The power of deleting people! - Lets talk newsletters!

[idontknowyet]

So recently i discovered something interesting and new (to me).

The less people i have the more engaged my audience is.
Since i started a newsletter, my driving force has been to add as many people as possible. I here about people with 5,10 even 25k subs for their newsletter and i want to get there asap me. I've been hustling joining newsletter promos and even paying for ads on fb to build my newsletter. And it grew but as it grew my engagement was actually shrinking and so was my click rate.

Thinking the problem was me, i decided to make my newsletter more engaging. (before all i did was new release and look at these books you might wanna read by other people). The new format helped a bit, but i was still wasn't making any major gains.
What i had never done was delete people, because people are always opportunities to possibly sell something in the future.

Why i have no idea, but i suddenly decided what i'm doing isn't working lets start deleting the people that never open anyway.

Boy did that make an insane difference. My open rate has increased every newsletter. I'm up from a 15-18% open rate to over 30% and my engagement went from 2-3% clicks to almost 6%.

Deleting people helps.

Do you have any other newsletter tips?

[TimothyEllis]

How many people did you delete from how many?

[idontknowyet]

How many people did you delete from how many?

ive been hovering around 1k no matter what i seemed to do. deleted almost 400.

[Post-Crisis D]

Open rate is typically determined by whether or not the recipient's eMail client downloads the tracking image embedded in the message.  People like me have their eMail clients configured to reject trackers like that.  Thus, senders need to be cautious because deleting people that show as not "opening" their messages might end up deleting actual buyers who do open but have privacy enabled.

[idontknowyet]

Open rate is typically determined by whether or not the recipient's eMail client downloads the tracking image embedded in the message.  People like me have their eMail clients configured to reject trackers like that.  Thus, senders need to be cautious because deleting people that show as not "opening" their messages might end up deleting actual buyers who do open but have privacy enabled.

See i worry about that too.
But % wise how many people really do that? I have a group of 65+ older women as an audience.

Maybe i should put a note if you don't click on something occasionally you will be removed from this list?

[TimothyEllis]

How many people did you delete from how many?

ive been hovering around 1k no matter what i seemed to do. deleted almost 400.

That changes the percentages, but not the engagement in real numbers.

So the perception is better, but the actual numbers remain the same.

[idontknowyet]

How many people did you delete from how many?

ive been hovering around 1k no matter what i seemed to do. deleted almost 400.

That changes the percentages, but not the engagement in real numbers.

So the perception is better, but the actual numbers remain the same.

I thought that too, but the actually number of clicks and opens have increased. 150-180 opening before whereas todays is over 206 and if it follows my normal opening ill get about 10-20 more people in the next few days.

[Wonder]

Open rate is typically determined by whether or not the recipient's eMail client downloads the tracking image embedded in the message.  People like me have their eMail clients configured to reject trackers like that.  Thus, senders need to be cautious because deleting people that show as not "opening" their messages might end up deleting actual buyers who do open but have privacy enabled.

I'm one of those people too, and I've learned to hate the "resend campaign" feature in Mailchimp because authors keep sending me the same newsletter twice. I end up unsubscribing because every month I get two of the same newsletter.

[idontknowyet]

Wish there was a way of putting people that block trackers on a seperate list so we dont delete them.

[LilyBLily]

Once a year I simply ask people who haven't opened anything in many months to officially open the newsletter to confirm they want to stay on the list. That's one click that commits them to nothing. If they don't do it, they're out.

Also, every email I send out results in 20 people unsubscribing, which is an easier way of cleaning the list.

I still have several thousand on the list, but as to whether they are "engaged" or even bother to buy my books, I have severe doubts.

One good thing about the recent surge in offering extended epilogues. I can now offer a couple thousand cheap words about characters I already know--describe the wedding dress, and so on--as a bonus for subscribing instead of having to write 20k words of a brand new novella. That's a win.

[idontknowyet]

That's the cool thing. My unsubs have dropped to almost zero. Was having 15-25 a newsletter. Now I have the initial freebie seekers unsub the first email and almost no other unsubs. Think I've had 2 across the last 3 newsletters.

[DmGuay]

I cut people. Very carefully.

But, I also am very careful about who I add. In the beginning, I wanted everyone and anyone. Now, I don't. I'd rather have a smaller, more engaged list than thousands of randos. I only get my people from signups in my books and from my website. I'm not interested in converting casuals into fans. I'm interested in people who have already read one of my books, know what I'm about, and want more.

I don't do newsletter swaps of any kind, not even in my book recommendations inside the newsletter. It hasn't hurt me. If anything, it's made my list better and the trust/engagement better.

[alhawke]

I'm very aggressive at building my newsletter audience, but I'm concerned that it might get too big. I don't like the idea of paying when I reach over 2k on Mailchimp--I welcome any ideas from you guys out there to keep things affordable. I'm getting close. I'm at around 1600 (of course, 250 were either cut or left, but those count too). Anyway, more to the subject, I delete those 2 stars after six to nine months.

[Post-Crisis D]

I'm very aggressive at building my newsletter audience, but I'm concerned that it might get too big. I don't like the idea of paying when I reach over 2k on Mailchimp--I welcome any ideas from you guys out there to keep things affordable. I'm getting close.

Try the self-hosted version of PHPList.

[alhawke]

I'll look into it. Thanks!

[Marti Talbott]

Well, I do my own mailing list. I have a signup on my website and compose my list on an excel sheet. I discovered how to make a template in Gmail, and send my newsletters out myself. However, I don't have anyway of knowing who opens/reads the email except --- I always include this line at the end of my message. "To unsubscribe, simply send me a return email." I get at least three or four unsubscribe requests each time, so I know some people are reading them.

One thing I learned is to watch what I say in the subject line. "The say" that if you say something like "Thank you for subscribing," etc., it keeps it out of the spam box. I don't know if that's true or not, but hey, it's worth a try.

if you want to know about do-it-yourself templates in Gmail, go here: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-set-up-and-use-email-templates-in-gmail-1172103

[Crystal]

Once a year I simply ask people who haven't opened anything in many months to officially open the newsletter to confirm they want to stay on the list. That's one click that commits them to nothing. If they don't do it, they're out.

Also, every email I send out results in 20 people unsubscribing, which is an easier way of cleaning the list.

I still have several thousand on the list, but as to whether they are "engaged" or even bother to buy my books, I have severe doubts.

One good thing about the recent surge in offering extended epilogues. I can now offer a couple thousand cheap words about characters I already know--describe the wedding dress, and so on--as a bonus for subscribing instead of having to write 20k words of a brand new novella. That's a win.

I give people a Google Form to fill out if they'd like to stay on the list.

If they're opening but the service isn't registering their opens for some reason, it won't matter if they open the goodbye email or not. (Same for clicks).

I usually get 30-40 people out of 1k filing out the form.

I'm very aggressive at building my newsletter audience, but I'm concerned that it might get too big. I don't like the idea of paying when I reach over 2k on Mailchimp--I welcome any ideas from you guys out there to keep things affordable. I'm getting close. I'm at around 1600 (of course, 250 were either cut or left, but those count too). Anyway, more to the subject, I delete those 2 stars after six to nine months.

Don't go cheap on your list. It's the best money you'll spend anywhere. Prune if that's working sure, but don't prune just to stay in the free tier.

[LilyBLily]

Interesting point about opens not registering. Alas, I did not realize that.

I doubt it matters much in the long run, since most of the people on my list got there from contests and are simply too lazy to unsubscribe unless I annoy them by sending them a newsletter.

This whole newsletter thing is kind of an exercise in folly, or call it a delusion or a waste of time and money or a boondoggle. Take your pick. Spend money on a mailing company, spend money buying into a contest to get names, send emails few people want to receive, write novellas few people bother to pick up and by the way spend money on the novella cover and copyright and an ISBN and maybe on formatting, too. I'm keeping myself very busy, but it's pointless; those people have never read my books and only wanted to win a free Kindle in a contest and now they won't even read the free novellas I offer them. I know I'm supposed to woo them, and I do, but it's pretty obviously not a successful endeavor because they really wanted nothing to do with me in the first place; they wanted a Kindle.

I enjoyed writing the novellas and I may write more, but I don't think I'm going to be so free with them in the future. I quite like the idea of an extended epilogue instead. The only people likely to want those are people who have read the book, so the person signing up is a much higher quality list member than the ones garnered from contests who are supposed to be wooed. Boo on wooing! 

[idontknowyet]

Do you do book funnel promos?

The only thing people get there is your book for free. I too thought the only productive purpose for newsletters was to do swaps. And swaps are still pretty amazing. But i've been working on creating interesting content and its been working. I'm going to start putting the deleted scenes on book funnel that seems soo much easier than what i do now.

[LilyBLily]

I did a lot of BookFunnel promos last year because they were free and held the promise of using narrowly targeted categories. Unfortunately, BookFunnel refuses to change its categories and includes "active erotica" (what the heck is that?) in "romance," so unless the person doing the promo made it very clear that this was "clean, sweet only," some skeevy covers showed up. I didn't want to promote them to my list, but the only way to know if such covers were going to show up was to check what the promoter posted, and sometimes that info was not available. Also, often there was no simple way to access a promo graphic and I had to email to ask for it. Time wasters.

Aside from promoting to my newsletter, my only social media is Facebook and I could tell that FB was suppressing all my author page posts. (My profile page is mostly read by a non-romance-reading audience.) So I felt I wasn't helping the promos much since my list wasn't going to buy sexy romances and my FB notices were being suppressed. The whole point of doing these promos was to promote without paying for ads, so of course I wasn't going to boost my FB posts.

All that, and the promos were not selling my books. It was worth a try and I did it for many months, but in my opinion for me it was a failure. I didn't particularly like letting down the promoters, either, with my lack of fabulous media reach. The increasing threats from some promoters weren't much fun, either, even though my share score was decent enough.

[Hopscotch]

I keep mulling over setting up a newsletter but am not convinced it can be worth the time and cost, at least for my genres - war and Westerns (and, well, anything else that appeals to me).  This thread makes me doubt its efficacy altogether.

However, I particularly would like to draw reader attn to my war novels b/c they carry the msg "I went to war for no good reason and don't you be that stupid."  But am having trouble finding a way to reach the military-age/ adventurous-spirited/ youthful-inexperienced target audience.  Don't see that group subscribing to newsletters.  Now if I could advertise on beer cans...

[DmGuay]

I keep mulling over setting up a newsletter but am not convinced it can be worth the time and cost, at least for my genres - war and Westerns (and, well, anything else that appeals to me).  This thread makes me doubt its efficacy altogether.

However, I particularly would like to draw reader attn to my war novels b/c they carry the msg "I went to war for no good reason and don't you be that stupid."  But am having trouble finding a way to reach the military-age/ adventurous-spirited/ youthful-inexperienced target audience.  Don't see that group subscribing to newsletters.  Now if I could advertise on beer cans...

A newsletter is totally worth it. I was skeptical at first, but now I am experiencing the true magic. It is a powerful tool. I wish I had realized that sooner.

[TimothyEllis]

A newsletter is totally worth it. I was skeptical at first, but now I am experiencing the true magic. It is a powerful tool. I wish I had realized that sooner.

I tried that, and started losing people rapidly.

Now my list is purely for book announcements. and I say that on the sign up form.

[Eric Thomson]

Now my list is purely for book announcements. and I say that on the sign up form.

Ditto.

[idontknowyet]

I definitely think there are some differences with genre and target audiences for newsletters.

[Anarchist]

I keep mulling over setting up a newsletter but am not convinced it can be worth the time and cost, at least for my genres - war and Westerns (and, well, anything else that appeals to me).  This thread makes me doubt its efficacy altogether.

Don't think of email marketing in the context of newsletters.

Newsletters are boring. Email should be fun and exciting. "Boring" punishes your audience for opening, reading, and clicking. "Fun and exciting" rewards them.

[Post-Crisis D]

It might be helpful to define "newsletter" because different people have different ideas as to what constitutes a newsletter.

My newsletter is typically between 16 and 28 pages, though the last couple have been two-pagers.  I try to have at least four short stories per issue.  (Obviously, the two-pagers did not.)  Sometimes some informative articles.  In the larger ones, I basically just stick in an ad for my books and the bulk of it is articles and stories.  Also have a letters to the editor section and all that.

An author friend, whose list I'm on, does hers similarly.  Hers are about 10 pages typically.  I don't recall her doing stories.  She does some informative articles related to her genre and sometimes movie reviews/recommendations.

So, that's what I see as a newsletter.  But, from what I've seen, I guess this isn't the most common definition when other authors talk about their "newsletter."

[Crystal]

It might be helpful to define "newsletter" because different people have different ideas as to what constitutes a newsletter.

My newsletter is typically between 16 and 28 pages, though the last couple have been two-pagers.  I try to have at least four short stories per issue.  (Obviously, the two-pagers did not.)  Sometimes some informative articles.  In the larger ones, I basically just stick in an ad for my books and the bulk of it is articles and stories.  Also have a letters to the editor section and all that.

Yeah, that is way too long, unless readers specifically sign up for an informative newsletter.

I try to keep it to under 500 words/ under three announcements, but I often include more.

I do need to prune my NL and rework my NL strategies soon, but that is part of a larger rebranding effort I plan to take after I've finished my current series

[Lorri Moulton]

I keep mulling over setting up a newsletter but am not convinced it can be worth the time and cost, at least for my genres - war and Westerns (and, well, anything else that appeals to me).  This thread makes me doubt its efficacy altogether.

Don't think of email marketing in the context of newsletters.

Newsletters are boring. Email should be fun and exciting. "Boring" punishes your audience for opening, reading, and clicking. "Fun and exciting" rewards them.

Exactly!  Many newsletters I've seen fall into the 'buy my book' boring side.  I'm not saying it doesn't work...it probably does.  But I prefer the fun and exciting newsletters. 
The key is to figure out how to do them, and we all have to find what works for us. 

[Post-Crisis D]

Yeah, that is way too long, unless readers specifically sign up for an informative newsletter.

I promised subscribers "new stories and stuff" and, when I made the change to start sending a newsletter as opposed to just an eMail, I notified existing subscribers ahead of time regarding the changes.  The first year of the change, I released a new newsletter each month along with a bonus holiday issue.  There was no huge increase in unsubscribes.  Kind of burned myself out doing it monthly though, so I haven't done it monthly for a few years now.

[alhawke]

My newsletter is typically between 16 and 28 pages, though the last couple have been two-pagers. 

Mine are 1 page. I send out news on upcoming releases and ads on book fairs or free book newsletter swaps monthly. We all do them differently, indeed.
I'd love to do the add-content thing, and I think it's fantastic that you do that, but I'm not a fan of writing short stories or bonus material. This could always change.

It's funny. When I looked up how to publish a few years ago, writing a newsletter was the one thing I abhorred. I still don't love it. I'm warmer to it now. I like connecting to fans. And I have a lot of fun making my 1 page news eye-catching using Canva.

[Lynn]

I like my email list, but I use it for announcements only. If I had to write something for it as a real newsletter, let's just say it'd never get done, and I'd never send one.

[Anarchist]

My newsletter is typically between 16 and 28 pages, though the last couple have been two-pagers.  I try to have at least four short stories per issue.  (Obviously, the two-pagers did not.)  Sometimes some informative articles.  In the larger ones, I basically just stick in an ad for my books and the bulk of it is articles and stories.  Also have a letters to the editor section and all that.

Different strokes for different folks. It ultimately depends on your audience.

A different take: I've been subbed to a colleague's weekly email newsletter since the early aughts. The main body of each "issue" is 180 words. Sometimes, it's 181. Rarely, 182.

I read it as soon as I receive it. I treasure brevity.

[JRTomlin]

I cut people. Very carefully.

But, I also am very careful about who I add. In the beginning, I wanted everyone and anyone. Now, I don't. I'd rather have a smaller, more engaged list than thousands of randos. I only get my people from signups in my books and from my website. I'm not interested in converting casuals into fans. I'm interested in people who have already read one of my books, know what I'm about, and want more.

I don't do newsletter swaps of any kind, not even in my book recommendations inside the newsletter. It hasn't hurt me. If anything, it's made my list better and the trust/engagement better.

I agree with this philosophy. Early on I did some swaps, etc. and ended up with a pretty large list of people who had no interest in my books. Might one of them buy at some time? Sure, just like I (an old granny) might go out and buy a Ducati Panigale V4 R, but don't hold your breath for it. In the meantime, you are paying to have them on your list if there are any number of them.

I did some heavy chopping of people who never opened with no regret whatsoever. Now I only solicit people to join my list at the end of my novels with a link to my website where they get a free ebook (that is not available elsewhere) for signing up. My open rate still isn't quite as high as I'd like but it ranges between 45-55% and a click rate between 6-15%.

Now twice a year I go through and delete anyone who shows as not having opened or clicked in six months and I don't have to cut that many, so I don't worry that I am hurting sales by doing so.

So that's just my half-dozen cents on the subject. 🤷‍♀️

ETA: My email is rarely more than one page or two at the most. I stick to maybe an ad if I have a special going on, a cover-reveal, when to expect a new novel, occasionally some interesting historical anecdote or a very short sample. I definitely do not do 'chatty'. My particular audience seems to like it that way.

[LilyBLily]

We're very busy churning, and we're paying money for the privilege, but what is the benefit? For some people, they work, but that's not because the newsletters are perfectly timed or constantly have freebies or are charming. It's because readers like the stories they write and want to read their books.

One exception. I keep staying on some marketers' newsletter lists because I find them amusing. I'll never buy their courses or whatever else they offer, but I enjoy reading their pitches.

[Marti Talbott]

I keep mulling over setting up a newsletter but am not convinced it can be worth the time and cost, at least for my genres - war and Westerns (and, well, anything else that appeals to me).  This thread makes me doubt its efficacy altogether.

However, I particularly would like to draw reader attn to my war novels b/c they carry the msg "I went to war for no good reason and don't you be that stupid."  But am having trouble finding a way to reach the military-age/ adventurous-spirited/ youthful-inexperienced target audience.  Don't see that group subscribing to newsletters.  Now if I could advertise on beer cans...

A newsletter is totally worth it. I was skeptical at first, but now I am experiencing the true magic. It is a powerful tool. I wish I had realized that sooner.

What specifically do you do that makes your newsletter lead to books sales?

[JRTomlin]

Other than not wanting to miss a favourite author's new novels, etc., I think that some people feel a slightly closer connection being on a newsletter than following on Amazon or Bookbub. And of course, not all retailers have a 'follow' option. I do get quite a few sales from my newsletter. They might buy anyway, but they might forget or not know about new novels otherwise.

I think it does increase sales to tweak people's interest in a coming novel with a couple of pages of a sample and cover reveal in the period before a new novel. Or it seems to help mine anyway.