that some significant percentage of those people will respond the way you want. (See: What Is Marketing?)
Anybody can build a big list.
It's easy when you flash a signup widget in front of anybody who shows up at your website, or push the “Please sign up” link at the front or back of your books, people will sign up out of reflex. Are they really interested?
You can participate in numerous group promo events where you're given the addresses of the people who participated to add to your list. You can bump that 1000 address cap pretty darn quick that way.
The problem is not getting addresses.
The problem is getting good addresses.
You don't want people signing up who might open an email once a year. You want the people who open every single one. You want the people who will click the links. You want the people you're paying for to respond.
Bottom line: You want the people who will buy your books. Ideally, the people who will buy your books every time, but even 20% or 30% of the time is better that the 0.5% of purchasers mass market people see as success.
My list service touts 5% click through – that is, somebody clicks a link in 5% of all email messages. For mass markets, that's pretty darn good.
For me, that's untenable.
If I'm not getting at least 60% open and 30% click through on monthly emails with book recommendations and 80% open with 40-50% click through on new release emails, then my list isn't performing. Granted I have to look at trends and consider the market. Maybe I recommended something too fringe for my audience. Maybe it's running into holiday season and disposable attention has already been disposed of.
When I make a new release announcement, I make enough profit from those sales to cover the cost of my list for the year and then some.
If you can't cover the cost of a free service with 1000 addresses on it, then you're doing something wrong.
Key points:
- Your list should be responsive, not large.
- Make it responsive by not making it too easy to sign up.
- Patience.
That last one is probably the most important. Organic growth is slow, particularly if you hide your signup link one layer down on your website to people have to click to find it. If they have to work a little to get signed up. If you don't promise them a cookie.
In the beginning you'll get 1 or 2 sign ups a week. As time goes on, you'll get up to 10 or 12 a month. Eventually you'll get to 5 or 6 a week. Your numbers will be low, but they'll grow – week on week, month on month, year on year. The larger your list, the faster it will grow.
The more books you publish, the more attention your work will get. More attention means more signups. Each new release means those people on your list will find your book sooner than the general public, which boosts your presence and sells more books to people who aren't on your list. People who might join the list after having read one of your books.
Eventually, your list will grow beyond the free tier and you'll have to either stop letting people sign up, or buy into the next tier. If you can't support the next tier based on your sales with 1000 people?
You need to take a hard look at your list and start culling the herd.
Note: You won't be able to tell which of your subscribers bought the book by looking at the listserv statistics. You can see how many books sold after the email went out and over the next few days on your store front's sales dashboard. They're probably not all from the list, but anything above an expected baseline makes a good estimate.
If you want to learn more about how to build and maintain a list, I highly recommend David Gaughran's excellent post: Email Marketing: Your Secret Weapon. David's been playing this game a long time and knows the in's and out's – even if we don't exactly agree on things like list size. Likewise, you might check out Tammy Lebreque's Newsletter Ninja. She'll teach you about the mechanics of delivery and why only emailing new releases isn't the slam-dunk you think it is.
Email lists represent a key tool for self-publishing authors. They're the only direct link you have to your audience. When things go pear-shaped, they're the only way you can reach your readers to tell them what's wrong. Sure, you can post on your website – you do have a website, right? – but email hits them in the inbox. They might not be watching your blog, but they're certainly watching their email.
Start small. Learn the ropes. Ignore any exhortations to “grow your list” and focus on quality over quantity. You might be surprised at how fast your sales grow.