Book marketing via email: blind copy and newsletters

On March 25, 2014 | 3 Comments | Book marketing tips, News & Events |

Every month or so, I receive an email from a friendly indie author (whom I met just once) about an upcoming book signing for his novel. The events are always several thousand miles away from where I live, but I admire his efforts to promote his book.

Unfortunately, however, his messages regularly make me cringe.

Why? Because he sends them to dozens of people, all of us on the recipient line of the same email. This not only looks bulky and unprofessional, it is also bound to tick off potential supporters of his work. He also regularly commits another faux pas with his messages, which is to attach enormous PDF files. The last one he sent was nearly 7MB, which dramatically slowed down my small email program.

I always recommend using a free newsletter program such as MailChimp for email marketing campaigns. MailChimp is simple to use and creates a professional impression for your announcements, even if you only have a handful of subscribers. There also are many other email marketing tools to consider out there. These programs allow people to quietly unsubscribe without having to ask you to remove them. While it may sting when they do so, this ensures that your list is comprised of people who truly want to hear from you.

I use MailChimp for my newsletter. Are you subscribed?

If you’re resistant to a newsletter program and still want to use regular email, be sure to use the blind copy (BCC) feature. No one wants his or her email address out there on a massive list that could easily be forwarded and absorbed into questionable email marketing practices. We all get enough spam already.

As an author, you want the people on your email list to root for you, not dread hearing from you, right? Put yourself in their shoes before you send your next message, and that should prevent you from making awkward email missteps.

By the way, I sent out my latest newsletter last night. Click here to have a look.

-Maria

Comments 3

Donna W. Hill Posted April 19, 2014 at4:19 pm Reply

Amen to this! I cringe when I see that string of email addresses in the To field. I used to have some friends who got into forwarding every joke, scare, home remedy and the like to their entire address book. When I pointed out to them how many peple they didn’t know that could potentialy mine their address for spam or worse, they acted like I was speaking a foreign language. Oddly, though, LinkedIn’s compose feature used to have the box to allow recipients to see one another’s addresses checked by default. I know we can see our connections’ connections, but this seems like a bad idea. BTW, I say they “used to” do this, because their site has become increasingly inaccessible to people using screen readers. I can’t access my address book now, so I have to write individual messages — all in all a better idea anyway. Perhaps, they still do this, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they’ve wised up.

Maria Murnane Posted April 28, 2014 at7:56 pm Reply

🙂

Howard Posted April 28, 2014 at7:38 pm Reply

Hi Maria:
Good advice and helpful links. My friends are told frequently to use BCC and if forwarding something, remove all the email addresses if they show up in the top text. It helps keep spammers at bay, and as you said, doesn’t tick off those you are trying to reach.. Probably a good idea for your readers to put that at the bottom of anything they forward or send out.

Thanks for your great newsletters and tips.. Will check out Mailchimp.. Regards, Howard

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