Amnesia Mode is ramping up, folks! It’s a dreary, depressing day outside, and that’s when I do my best work!!!
I started the day with a livestream on my 2021 Author Strategy. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/8GdtNQEUFuA
Had a great time, and the feedback everyone gave was very helpful. I wasn’t sure if the topic was good or boring, but folks seemed to like it. I may do a book on this in the future, so this was a good test to see if the idea was valuable or not. (Consider that a marketing lesson executed).
I also got access to my talk at Writer’s Digest. I got that downloaded and edited how I want it. It’ll launch on the channel sometime late January/early February since it will be on-demand at WD for the next few months.
LESSON LEARNED TODAY
I continued taking the Dean Wesley Smith course on Fiction Sales Copy. Very helpful. One of the exercises in the course was to find “hype” words. That was a very fun exercise and eye-opening. I’ll leave it at that, but if you want to buy the course, have at it: https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/nov-sales-copy
Dean also wrote a book on the topic that is also useful: https://geni.us/Gmar5mr
Next, it’s time for me write NEW book descriptions for THREE of my titles. I’ll be starting with my very first book, Magic Souls, tomorrow. I’ll share the before and after and let you all comment on which one is better.
LESSON EXECUTED
I decided to extend the Beast Mode Collection an extra week, so you can grab it at https://authorlevelup.combeastmode
I also revamped the sales copy on that page and added descriptions of benefits. Namely, I put the book covers of the books in the collection, and I called out the special offer about the consultation. I think the page looks much better now. Not that I’ll sell any additional copies. I’m just using this as a playground to practice what I learned.
I also wrote my monthly email newsletter and tried to structure the email differently than I have in the past based on some of the advice.
- I put the link to my call to action in the FIRST sentence of the book, and in the email preview section.
- I included the link of the book I was promoting in the copy not once, or twice, but FOUR times. The first sentence, as a button, in the copy, and again in the postscript.
- I led with a story and segued that into the call to action.
We’ll see if it worked. My open and click rates are usually pretty good. Like I said, this is just practice for me. The real work will be on my fiction titles.
I also decided to pull the trigger on an idea I’ve had for a while: an automated copywriting swipe file.
What if I could load all of my “favorite words and phrases” into a database and then use that database to help me structure:
- Fiction sales copy
- Email newsletters
- Other stuff as needed
What if I could throw new words and phrases into the database easily so that it grew over time?
What if I could sling together instant copy ideas from the database with a few clicks of a button?
I believe I can do this for free, and quickly. It involves a little bit of elbow grease, a few hours, and Microsoft Excel. 🙂 If I pull it off, I’ll share it. It’s actually pretty simple.
In my livestream today, I talked about using technology to help you become a better version of yourself. Yesterday, I talked about tools to help me ease into marketing mode easier because I find that it’s hard. This is the kind of stuff I’m thinking about when I talk about using technology.
There’s so much cheap and free technology to help us run automated writing businesses. You just have to know how to look for it, and how to use it.
MARKETING PARKING LOT
– Develop a tool to help me transition into “marketing mode”
- Create automated swipe file
- Clean up old lead magnet links and redirect them. ROI: Could add a few more subscribers to my list per year.
- Convert unnecessary links in my nonfiction to footnotes to improve “reader stickiness.”
- Zero in on any broken links and redirect them. ROI: Improves user experience on my website.
