How Self-Published Book Author and Marketing Maven Phillip Strang Gets Amazon Reviews

January 5, 2018

Marketing

People following me on social networks know that our first Author Interview Plunge is with crime thriller author Phillip Strang and is scheduled for 12:01pmET Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018. If you’re reading this post after that date/time, you can find his interview at Phillip Strang – Murder is a Tricky Business (British Sleuths and Publishing Analytics) (that link won’t be active until after that date/time).

Phillip and I were talking a few days after the interview and I asked him how he managed to get so many reviews (over 300) on Amazon. He graciously shared his methodology with me and gave me permission to share it with you.

A 15 Step Program
Important: The first step is not recognizing you have a problem, it’s deciding you want to succeed.

Bonus: You don’t have to stand up and say “Hello, My name is … and I’m an author wanting to get reviews for my books.” Okay, maybe you should say that to yourself, depending on your confidence levels.

Seriously, here are the 15 steps:

I take my mailing list, primarily generated through Lead Gen Ads on FB initially, although, now I only use InstaFreebie. It’s a lot cheaper and I’ve seen no difference in the quality of the emails I receive.
I then upload them onto Mailchimp using a programme called Zapier. The emails gained from FB lead gen ads and Instafreebie are auto loaded onto Mailchimp through Zapier. It’s a bit fiddly to set up, but MailChimp deals with the duplicates. There’s no manual uploading by me.
Mailchimp rates the emails on a 1 to 5 scale. I use 4 and 5 for my reviews.
Noting that of 5K on my list, only 2K are of any validity.
I then sent the 2K an email (left image at bottom. Click for larger image).
Of those, 100 will respond.
I’ll send them a file with the download link. I use Bookfunnel to ensure that they receive with full instructions for whatever device they use (right image at botom. Click for larger image)
Those that respond with a review will receive the next book, and so on.
A list of 5K will give me about 30, maybe 40 reviews.
As new subscribers are added to my mail list, I repeat the process.
It’s a labourious process to start up, but I’ve found no other way to get reviews.
Website’s offering for you to join the club in exchange for reviews are of little use
Of course, the best ones are when someone buys your book and gives a review, but most people don’t.
Let me know if you want any more information.
Be prepared for the wasters who will take the free book and never do any
more. I’ve got a detailed spreadsheet, so I know who these are.

Many thanks to DCI Isaac Cook and DI Keith Tremayne thriller author Phillip Strang for sharing his review-getting methodology with us.

And remember, Phillip’s full interview will be available Wednesday, 10 Jan 2018, 12:01pmET at Phillip Strang – Murder is a Tricky Business (British Sleuths and Publishing Analytics) (link won’t be active until after that date/time).