By Michael Evans on April 30, 2023
As an author promoting your subscription is crucial for success. However, before we can begin regularly marketing our subscription, we first have to launch it.
The process can be intimidating, however, today we will be covering five actionable steps you can take to launch your subscription quickly and effectively.
Step 1: The Pre-Launch
The first step is to survey demand and prime your readers for the upcoming launch of your subscription. To do this, you have to figure out where you have connections to your readers.
Create a map of where you have direct connections to your readers through email (your mailing list) and social platforms. With these connections, map out which nodes have the highest portion of your superfans/highest engagement. Then poll them to see what benefits they may be interested in your subscription (early access, bonus content, swag).
This is a sample survey you can use and adapt/copy any of the questions for a survey you decide to share with your readers. Michael (me), the creator of the survey gives you full permission!
If you don’t have any readers yet, plan how readers can funnel into your story worlds to begin garnering trust with you and building desires for your stories and characters.
If you do have readers but don’t want to do a survey, then in replace of this look at prior feedback you have received from fans and brainstorm what your best subscription benefits would be. These can always change later!
Step 2: The Beta Launch (Optional)
The second step is to invite early readers into your subscription to see if they like the platform and benefits so you can tweak it before your official launch announcement.
You can do this with a secret beta launch to your absolute superfans.
Maybe you have a special segment of your mailing list of readers who open every email. Or maybe you only share it with people who reply to a comment on social media expressing their interest in the new project you are working on launching (your subscription that is 😊).
Once you get your first few subscribers in your beta launch make sure they like it and feel like they want to stay—this helps build up hype for when you go live, officially, with your entire audience.
*This step is optional, however, and I would only recommend having a beta launch last anywhere from one week to thirty days at the maximum. For authors with large established audiences having a beta launch for a subscription is valuable just as having beta readers for your books can be very valuable but it is not necessary for success.
Step 3: The Hard Launch
The third step is to share your subscription with your existing readership and get readers to begin joining.
Use the same channels of emails and socials you used to poll, but direct them to your subscription to join.
Of course, you will want to do a bit more than just say “Hey you, join my subscription” in these emails.
That’s why we recommend creating launch emails and posts that meet the following criteria:
- Make the subscription CTA/button the center of your email or social media post. Too often I see authors launch their subscription with a small call-to-action at the bottom of a newsletter already packed with 10+ links. No wonder your readers didn’t scroll all the way down to read about your subscription. Make the email or social media post dedicated to your subscription and put the link to the subscription early on in the email so that those reading on phones don’t have to scroll to click to your subscription.
- Tell your readers what they will experience inside and emphasize the benefits of joining. This one is essential as too often joining one’s subscription can get construed in the mind of a reader as donating to an artist/author we support. If that’s the main benefit of your subscription, then lean into it! However, if you are offering early access, bonus content, or other benefits, then share what those are clearly and succinctly as a way to entice people to join. And huge bonus points if you flex your storytelling muscles by SHOWING these benefits, instead of telling your readers about them.
- Have each of your posts/emails emphasize one benefit or hook your readers in one way into your subscription. There may be lots of benefits to joining your subscription such as the satisfaction of being able to help support an author they love. Maybe it’s early access to new stories or a book box from you every other month. During a successful launch, you can try to create one post per each benefit that you want to highlight. That way you can create a number of digestible emails about your subscription and have enough content to share about your subscription at least once a week for the first 30 days. Then you can see afterward which benefits and call to action your readers responded to the most and double down on that when you market your subscription post-launch.
You can also create a launch bonus to create urgency to join within the first 30 days such as an exclusive live stream for early subscribers or an extra short story.
Step 4: Give a Teaser
Create teasers that will get readers excited about your subscription. For instance, if you’re offering early access to your latest book inside your subscription, share the first 3 chapters with your readers and end it in a cliffhanger to encourage them to keep reading. In order to do that, they will have to become a subscriber.
Step 5: Utilize Your Social Media
The final step is to utilize your social media platforms. If you find readers on serial fiction platforms, have CTAs at the end of your stories to bring people for early access to your subscription.
If you have a strong mailing list, put that asset to work and let your readers know about your subscription. If you are great at creating content on TikTok, mention your subscription there. If you have a readership who listens to audiobooks or purchases your books from retailers, mentioning your subscription in your backmatter could be very effective.