Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque

Author:Tammi Labrecque [Labrecque, Tammi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780998212753
Publisher: larks and katydids
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

10 - Strategies vs Tactics

Way back in the Planning and Setup chapter, I told you we’d talk about the difference between strategies and tactics. This is the perfect time to address that topic, because before we dive into methods of list-building, we need to understand that there are many tactics for building your list—but they change frequently, and you can only stay on top of the current tactics by understanding the strategy behind them.

So what’s the difference? In brief: Strategies are general plans of action to achieve a goal. Tactics are the individual things you do to implement that strategy.

Seems simple enough, but it’s incredibly important—both to your success with your newsletter, and to your success as an indie author in general. Understanding of this concept is a big part of why some folks are successful and some are not, even if they seem to be doing the exact same things. If you look closely, it often turns out that the successful author did something—let’s say he started using a new advertiser that catered specifically to his genre—then a lot of other authors began to do it, too, and it stopped working as well. At that point, our hypothetical successful author saw that the industry had changed, and that he’d have to do something new to accomplish what he wanted, since the old thing isn’t effective any more. So perhaps he seeks out some social media channel or Internet forum where readers of his genre tend to hang out, and figures out a way to become part of that community and sell without overtly selling. (This works, by the way, and again I have to recommend Six Figure Author if you’d like to expand on ideas like that.)

He can no longer implement his old tactics and achieve the same results. His strategy (finding new readers in his genre) hasn’t changed, but his tactics have—and the people using the old tactics are left wondering why this thing that seemed to work so well actually doesn’t, while our savvy author is prepared to pivot at any time and find new tactics to remain successful.

Let me elaborate with an example that every indie author understands:

Having a funnel starter (what many businesses call a “loss leader”)—is a strategy. A loss leader gives a consumer a free or discounted taste of what you have to offer, to tempt them into wanting more at full price (or to tempt them into buying something else in the store, or accessories, or what-have you), and virtually everyone who sells anything does this. This is a time-honored strategy that will probably persist until people stop trying to sell things (so, forever). But the most effective tactics—what you use as a loss leader, for example, or how you call attention to it or deliver it—will almost certainly change over time.

Currently, making the first book in your series permafree on all the ebook retailers is a tactic that helps you accomplish your goal of getting people into your funnel (unless your other books are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, but again, that’s beyond the scope of this book).

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