Setting Up and Building an Email List

Direct marketing is powerful. There’s a reason so many people say “the money is in the list.” If you can build a mailing list of people who like your work and are willing to pay for it, then it becomes much easier to sell your books and have bigger book launches. With that in mind, here are some tips and resources on how to build a strong mailing list:

Setting Up Your List

• “Email List Building Series (Part 3): The Set Up, Start to Finish” on Your Writer Platform
• “Add or Remove a Signup Form on Your Facebook Page” on MailChimp

Tools

• MailChimp
• Convertkit
• AWeber
• Mail Monitor
• Email Finder*
• Email Verifier
• “Attention Authors: The Tech Tool That Really Makes Books into Bestsellers” on Observer

Growing Your List

• “3 Ways to Retain & Grow Newsletter Readership” on Book Business
• “21 Essential Strategies for Growing Your Business With Inbound Marketing [Infographic]” on Hubspot
• “Landing Page Forms” on Klient Boost
• Leadpages
• “4 Simple Earned Media Tactics To Grow Your Audience” on Cody Lister
• “Blog Engagement: How to Get Abnormally High Comments, Shares, and Clicks (And How This All Adds Up To Sales)” on Grow and Convert
• “Email List Building Series (Part 5): Strategies to Grow Your List, Your Reach and Your Sales” on Your Writer Platform
• “How to Host a Giveaway That Brings in Hundreds of Email Subscribers in One Week” on XO Sarah
• “How to Use Twitter for Crazy Simple Email Opt-ins” on Brittany Berger
• “The Authors’ Best Friend: Ignite Your Email List: Joel Friedlander and Nick Stephenson” on Self Publishing Advice

Freebies For Your List

• “4 Irresistible Incentives for Your Sign Up Form That Aren’t eBooks” on Business 2 Community
• “5 tips for designing practical printables (+ free cheatsheet!)” on Paper & Oats
• “7 Tips to Help You Set up a Killer Email Drip Campaign” on Digital Information World
• “Does your opt-in freebie suck? Here’s how to create one that converts like crazy” on Meera Kothand
• “Email List Building Series (Part 2): Create a Sign Up Incentive That Knocks Their Socks Off” on Your Writer Platform
• “Create the Ultimate Content Upgrade: Lead Magnet Ideas and Templates” on Teachable

What to Send to Your List

• “Show ‘Em Around: The Author’s Guide to Welcome E-mails” on Fix My Story
• “The Welcome Email: Best Examples and How to Write Yours [Worksheet Included]” on Teachable
• “What should I send to my author e-mail list?” on Build Book Buzz
• “89 Effective Cold Email Subject Lines & How to Craft Them” on Hunter*
• “13 Insanely Clickable Email Subject Line Examples (Backed by Psychology)” on Sumo
• “75 stellar retail subject lines” on Campaign Monitor
• “37 Tips for Writing Emails that Get Opened, Read, and Clicked” on Copyblogger
• “7 Emails You Should Send Your Subscribers (But Probably Don’t)” on Smart Blogger
• Just Good Copy
• “How to Create an Email Course That Converts Like Crazy” on Teachable
• “How to Keep Your Raving Fans” on Author Basics
• “How to Send Email Like a Startup” on Send With Us

Segmenting Emails for Maximum Engagement

• “8 Email Segmentation Examples That Can Boost Conversions” on Conversion XL
• “How to Sell Through Email [Infographic]” on GetResponse
• “Insights from MailChimp’s Send Time Optimization System” on MailChimp
• “Making the Most of E-Mail Marketing” on Publisher’s Weekly

Tutorials

• “Getting Started with Email Marketing” on Skillshare
• “A Step-by Step Plan to Grow Your Email List When You’re Starting From Zero” on Melyssa Griffin
• “The Ultimate Guide to Writing Every Email You Need for Your Online Business” on Teachable

Additional Resources

• “The Ultimate List of Email Marketing Statistics: 234 Game-Changing Stats” on Reply
• “Top 8 Email Marketing Takeaways from DBW 2016” on BookBub

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2017.

*Digital Pubbing accepted free access in exchange for including this link.