You’re ready to join your first promo… what should you know before you join?
Promos: Newsletter vs. Sales
A newsletter promo is designed to build your mailing list and requires a free book download to join. You will need to create a landing page (that collects email addresses if you are on a Mid-List plan or above) in order to join a newsletter promo.
A sales promo does not offer a free book download. Instead, it shows your book cover and book description, and links to the bookstore(s) where readers can purchase the book. You will need to create a sales landing page in order to join a sales promo.
Before You Join
Read the requirements carefully.
This may seem obvious, but it’s important and often gets missed by eager authors looking to join as many promos as possible. Submitting your book(s) to promos without reading the requirements closely can waste your time and the promo organizer’s time.
Most organizers are specific about what kind of books they are looking for. Genres, review ratings, story tropes, and mailing list size are the most common requirements. Other promos require you to share by X date or to contribute towards ads or boosted posts.
Make sure the promo dates work with your schedule.
Most promotions run about two weeks, with some running only three days and others running all month long. The dates are displayed before you join the promo so that you know when you are expected to share it with your readers.
Example You always send your newsletter out on the 1st and 15th, and you want to join a promotion that runs all month. You will input one of those dates into the share date field when you join the promo (preferably the 1st, but may vary depending on the promo’s requirements).
Found a great promo that runs from the 1st – 10th, but you can only send your newsletter on the 15th? Either pass on this promo and look for one that aligns with your schedule, or send a special edition of your newsletter out on the 1st or 2nd.
How many promos should you join?
This is a personal preference. The general advice we’ve seen is 1-2/month, with the goal being to introduce your readers to other books they might love without overwhelming them.
You want to save space in your newsletter to connect with the people on your mailing list. That can be hard if you are sending them a dozen promo links every week.
You also need time to “warm up” the readers that find you through a group promo. They aren’t fans yet, just leads. Hitting them with tons of other free books when they’ve just signed up for your list may cause them to unsubscribe before you have a chance to win them over.
“Sharing” a Promo
Group promos are most successful when each author participant shares and promotes the promo link to their existing mailing list and social media platforms. They send the promo link to their own readers, and you send the promo link to your readers, and so on. When one of their readers is interested in your book and gets it, BOOM! Success.
Tracking Links
When you participate in a group promo on BookFunnel, you receive a unique link to share with your existing mailing list (and social media) called a “tracking link”. BookFunnel uses your tracking link to count how many unique visitors you sent to each promo.
After you join a promo, you can see the tracking link when you view the promo on your BookFunnel dashboard:
Your tracking link will also be added to your BookFunnel calendar. You can easily access your calendar by clicking Calendar at the top of your BookFunnel dashboard.
“Share Date”
This is the date you plan to send the promo link to your existing mailing list. You want to share the promo as early as possible so that your readers have plenty of time to click around and sign up. Remember, some people only check their email every few days, so sharing the promo with your list at the last minute will mean that some of your readers won’t get a chance to browse the available books. It will also receive fewer clicks, which will lower your promo reputation on BookFunnel
You can share the promo on social media and other channels as often as you like, but your share date is when you expect the most activity on your tracking link, typically the first time you send the link to your mailing list.