Newsletter Ninja

1. Your Mailing List Is for Selling Yourself, Not Your Books

Not everyone who buys one of your books will become a lifelong fan, but your lifelong fans will buy all of your books.

Shift your mindset. Your mailing list's primary purpose is to build a loyal fanbase, not to directly sell books. By focusing on creating genuine connections with your readers, you'll cultivate a group of superfans who will naturally support your work.

Long-term strategy. Instead of constantly pushing book sales, concentrate on sharing your personality, interests, and writing journey. This approach will:

• Foster a stronger emotional connection with readers
• Create a sense of community around your work
• Lead to more consistent and sustainable book sales over time
• Reduce the pressure to hard-sell with each email

2. Build Relationships and Deliver Value to Create Superfans

You can't use these techniques disingenuously, because it will backfire on you.

Be authentic. Readers can spot insincerity from a mile away. Share genuine aspects of your life and personality, but only within your comfort zone. This might include:

• Your writing process and inspirations
• Favorite books, movies, or TV shows
• Personal anecdotes or experiences that relate to your work
• Behind-the-scenes glimpses of your author life

Provide value. Every email should offer something of interest to your subscribers:

• Exclusive content (short stories, deleted scenes, character interviews)
• Book recommendations or reviews
• Industry insights or writing tips
• Entertainment (memes, jokes, or interesting facts related to your genre)
• Sneak peeks of upcoming work

3. Craft an Effective Onboarding Sequence for New Subscribers

You have to start fighting right from the start to make them understand that if they want to see your emails, they probably have to do something proactive.

First impressions matter. Create a welcoming and informative onboarding sequence to introduce new subscribers to your world and set expectations.

Key elements of a strong onboarding sequence:

• Welcome email with clear instructions on whitelisting
• Delivery of promised signup incentive (e.g., free story)
• Introduction to your work and writing style
• Explanation of what subscribers can expect (content and frequency)
• Encouragement to engage (reply to emails, follow on social media)
• Gradual reveal of your personality and background

Tailor the sequence length and content to your specific audience and genre, but always aim to provide value and build connection from the start.

4. Ask Engaging Questions to Foster Two-Way Communication

Getting replies to your campaigns is one of the best techniques there is for staying out of the Spam folder or Promotions tab.

Encourage interaction. Regularly include open-ended, relevant questions in your emails to prompt responses from subscribers. This not only helps you learn about your audience but also improves email deliverability.

Characteristics of effective questions:

• Open-ended (avoid yes/no questions)
• Relevant to your genre or recent content
• Positive in tone
• Free from bias or "correct" answers
• Encourage specific, detailed responses

Examples:

• "What's your favorite book-to-movie adaptation, and why?"
• "If you could have dinner with any author, living or dead, who would it be?"
• "What's the most memorable fictional character you've encountered recently?"

5. Maintain a Favorable Give-to-Ask Ratio in Your Emails

You need to keep the give-to-ask ratio at the forefront of your mind when you're planning and composing campaigns—and, for that matter, your autoresponders, though I would say that any ask in an autoresponder should be a very soft ask (no hard sells, nothing labor-intensive).

Balance is key. Ensure that you're providing value far more often than you're asking for something from your subscribers. This builds goodwill and makes readers more likely to respond positively when you do make a request.

Strategies for maintaining a good give-to-ask ratio:

• Separate regular newsletters from book release announcements
• Include multiple "gives" in each email (content, recommendations, entertainment)
• Make "asks" soft and infrequent (e.g., "If you enjoyed this book, consider leaving a review")
• Focus on building relationships rather than driving immediate sales
• Track the number of "gives" vs. "asks" to ensure you're staying balanced

6. Optimize Subject Lines and Content for Better Engagement

Remember, you're dealing with non-openers, so you absolutely cannot rely on the content of the newsletter to do the work of re-engaging. You have to grab them with the subject line—to the point where, even though they have been ignoring your emails for a while, they simply have to open this one.

Craft irresistible subject lines. Your subject line is the gatekeeper to your email content. Make it compelling enough that subscribers can't help but open.

Subject line best practices:

• Keep it short and punchy (especially for mobile readers)
• Create a sense of urgency or curiosity
• Use numbers or lists ("5 secrets from my latest book")
• Ask intriguing questions
• Avoid spam trigger words
• A/B test different approaches

Deliver on promises. Ensure your email content lives up to the excitement of your subject line. Organize information clearly, use engaging visuals, and make your emails easy to skim for key points.

7. Re-engage Inactive Subscribers and Purge Dead Weight

But first we want to make sure that either they really don't want to hear from us or, for whatever reason, they aren't seeing our emails and we can't overcome it.

Implement a re-engagement strategy. Periodically identify subscribers who haven't opened your emails in a while and attempt to win them back.

Re-engagement tactics:

• Send a dedicated "We miss you" email
• Offer an exclusive incentive to re-engage
• Ask if they want to update their preferences
• Use attention-grabbing subject lines
• Remind them of the value they're missing

Know when to let go. If subscribers remain unresponsive after your re-engagement efforts, it's time to remove them from your list. This improves your overall engagement metrics and deliverability.

Set clear criteria for removal, such as:

• No opens in the last 6 months
• No response to a final "last chance" email
• Bounced email addresses

8. Tailor Your Approach Based on Subscriber Preferences

If you want quality subscribers that like the sort of thing you write, and will probably like you, what you need to do is bribe them onto your list with a good cookie—something that's aligned well with everything else that you write and aimed squarely at people who buy and read books, particularly your sort of books.

Understand your audience. Create subscriber avatars to help you visualize and understand your ideal readers. This will guide your content creation and communication style.

Strategies for tailoring your approach:

• Offer relevant signup incentives ("cookies") that align with your work
• Segment your list based on preferences or behavior
• Allow subscribers to choose content types or frequency
• Use language and references that resonate with your target audience
• Adapt your tone and style to match reader expectations

9. Leverage Automation and Segmentation for Personalization

As I mentioned in The Sign-Up Process, this is a great time to start tagging or segmenting people. Higher-end EMS like Drip and ActiveCampaign and ConvertKit will allow you to set tags that will be applied when a subscriber takes a certain action, and that allow you to sort out groups of people to target with specific emails.

Harness technology. Use your email marketing service's features to create a more personalized experience for your subscribers.

Automation and segmentation techniques:

• Create targeted welcome sequences based on signup source
• Tag subscribers based on interests or behavior
• Segment your list for genre-specific content or promotions
• Use conditional content to customize email messages
• Set up triggered emails based on subscriber actions
• Implement dynamic content that changes based on subscriber data

10. Prioritize Deliverability to Ensure Your Emails Reach Inboxes

Deliverability—defined here as the likelihood that your emails will be delivered to the inboxes of subscribers, rather than flagged as Spam or Promotions—is inextricably linked to engagement.

Focus on inbox placement. Consistently reaching your subscribers' primary inboxes is crucial for maintaining engagement and building relationships.

Deliverability best practices:

• Encourage subscribers to whitelist your email address
• Maintain a clean list by regularly removing inactive subscribers
• Use a reputable email marketing service
• Avoid spam trigger words in subject lines and content
• Balance text and images in your emails
• Authenticate your sending domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
• Monitor your sender reputation and engagement metrics
• Test your emails across different email clients and devices

By prioritizing deliverability, you ensure that your carefully crafted content has the best chance of reaching and engaging your audience.

Last updated: January 25, 2025