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 time when you want to nurture certain leads more than ever, not cut off the conversation. Just because someone didn’t buy your book during the pre-order campaign doesn’t mean they will never buy your book, which is why long-term nurture campaigns are so significant in marketing.

What is long-term nurture?

A long-term nurture sequence is a type of email campaign designed to keep your brand (specifically your author brand) at the forefront of your audience’s mind. In order for the campaign to be successful and convert leads to sales, you need to provide free value rather than a sales pitch. In short, you are developing a situation where potential readers feel confident to say yes to your product.   

How do I get started?

Chances are you have already developed a mailing list and you are in contact with a portion of your reader base. Hopefully, you have also been using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to segment your list using tags. Breaking down your mailing list into smaller segments is particularly useful when determining what content will be the most relevant to your readers. For a long-term nurture campaign, there are two categories that are of the utmost importance: leads that have converted and those that have not.

Sending the same types of emails to these two segments is not only redundant, but it can also be detrimental to future sales. If you are not already doing this, begin the process of setting up your long-term nurture campaign by segmenting your list based on the stage of the buying funnel that the lead is currently in.

What type of content should I send to my long-term nurture list?

Sending the same sales pitch repeatedly will annoy or frustrate potential buyers, and may even result in them opting out of future emails. Instead, invest in a potential future sale by providing the prospect with something that they will find valuable and something that is free.

For example, let’s say you published a cookbook. An email to your long-term nurture list could include a link to a blog post about “Quick and Easy Recipes That Won’t Break the Bank.” At the very bottom of the email, give the prospect the option to buy your book by including a brief message to “buy my book here!”

Other value-based content to send to your long-term nurture list could include:

  •  Newsletters
  • PDF Info Packets
  • Additional Assets for Pre-Order
  • Personal stories
  • Interviews
  •  Speaking engagements
  • Q&A opportunities

How frequently should I contact my list?

The simple answer: it depends. Just like anything with marketing, you need to experiment and tweak your process to find what works best for you. In general, you can send your prospects more emails earlier in the campaign because the lead is hot and you do not want them to forget who you are. However, sending more than one email a day borders on harassment.

As the lead matures, it is ok to send emails less frequently. At the very least, I recommend sending emails at least once every two weeks, and/or a bi-weekly or monthly newsletter.

How long should my campaign last?

Once again, it depends. It depends on how much content you can produce, how relevant the information remains, and how effectively the campaign converts leads. That being said, the first year is the most significant in terms of sales to make or break a book, so extending a long-term nurture campaign past the first year will not reap significant results in the literary industry. 

You may want a well-deserved break after launching your book, but the truth is, to cultivate a truly successful brand, your work is never done. But who would want it to be! People don’t become writers if they don’t have an abundance of things to say.

So keep writing, keep pushing, and keep marketing!