by Tari Faris, @FarisTari
Welcome back to Making Your Newsletter Work for You series. It is so great to share with you how I shifted my feelings about writing newsletters from dread to joy and at the same time grew my subscriber list from 300 to 7000 in three years. If you missed them, make sure you take time to read PART 1, PART 2, and PART 3.
Now let’s dive in because today we are talking about the question everyone wants to know: How did I grow my newsletter from 300 to 7000 in just three years?
7000 isn’t the biggest list you have ever heard of, but it is respectable growth for over the course of three years.
When you are dealing with subscribers, you don’t just want a number—you want a new reader for your books. How do you get them to sign up, buy in, then convert them to become a reader?
Let’s start with step one. How do you get them to sign up?
If you are someone like Karen Kingsbury, then the answer is easy—you just offer them a little of you (SEE PART 2). But I am guessing most of the readers here don’t have that type of reach. So, what do you have to offer?
There are several things you can offer but what I feel is the most effective is a book.
A whole book?
Yup. Why do the samples at Sam’s club or Costco work? You are hungry and they are offering you food. You like the food. You buy the food.
Same with readers. They are hungry for a good story. You give them a small story. If it is good enough, they will hunger for more. And if the story leads into one of your full-length novels, then they may convert into a regular reader as they want to read more of your stories.
There is no magical length, but I give away a 45K novella. Could I sell it? Yup. And actually, I did for a while on KU. (But I had to take it off my newsletter when I did that) However, I have given away over 5000 copies of P.S. Goodbye. That means 5000 people signed up for my newsletter, and those 5000 moved from a subscriber to a reader.
And when you have a book to giveaway you can get involved with BookFunnel promotions that are for authors giving away books for subscribers. You all share and your book gets seen by new eyes. New potential readers.
5000? But Tari, I thought you said you had 7000 subscribers.
Yes, not all of my subscribers have come from signing up for the book. About half have come from group giveaways like Ryan Zee at BookSweeps, Rafflecopter, or KingSumo. Ryan Zee is a paid promo where he does all the work. It was a good investment once or twice. After that I was getting fewer new addresses.
Rafflecopter and KingSumo can be run by anyone and I usually run the ones I am in. I find authors who have similar books and have a similar audience. I set it up, create graphics, and we all share. We all send a book to the winner and walk away with 200-1500 new email addresses. I have done four so far and average about 1400 signups each time. I prefer KingSumo to simplify the signup rather than Rafflecopter that has a bunch of different tasks. The simpler I make it, the better the turnout is.
My last bit of advice when it comes to growing numbers—don’t be afraid of the unsubscribe but be prepared for it.
I expect a 1-2% unsubscribe rate for every email I send out. And if I have 7000 subscribers, I can expect 70-140 people to unsubscribe with each email. If you just look at the number it can feel depressing. 140 people didn’t like my email enough to read another. No. You can’t look at it that way. 1-2% is normal. If you are getting above 2% often, then you may want to reevaluate your format but expect the 1-2%.
That being said, you also have to prepare for it. By that, I mean if I don’t do anything to grow my list in 2022, then I will not end the year with 7000 subscribers. It will be closer to 6000. I must take this into consideration as I make goals for growth. If I want to start 2023 with 8000 subscribers, then I need to try and add 2000 subscribers this year, not 1000.
What about you? What has been your most effective way to find subscribers?
Leah Williams is back in the quaint town of Heritage, Michigan, and ready to try again to make her business a success. But blank slates are hard to come by, and a piece of her past is waiting for her there. Heir to the Heritage Fruits company, Jonathan Kensington is the guy who not only made Leah’s past difficult, he also seems determined to complicate her present as well.
Jon is trying to prove to the Heritage Fruits board that he, not his manipulative uncle, should be running the business. The board insists Jon find a new owner for the building that will house Leah’s business. To avoid forcing a buyout of Leah’s part of the building, Jon strikes a compromise with Leah, and the two go into business together. With her vision and his know-how, it might work. And Leah might realize he’s loved her since high school. If only he didn’t keep on shooting himself in the foot by boxing her out of important decisions.
Sparks fly in this romantic story of two people who must learn to trust both each other and the one who called them to this journey.
Available now for preorder! And visit linktr.ee/tarifaris to sign up for preorder rewards!
Tari Faris has been writing fiction for fifteen years but has been creating fiction in her head as long as she can remember. She is represented by Wendy Lawton at Books & Such Literary Management and is a member of ACFW and My Book Therapy. She was the 2017 Genesis winner, 2016 Genesis finalist, and 2014 Genesis finalist. In addition to her writing, she also works for My Book Therapy as a special project manager and writes for LearnHowToWriteANovel.com . When she is not writing or working, she spends time with her amazing husband and kids. In her free time, she loves coffee, rockhounding with her husband and kids, and distracting herself from housework. You can connect with her at www.tarifaris.com