Lead Magnets for Authors
Being a self-published author, it can take time to build an email list of readers. Do I need an email list? I hear you ask. The answer is yes you absolutely do. The best way to build your audience is by offering them freebies. Lead magnet creation can help you grow your audience and sell more books well into the future.
A lead magnet can help you convert potential customers into subscribers and then paying customers. Did you know for every $1 you spend on email marketing and lead generation you get $40 back!
The hard part is creating a lead magnet that readers actually want. You need to entice readers to join your author community and email list and the best way to do this is by offering something they can’t say no to.
If you write romance, a great option is to use a complete story as your lead magnet. This can be a novella length book of either a series or standalone. If you’re just starting out, I would encourage you to try a novella length 30 or 60 page giveaway or you could use the first chapter of your book as the lead magnet.
Authors who have a complete series can give away their first book to get readers onto their mailing list and get them to read the entire series.
Another option for your lead magnet is to have a different alternate ending from one of your most popular books. This could be from the viewpoints of different characters. If you have a completed series you could offer a prequel novella. This works well if a background character never got their own story.
Delivering Your Lead Magnets
When you have decided on your lead magnet, you need to find the best way to deliver it to your subscribers. There are email services you can use to deliver your lead magnet, my preferred email delivery program is Mailerlite. You can also use Book Funnel. Book Funnel has landing pages that are easy to set up and allow you to control who receives your lead magnet. You can set a download limit or an end date, and downloads will be cut off when it’s met. You can also set up bookfunnel so that email addresses captured can integrate straight into your email program.
If you would like to have a chat about email marketing or Bookfunnel management please send me an email alana@thenovelassistant.com or check out our packages page at www.thenovelassistant.com