Why I Chose MailerLite for my Author Newsletter

By Christine Dillon

In June 2016 I set up my author website. I did this because I was paying attention to what the more experienced authors were saying about having a platform. Having been a missionary since 1999 I’m used to writing monthly prayer letters but I soon realised I needed a separate ‘author’s newsletter’ because those supporting Taiwan and the ministry happening here didn’t necessarily sign up for hearing all about my fiction writing. I thought I could manage a quarterly newsletter and now had to think about how to send it out.

I don’t recall checking out any option other than MailChimp because that was what everyone in my network suggested and I was familiar with receiving prayer letters via MailChimp. I wish now that I had researched a little more because of course what is required for an author’s newsletter is different to what a missionary prayer letter requires.

Although MailChimp was perfectly good for starting out it has some limitations on its free subscriptions. It is fine for gaining subscribers and gathering information …but it has two main limitations that became obvious to me.

I wanted to have both a sidebar sign up AND a pop up. 

The problem was that on the free MailChimp the maximum pop-up delay asking people to sign up was only 5 seconds. It is tremendously annoying to have only spent 5 seconds on a website and then be asked to sign up. How many visitors might have subscribed if they’d had time to spend 10 minutes on the site first but were turned off by the aggressive demand to sign up now.

The second problem with the free MC was that there was no free automation when I signed up. 

That option had to be paid for (update: MailChimp now allow free automation for up to 2,000 subscribers). I didn’t know enough to know this would be a problem. I’d written my first few newsletters as a continuous story of how I came to write (starting with non-fiction) and then how the fiction journey started, and I wanted new subscribers to know that information. The only way to do that was to send those first two newsletters manually.

But if I didn’t do it a day apart I was likely to forget. I quickly saw the need for an automated ‘welcome’ series of emails.

During early 2017 I was also listening to lots of podcasts about growing your email list and other marketing/platform sort of podcasts. They mentioned various names of email marketing platforms. 4 names came up consistently. MailChimp, Aweber, Convertkit and MailerLite. I started comparing them and MailerLite seemed to suit all my needs. BUT I dreaded having to change over. What a hassle to have to relearn another system and transfer all my subscribers across.

What I did was send my quarterly newsletter from MailChimp first so that I had 3 months before the next newsletter was due to make my changeover if I wanted to. Meanwhile I signed up for MailerLite and began playing around with designing the newsletter and the automated series. I was convinced fairly quickly because:

• MailerLite had a wonderful series of short videos to explain each step
• When I asked a question on live chat I was answered within five minutes and the issue was sorted out very quickly
• Their drag and drop newsletter designer was easy to use.
• Everything could be slowly set up before making it go live.

I still dreaded the changeover but a few more things prompted me to do it. Although they only allow 1,000 subscribers before you have to pay (MailChimp allows 2000) their monthly costs are only half the cost of MailChimp. My list is up to 220 but it has built slowly even though I have a start that most people don’t with 500 supporters who receive my prayer letters. I doubt I’m going to reach 1,000 before I have a book to sell. The pop-up feature on MailerLite was completely adaptable and you could delay it as long as you want.

As with many things you fear in life, the actual changeover was easy. 

I didn’t even have to paste any programming into my wordpress.org blog. Once again MailerLite gave me step by step instructions and I didn’t even need their expert on live chat to help. The subscribers were moved across easily and MailerLite automatically deletes any duplicates.

The day after the changeover I’m delighted I made the move. The automated series is fully adaptable and I currently have five emails being sent out over six weeks.

MailChimp has now announced that they will free automation as well—I suspect because too many people were changing to MailerLite. However, I still prefer MailerLite because of their wonderful online (almost instant) customer service, better pop-ups and their free landing page feature. I still don't fully understand landing pages but plan to look into that soon.

About Christine Dillon

Christine never intended to become an author. The only kind of writing she wondered if she might do was biography. However, it was a surprise to her to write poetry, non-fiction and now be working on a novel which she plans to self-publish in November.

Christine was a physiotherapist but now she writes ‘storyteller’ on any airport forms. She can legitimately claim to be this as she has written a book on storytelling and spends much of her time either telling Bible stories or training others to do so from her base in southern Taiwan.

In her spare time Christine loves all things active – hiking, cycling, swimming, snorkeling. But she also likes reading and genealogical research, as that satisfies her desire to be an historical detective.


You can find Christine online at:

www.storytellerchristine.com  

www.storyingthescriptures.com (for Bible storytelling) 

https://www.facebook.com/storytellerchristine/

Five Ways to Build Your Author Email List (and One Way Not To)

By Iola Goulton

Over the last year, Australasian Christian Writers has had several posts on author platform and marketing. We’ve had posts on the importance of building your author brand and platform. We’ve had high-level how-to lists on building your author brand and website, or building your author platform.

And we’ve posted on the importance of having a website (a must-have), a blog (a maybe), and an email list.

But is an email list a must-have or a maybe?

I think it’s a must-have, as I explained in Do Authors Need an Email List? And all the book marketing experts I follow agree. Chris Syme says:

And that leads to the subject of today’s post: How does an author build their list?

First, Don't Do This:

Don't add people you know to a list on Word or Excel or Gmail or Hotmail, then email them. 

I’ve received these emails. I even saw it recommended in a marketing book a few years ago, that authors “add people you know to your opt-in list”. Yes, this author was ahead of the times in actually having a newsletter list, but did she not understand the meaning of the words “opt in”?

Adding people to your list without their permission is against the law.

You can only email people who have given you permission to email them (which is where Seth Godin’s phrase ‘permission marketing’ comes from). And you must give people the option to unsubscribe.

As I’ve said before, the best way to ensure your email list complies with relevant laws is to use one of the major email list providers, such as Aweber Email Marketing, MadMimi, MailChimp or MailerLite.

Instead:

1. Email and Ask

Email friends you think would be interested in joining your newsletter list, and ask if they’ll sign up. You don’t have to rely on email. You could also send a text message or Facebook DM, Tweet them … even talk to them. The point is that you’re asking for permission.

And they can sign up though the link you provide (which you’ll get from your mailing list provider), or you can add them directly into your mailing list. But only with their permission.

2. Ask at Events

Ask for newsletter sign-ups if you’re speaking at an event, such as a writer’s conference or retreat, or a book launch. The less technical among us have a physical sign-up sheet, then add people to the list manually. A more technical person could have a QR code on a bookmark, or a PC/tablet so people can enter their own data.

3. Ask Online

Use a plugin such as Bloom or SumoMe to prompt website visitors to sign up for your email list. Pin a post on Twitter. Add a sign up button to your Facebook page. Include a link to your signup form in the bio you use for guest posts.

Friends, family and colleagues may well agree to sign up for your newsletter just because you asked them. But strangers are unlikely to give you their email address unless there’s something in it for them.

That ‘something’ is a giveaway of some kind—my subscriptions did increase when I started offering new subscribers a gift (I offer a list of Christian publishers for my Christian Editing Services list, and a list of my favourite Christian authors for my Author list).

4. Host a Giveaway

A lot of blogs host giveaways, but most are of the ‘leave a comment to be in the draw to win’ variety. That isn’t helpful for collecting email addresses—no one wants to leave their real email address in a blog comment. But authors can use tools such as Rafflecopter or KingSumo to run giveaways where they collect email addresses in exchange for an entry.

But I’ve found having a giveaway isn’t enough. It has to be promoted. And that’s where my final suggestion comes in:

5. Join a Cross-Promotion

A cross-promotion is where you join forces with other authors to host a giveaway. There is generally some cost involved in this, as setting up and hosting the giveaway takes time, effort, and technical know-how. But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, as it means it’s not just you promoting your giveaway—all the other authors involved will be promoting it as well, which means you’ll get in front of a lot more people.

Today is the last day of my first-ever cross-promotion, joining 17 other authors in an Instafreebie promotion of non-fiction books for writers.

I’m thrilled with the results. 

I started the promotion with 142 people on my Christian Editing Services list, and I’d doubled that within the first two days of the promotion. And that’s with my hyper-niche title. A couple of authors, whose books had broader appeal, added over 1,000 people to their lists.

At the time of writing, 355 people had downloaded my free ebook, and I’d added 325 to my newsletter list. Some people downloaded the book and immediately unsubscribed. That’s okay—I’m on MailChimp’s paid plan, which means I pay more to have more subscribers. I don’t want to be paying for people who don’t want to hear from me.

Click here if you’d like to sign up to my newsletter list. Or click here to see the 18 books in the cross-promotion. But be quick: it finishes today (well, it actually finishes at midnight Sunday, But I’m not sure in what time zone).

I’ll be back next week to talk more about giveaways and cross promotions.

Meanwhile, do you have an email list? What mailing list provider do you use? What’s the most successful way you’ve found of building your email list?

About Iola Goulton

I am a freelance editor specialising in Christian fiction. Visit my website at www.christianediting.co.nz to download a comprehensive list of publishers of Christian fiction. 

I also write contemporary Christian romance with a Kiwi twist—find out more atwww.iolagoulton.com.

You can also find me on:
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