The Golden Trifecta of your Author Newsletter
An author newsletter needs to be three things:
- It needs to be received
- It needs to be read
- It needs to be replied to
Those three things – received, read, replied – are the Golden Trifecta of email.
But why are they so important?
Sender Reputation
Sender reputation is a score given to you by a mailbox provider and how good (or bad) your reputation is can affect how many of your emails are delivered within that mailbox provider.
Your sender reputation is affected by many things – spam reports, engagement levels, and the reputation of your mail service.
To keep your sender reputation up, you can ask your readers to whitelist your email. They tell their mailbox provider that you are a trusted sender.
You can include whitelisting instructions on all your emails, but you should especially consider them in your welcome sequences.
You can avoid spam trigger words – and you can find out what the current crop of spam trigger words are through a quick Google search. Make sure you add 2020 to your search though, because spam triggers change all the time.
And note that spam trigger words are not about never using those words. It’s about not overusing them. My best results come from email campaigns where I have a ‘Free Read!’, but I try to use the word sparingly in the text, and only once in a while does it appear in my subject line. And on that subject;
Make sure your subject line gives your readers a reason to go through and read the email. A question is sometimes a good idea, especially one that you don’t actually answer until the end of the email. Another type of subject line that tends to get people to click through is lists – 10 Things about Something.
And never underestimate the allure of a good pet picture.
And then use the Call To Action in your email to get replies. This can be as easy as a simple yes/no question, or a Learn More button. I like to ask my readers to email me back – I’m still a small enough author that I do not have an avalanche of mail to respond to! But it’s nice to hear from people who have read your works and enjoyed them.
And they get a bit chuffed too, when their superstars email them back! Remember – as a writer, you’re a bit of a celebrity.
It’s relatively easy to dash off a newsletter. But with a bit of forward planning you can improve your received-read-replied numbers, and keep your sender reputation high.
Of course, before you even start thinking about sender reputations, you have to have a newsletter! If you don’t, you should join up for my Newsletter KnowHow OWL, starting on 1 November. It’s jam-packed with information about not only setting up your newsletter using either Mailerlite or Mailchimp, but also delves much deeper into some of the subjects I’ve covered here. Along with some insight into what makes your readers read your newsletters – brilliant for keeping that reputation score high!
Newsletter Know-How by Bree Vreedenburgh
Course Dates: 2 Nov to 27 Nov
Cost: RWA Member – $55.00. Non-RWA Member: $88.00.
Venue: Online – RWA Moodle Platform
Booking Link: https://www.trybooking.com/BHGIJ
Presenters Bio
Bree Vreedenburgh is a qualified business coach and romance writer. She built her first mailing list to 3000 members in just three months, then dismantled it and started again.
Under the pen name Bree Verity, she writes History and Romance with a little Magic, and can be found at www.breeverity.com