Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "contacts"
Another Perspective on Mailing Lists
For decades mailing lists have been touted as a top way to sell anything. Not surprisingly, many people say this is also true concerning books. If you’re an author who released a book in the last year or so, you probably have some kind of reader mailing list built up, and I’m sure you used it to advertise your book. I also have a hunch you might’ve been a little bit surprised with the lackluster results. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that mailing lists are useless. A contact is a contact is a contact. However, don’t delude yourself into thinking that building a massive mailing list is the solution to every advertising/sales problem you have. It’s not.
To prove my point, think about how many things you willingly signed up for and then take note of how many times you actually read what you receive from that particular merchant. More to the point, how many times do you ever actually make a purchase on impulse from an email solicitation? And these are typically vendors that you signed up with. Usually, at some point, you signed up for SOMETHING in order to get on that person’s mailing list. But how interested were you? Maybe you signed up because you couldn’t advance further on the website without giving an email. Maybe you couldn’t make a comment on something unless you created an account, and then bingo, your name was sold to other merchants.
There’s a million reasons you might be on a mailing list, but when you look at the volume of inbox pieces you get every day, versus the ones you actually read, and even fewer, the ones you actually make a purchase from, I bet it’s a minuscule minority. Unfortunately, that’s the same way it works with reader lists.
You may have hundreds or even thousands of email addresses from people who read books, but when you did your big email blast after your book launch, how many sales actually tracked back to that list? If you got a lot, then stick with it, it’s working for you! But if you didn’t, move on to a different type of advertising. The bottom line is, growing a list just to say you have a big list doesn’t do anything to advance your career unless the people on the list are buying your book. So go look at your email stats and see if it’s worth it to continue frantically collecting emails or if it would be better to move on to a different type of advertising. Just food for thought. Write on!
To prove my point, think about how many things you willingly signed up for and then take note of how many times you actually read what you receive from that particular merchant. More to the point, how many times do you ever actually make a purchase on impulse from an email solicitation? And these are typically vendors that you signed up with. Usually, at some point, you signed up for SOMETHING in order to get on that person’s mailing list. But how interested were you? Maybe you signed up because you couldn’t advance further on the website without giving an email. Maybe you couldn’t make a comment on something unless you created an account, and then bingo, your name was sold to other merchants.
There’s a million reasons you might be on a mailing list, but when you look at the volume of inbox pieces you get every day, versus the ones you actually read, and even fewer, the ones you actually make a purchase from, I bet it’s a minuscule minority. Unfortunately, that’s the same way it works with reader lists.
You may have hundreds or even thousands of email addresses from people who read books, but when you did your big email blast after your book launch, how many sales actually tracked back to that list? If you got a lot, then stick with it, it’s working for you! But if you didn’t, move on to a different type of advertising. The bottom line is, growing a list just to say you have a big list doesn’t do anything to advance your career unless the people on the list are buying your book. So go look at your email stats and see if it’s worth it to continue frantically collecting emails or if it would be better to move on to a different type of advertising. Just food for thought. Write on!
