Last week I told you about how I had dropped the ball on my author marketing. Mainly, my list. I do some light IG and TT marketing, but my newsletter is the main source of income for my books.

My re-entry into the publishing world has been going well. I write part-time so the output is slow right now, but consistent. I've written 3K in 2 weeks which isn't much for most, but more than I wrote in the past 6 months in the fiction space.

So, you might be wondering, how am I planning on getting back into the good graces of both my subscribers and my algorithm? Last week I outlined my goals and process plans. This week, I'm giving you a look at the first email that I sent out.

This email had an open rate of 65% and a click rate of 3.3%. I get asked a lot about benchmarks for our industry. I don't like to offer them up because I'm a believer in benchmarking against myself and not the industry, but know that those metrics are exactly where I want to be.

So, how did I take well over 6 months off AND weather the Google/Yahoo updates and still send my first email with a high deliverability score?

I have a healthy list. Actually, I have had healthy list practices for years. It's the best thing you can do to prepare for a time frame when you just can't write emails.

A healthy list allows you to get back in the game that much faster.

So, what is a healthy list?

1. Cutting the dead weight. Ruthlessly taking emotion out of the equation and replacing it with data and letting go of the non-performers on your list.
2. Staying consistent with your emails, regardless of the sending frequency. I was a weekly or bi-weekly sender since I started using emails.
3. Keep on top of DMARC, SPF and DKIM records, always making sure they're in place.
4. Keeping an eye on your unsub, spam and bounce rates and enlisting your email service provider for help when something seems off.
5. Never buy a list. Ever.
6. Test my new subs with a welcome sequence. I always run them through a sequence to ensure they are familiar with me and to prime their algorithm to receive my emails.

It's not too hard. It's just building a system of best practices and bravely putting quality above quantity. Set your ego aside and test, test, and test again and then cull.

We're going to step away from my new baby list growth and come back to it in early 2025 to check on my progress. Starting later this month, we'll be working on a holiday email plan because it's arrived and being ready for it works a lot better than trying figure it out as you go.

For those who want to have a look at my first ghosting email, here you go!

​https://prodigious-teacher-186.ck.page/posts/i-suppose-this-month-ghosting-is-appropriate​

Happy Emailing,

Holly

How's your segmentation game?

It's time for our last LIVE workshop of 2024, Segmentation Mastered in 45 Minutes.

We'll divide the workshop up into 2 segments. (See what I did there?)

Segment One: Simple Segmentation

Segment Two: Segmentation For Strategy

Segment two is where the magic starts to happen. I'll be demonstrating with my own list and offer up two case studies to walk you through on both Kit and Mailerlite. But it doesn't matter what platform I demonstrate on, these strategies can be implemented anywhere.

Segmentation is the key to unlocking the power of email lists so you won't want to miss this one. All skill levels will be taught to. And I have a huge bonus for this month alone.

When you register, you'll receive a coupon code to grab Subject Lines For Authors, my mini-workshop for FREE!

Agenda:

1. I'm going to show you three case studies from small lists to large lists. Spoiler alert...the strategy and methods are identical. With large lists, this is the most important method to get your list to perform.
2. We'll move on looking at the "how" to get it done. I'll demonstrate in Kit and Mailerlite Classic.
3. I'll take any questions you have regarding email marketing.

Bonus: I've got a Google doc that has my segmentation business plan on it for you to keep and use for your own planning purposes.

​Click here to register for the October 23rd workshop!​

​

​

​