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There’s nothing wrong with paid advertising, if you know what you’re doing. But with an email list, you’re going to deliver to every subscriber, every time, and nobody can charge you more and more just because they’ve noticed your audience is growing.
I released a new book and shared it with my friends on Facebook.
As soon as I dropped the link, Facebook said, “Hey, somebody’s trying to make money! Getting the word out is going to cost you!” Suddenly, my reach went from a simple post with a cute picture of a turtle getting me a hundred likes, to a post that’s really important to me, getting only . . . five. That’s not because my Facebook friends aren’t interested in my books! It’s because Facebook is keeping them from seeing those special posts, unless I’m willing to pay.
With email, you can share a monthly newsletter or blast something out to your list every day in an attempt to shrink your list down to only the people who REALLY care (not that I’m recommending that). Social media contacts are hit and miss, when you’ve built an email list, you have access to that list forever. The next time you launch a book, that list is yours. You can put it in every single email inbox.
If all you want to do is sell books, a simple program like Mailchimp or Mailerlite will do. I personally prefer Mailerlite because when your list exceeds 1000 or 2500, it costs less. I use Mailerlite for my work as an independent author. When my new books come out, I let my Mailerlite list know about it.
However, if the main reason you’ve written a book is to build credibility in your business, for example, as a coach or speaker, and your ultimate goal is to find paying speaking gigs or bring people into paid coaching groups or 1:1 client relationships, you will need a more robust system, such as a customer relationship management tool, or CRM. At Victory Vision, we love our relationship with The Pulse Spot. Not only can we use “Pulse” to do newsletters and individual emails, we can also track when to follow up with authors. It’s a better tool if your book is a means to another end, selling your services. That’s why it is a better email tool for coaches and speakers, because it includes the ability to set appointment or follow-up reminders.
If you need to be able to gather email addresses and build a sales CRM, too, we recommend The Pulse Spot for authors who are developing their service businesses. Yes, we’re also affiliated with Pulse, but if we weren’t having a great experience, we wouldn’t recommend them!
Interested in talking? Contact adam@victoryvision.org for a conversation and there’s a good chance he’ll send you a book after you’ve chatted!
Book a complimentary consult with him here: https://calendly.com/adamfleming/vvp
Adam G. Fleming, PCC, has been working in leadership/executive coaching since 2007. He published his first novel in 2012 and his first book on coaching (The Art of Motivational Listening, Entrust Source Publishing) in 2015. He now has 16 titles available on Amazon. He is the CEO and lead ghostwriter for Victory Vision Publishing, Inc.
