What to do after you launch your book: the importance of long-term nurture campaigns

You did it. You're a published author and people are buying your book. Mission accomplished — you're all done, right?

Well, not exactly.

Now is the moment to nurture certain leads more than ever, not cut off the conversation. Just because someone didn't buy during your pre-order campaign doesn't mean they never will — which is exactly why long-term nurture campaigns matter so much.

What is long-term nurture?

A long-term nurture sequence is an email campaign designed to keep your brand — specifically your author brand — at the front of your audience's mind. For it to convert, you provide free value rather than a sales pitch. You're building a situation where potential readers feel confident enough to say yes.

How do I get started?

Chances are you already have a mailing list and some relationship with your reader base. Ideally you're also using a CRM to segment that list with tags. Segmenting matters because it lets you send the most relevant content to each group. For nurture, two segments are essential: leads who have already bought, and leads who haven't.

Sending the same emails to both is redundant at best and, at worst, costs you future sales. If you're not doing it already, start by segmenting your list based on where each lead sits in the buying funnel.

What should I send?

Repeating the same sales pitch will frustrate potential buyers — and get you unsubscribes. Instead, invest in the future sale by giving prospects something valuable and free. If you published a cookbook, for example, an email could link to a post like "Quick and Easy Recipes That Won't Break the Bank," with a small "buy my book here" at the very bottom.

Other value-based content worth sending:

• Newsletters
• PDF info packets
• Additional pre-order assets
• Personal stories
• Interviews
• Speaking engagements
• Q&A opportunities

How often should I email?

It depends — like everything in marketing, you experiment and tweak. Early in the campaign you can send more often, because the lead is hot and you don't want to be forgotten. (More than one email a day, though, borders on harassment.) As a lead matures, ease off. At minimum, send something every two weeks, or a bi-weekly or monthly newsletter.

How long should it last?

Again, it depends — on how much content you can produce, how relevant it stays, and how well the campaign converts. That said, the first year is the make-or-break window for a book's sales, so stretching a nurture campaign well past year one won't reap much in publishing.

You may want a well-deserved break after launch, but the truth is that a truly successful brand is never quite "done." Then again — who would want it to be? People don't become writers because they've run out of things to say. So keep writing, keep pushing, and keep marketing.