{"id":"10861","date":"2021-12-20T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/?p=10861"},"modified":"2021-12-21T05:36:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T13:36:58","slug":"anne-janzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.pickfu.com\/anne-janzer\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Anne Janzer on effective marketing, the self-publishing model, and writing better emails"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to Expert\u2019s Corner<\/a><\/strong>, our interview series with makers, thinkers, and entrepreneurs in the core industries we serve: e-commerce, mobile gaming, marketing, and publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While PickFu is your platform for getting detailed feedback on a specific project or product, Expert\u2019s Corner is where you\u2019ll find insights and inspiration relevant to your industry and the business world at large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this Corner: award-winning author Anne Janzer<\/a>. Via her blog, books, and online courses, Anne helps other writers find publishing success. <\/p>\n\n\n

You\u2019re a book author and a writing coach. You’ve also done marketing for B2B tech firms. So are you a writer or a marketer? What\u2019s the difference?<\/h3>\n\n\n
\"Expert's<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

First, let\u2019s agree that all authors benefit from understanding marketing. While my B2B marketing consulting days are behind me now, I use my marketing skills nearly every day as an author: positioning my books in crowded markets, running occasional promotions, helping nonfiction authors build marketing plans, and more. Even experience with A\/B testing<\/a> has come in handy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing, at its core, is about getting something into the hands of the people who need it. That\u2019s what we hope to do with our books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, marketing today demands great writing \u2014 witness the whole field of content marketing. Many marketers are skilled writers, adept at shaping words that earn attention, inform opinions, and explain complicated topics. Writing and marketing complement each other like peanut butter and jelly!<\/p>\n\n\n

Tell us how your first book, Subscription Marketing<\/em>, now in its third edition, came to be.<\/h3>\n\n\n

Back in 2015, I was frustrated by the way that marketing organizations (my clients) kept chasing the next new sale, without focusing on existing customers. In a subscription-based business, most of your revenues come from existing customers. Marketers should sit up and pay attention to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote the book to evangelize the many ways that marketers could use their skills to enhance the customer experience \u2014 and hence improve retention and revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2015, people didn\u2019t appreciate the seismic shifts of the subscription model in many industries. Now they do; the latest edition spends less time explaining subscription trends and more time applying the practices to different business models.<\/p>\n\n\n

Your latest book is 33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Business Emails<\/em>. Why do we keep screwing up emails? What are we getting wrong?<\/h3>\n\n\n

When writing this book, I collected \u201cemail failure\u201d stories as research. Some were positively cringe-inducing. Most share a common theme \u2014 haste. We toss something off in a moment, eager to get on with our day. And in doing so, we perpetuate email chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we throw our emails together too quickly or don\u2019t take that extra moment to set up a sensible process, we risk wasting everyone\u2019s time \u2014 our own included!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one wants to spend a lot of time on email. But if you put a few practices in place and give a moment\u2019s thought to the recipient\u2019s needs, you can write emails<\/a> that more people read and respond to.<\/p>\n\n\n