List Building

February 5, 2023 by in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed with 0 and 0
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Happy February or Love month. I think this is unofficially the romance novel lovers holiday.

Let’s get right to it. I’m not sharing my goals list this year for one reason. I haven’t firmed them up.

This year my post will consist of a little of this and a little of that.

I apologize if this next statement is redundant. When I started my writing career, I didn’t know anything about marketing. I thought you wrote a book, loaded it to Amazon and an influx of sales would appear from the people I never marketed to were just waiting for my book.

It took awhile for me to learn I needed a tribe…followers…subscribers. It wasn’t until around my second or third release did I learn about newsletters. I did a few courses, webinars and read some blog posts on the subject of newsletter building.

I set up a Facebook ad along with a free download and started growing my list. I went from a few hundred to three thousand plus. I don’t know why, but I turned the ad off. Then I tried a few other list building options with some success. My list was growing and I figured it was just be a matter of time for my tribe to be five thousand strong. A number I felt was respectable. Then I started following some really big romance authors, going to conferences, doing more webinars and got a shock. Five thousand subscribers was good, but it was more on the low side. I’m not knocking anyone with a list of five thousand or less, because that’s where I am. At it’s highest my list was around 4400+.

Over the past few years, I’ve seen a major decline in my mailing list. I took another course and remember the teacher saying every time you send an email, you’ll lose some people. How not comforting when you’re trying to build your list. I think I got lax in sending my newsletter because every time I sent a newsletter, I fell victim to subscriber loss. If this continued, in a matter of months my list would be almost non-existent.

I have approximately 1000 people on my list who have opted not to receive email. I think they forgot to check the box to receive email. If anyone has a solution for how to engage them or make them email receivers, please send it to me.

If I wanted to get to my desired number, I needed to do something. I started researching NL swaps, list builders, anything that would help grow my list. There was just one little problem when it came to some of the larger or premium list swaps, low subscriber count knocked me out. I can’t be upset because it only made sense. Why would someone with 20k subs want to swap with someone who only had 3k? That plan was shot to poo poo.

New year same goal, get my list to 10,000 subscribers by the end of the year. I know it’s a lofty goal, but achievable. At the start of the year, my list was 3014 newsletter subscribers. This doesn’t include the 1000 who don’t want to receive emails.

I needed a plan that didn’t cost a lot of money. Apart from Facebook ads and the occasional NL swap, I needed something a little more aggressive. I did some research and discovered Book Funnel. I don’t know how I hadn’t tried their promotions. I’ve used Book Funnel to send ARCs and gifts.

I discovered people had great results with Book Funnel promotions. Plus, the promos were free. How did I not know about this valuable tool? Easy. I never activated the link for newsletter promotions and sales on my account.

In order to do reach my goal, I needed 6986 new subscribers. That’s I needed approximately 583 new subscribers per month for a year.

Here’s my plan…join five Book Funnel promotions a month until I reach my goal. On December 31st my first campaign launched and the others started on January 1st. I checked the numbers several times a day, because I’m a little obsessive. Things were moving along well. Then I sent out a couple of emails and like normal, I lost a few people. I didn’t freak out, because I was gaining new subscribers from the Book Funnel promotions.

In the month of January, the five promotions averaged 30 new subs a day. If I kept up that pace, I’d exceed my goal. As of this post, I have acquired 1100+ new subscribers.

Why am I so adamant about building my list is purely selfish. Building my social media is important, but if those platforms shut down I lose access to the platform’s followers. Remember the Facebook breakdown last year? No access to those readers for a brief period. Imagine if that breakdown had lasted longer. Those followers would be lost to me because they aren’t my people, but the platform’s. My mailing list belongs to me no matter what happens.

A larger list is also the gateway to more sales. I did some hypothetical math and realized if I had a larger mailing list, there was a good likelihood I’d have more preorders from my list. More preorders equals more money.

I have a few questions for you.
How’s your mailing list?
Are you pleased with your mailing list? If not, what are you doing to build your list?

See you next month.

~Tracy

Tracy’s Books

THE GOOD GIRL PART FOUR

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THE GOOD GIRL PART FOUR

THE GOOD GIRL PART FIVE

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THE GOOD GIRL PART FIVE

THE GOOD GIRL Part Trois

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THE GOOD GIRL Part Trois

THE FIX UP

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THE FIX UP

A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

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A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

MISS MATCH

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MISS MATCH

THE GOOD GIRL PART DEUX

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THE GOOD GIRL PART DEUX

WHAT MY FRIENDS NEED TO KNOW

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WHAT MY FRIENDS NEED TO KNOW

WHAT MY FRIENDS DON’T KNOW

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WHAT MY FRIENDS DON’T KNOW

GIRLFRIENDS & SECRETS

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GIRLFRIENDS & SECRETS

DESPERATE DESIRE

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DESPERATE DESIRE

INTENTIONAL CURSE

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INTENTIONAL CURSE

GENERATIONAL CURSE

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GENERATIONAL CURSE

UNEXPECTED LOVE

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UNEXPECTED LOVE
GOD’S BOMBSHELL: LIVING A BEAUTIFUL SINGLE LIFE

LOVE NOTES

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LOVE NOTES

FIRST ENCOUNTERS OF LOVE

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FIRST ENCOUNTERS OF LOVE

THE GOOD GIRL PART ONE

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THE GOOD GIRL PART ONE

THE NIGHT I FELL IN LOVE

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THE NIGHT I FELL IN LOVE

THE FLING

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THE FLING

Author Bio
Author Bio
California native, novelist Tracy Reed pushes the boundaries of her Christian foundation with her sometimes racy and often fiery tales. After years of living in the Big Apple, this self proclaimed New Yorker draws from the city’s imagination, intrigue, and inspiration to cultivate characters and plot lines who breathe life to the words on every page. Tracy’s passion for beautiful fashion and beautiful men direct her vivid creative power towards not only novels, but short stories, poetry, and podcasts. With something for every attention span. Tracy Reed’s ability to capture an audience is unmatched. Her body of work has been described as a host of stimulating adventures and invigorating expression.
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  • I Did A Thing
    Happy February or Love month. I think this is unofficially the romance novel lovers holiday. Let’s get right to it. I’m not sharing my goals list this year for one reason. I haven’t firmed them up. This year my post will consist of a little of this and a little of that. I apologize if […]
  • Tracy Reed: Our September Featured Author

    Tracy Reed’s ability to capture an audience is unmatched. Her body of work has been described as a host of stimulating adventures and invigorating expression.

THE GOOD GIRL PART FOUR

Buy now!
THE GOOD GIRL PART FOUR

THE GOOD GIRL PART FIVE

Buy now!
THE GOOD GIRL PART FIVE

THE GOOD GIRL Part Trois

Buy now!
THE GOOD GIRL Part Trois

THE FIX UP

Buy now!
THE FIX UP

A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

Buy now!
A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN

MISS MATCH

Buy now!
MISS MATCH

THE GOOD GIRL PART DEUX

Buy now!
THE GOOD GIRL PART DEUX

WHAT MY FRIENDS NEED TO KNOW

Buy now!
WHAT MY FRIENDS NEED TO KNOW

WHAT MY FRIENDS DON’T KNOW

Buy now!
WHAT MY FRIENDS DON’T KNOW

GIRLFRIENDS & SECRETS

Buy now!
GIRLFRIENDS & SECRETS

DESPERATE DESIRE

Buy now!
DESPERATE DESIRE

INTENTIONAL CURSE

Buy now!
INTENTIONAL CURSE

GENERATIONAL CURSE

Buy now!
GENERATIONAL CURSE

UNEXPECTED LOVE

Buy now!
UNEXPECTED LOVE
GOD’S BOMBSHELL: LIVING A BEAUTIFUL SINGLE LIFE

LOVE NOTES

Buy now!
LOVE NOTES

FIRST ENCOUNTERS OF LOVE

Buy now!
FIRST ENCOUNTERS OF LOVE

THE GOOD GIRL PART ONE

Buy now!
THE GOOD GIRL PART ONE

THE NIGHT I FELL IN LOVE

Buy now!
THE NIGHT I FELL IN LOVE

THE FLING

Buy now!
THE FLING
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California native, novelist Tracy Reed pushes the boundaries of her Christian foundation with her sometimes racy and often fiery tales. After years of living in the Big Apple, this self proclaimed New Yorker draws from the city’s imagination, intrigue, and inspiration to cultivate characters and plot lines who breathe life to the words on every page. Tracy’s passion for beautiful fashion and beautiful men direct her vivid creative power towards not only novels, but short stories, poetry, and podcasts. With something for every attention span. Tracy Reed’s ability to capture an audience is unmatched. Her body of work has been described as a host of stimulating adventures and invigorating expression.

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