I used to write a lot about book marketing and content marketing but a few years ago I gravitated more toward writing.
The thing is, while writing has a beginning, middle, and end, marketing and selling your book is never-ending … if you want to sell books.
This is why knowing about book marketing is crucial to every author.
When I read Neil Patel’s article on his content marketing formula, I knew I had to share it.
Before I dive in, let me explain these terms.
Book Marketing
This marketing strategy is ‘everything’ you do to bring visibility to your book and actually sell it.
While there are some authors who just want to have a book written and don’t really care about selling it, most authors want to sell their books.
This is especially true of authors who spend money to self-publish their books where costs can be from under $1000 to well over $1000.
A few of my clients have spent well over $10,000 for just ONE book.
Recouping the money invested in your book is a big deal to most.
And, it’s just as important if you’re traditionally published. Your publisher will definitely want you to help sell your book/s.
In fact, it you and another author both submitted great manuscripts to a publisher, a determining factor on who gets the contract could be who has a better book marketing platform.
So, here are a few elements to know about before and after your book is available for sale:
1. Create a book worthy of publishing and learn about pricing it effectively
2. Create and maintain an author website
3. Write articles and post them on your website’s blog
4. Be active on social media and share your blog posts and those of other users
5. Get an email list going and maintain it
6. Look into guest blogging and interviews
7. While doing all this and more, start on your next book
Once your book is available for sale, you’ll also need to get book reviews and create an Amazon Author Page.
Content Marketing
This strategy is about writing and sharing content to your specific target audience.
According to Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
To clarify a bit, it’s about bringing visibility to you and your product/s through content (things you write and share, usually online). It’s about building a brand (what you want people to think of when they see your name or logo).
The marketing world is driven on content.
Below are a few strategies of content marketing:
1. Blogging
2. Video
3. Podcasts
4. Infographics
5. Sales pages on your website
6. Books
There are many other elements that go into these marketing strategies, but this should give you a basic understanding of both these terms.
And more importantly, it’s important to understand that pretty much everything you do to sell your book is a form of content marketing.
Now on to content marketing expert Neil Patel’s tips.
1. Optimize your headline.
Everything you write, whether a blog post or a description on social media, starts with a headline.
An example of this is the title of this article.
There are thousands and thousands of tidbits of information online, why would someone click on your bit of information?
The very first reason would be the headline. It’s what will initially grab the reader’s attention.
2. Add three internal links.
Internal links is when you link from one page on your website to another.
It allows you to bring the reader at your website to other of your website pages and/or blog posts through clickable links.
You can check out this article to learn more about internal or inbound links:
3. Share your content on social media.
Once you put up a blog post, use sharing tools, like Shareaholic and WP Social Sharing Plugins, and share it to your social networks.
4. Message everyone you link out to.
This tip pertains to external links also called outbound links. Links from your website (usually from your blog post) to other websites.
Patel recommends that you contact the site you’re linking out to and let them know that you’ve linked to their site from your blog post or webpage.
Ask the site to stop by and share the article.
5. Email blast your new blog posts.
Email your subscribers every time you post new content.
To learn the basics of email marketing, check out this article:
Email Marketing – 10 Top Reasons to BE Doing It
I know some of this may sound too complicated, but just knowing the basics will be of tremendous benefit to you.
So, give your book every chance at finding readers and making sales.
For a more in depth look at marketing your books, check out my WOW! Women on Writing eclass: Build Your Author-Writer Platform
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and successful children’s ghostwriter, rewriter, and coach. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move and as well as an author online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.
You can follow Karen at:
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/karencioffiventrice
Twitter http://twitter.com/KarenCV
12 comments:
There's a new Google algorithm coming: Google Search Console. Good status will be used as a ranking signal for a URL in Google Search results on mobile devices. It's supposed to be for a better user experience. It's getting ridiculous. Those who can figure out how to get a good status will be included in mobile searches. If I have time, I'll research it and write about it.
My purpose of that comment was so I could click on the 'email follow-up comments' and forgot to. LOL
Karen,
Your article includes many proven book marketing strategies. The proof is in the consistent implementation. It does not happen overnight for any of us.
Terry
Thank you for your helpful article on marketing, Karen. I agree that a strategy is essential, and as Terry said, being consistent in its implementation. We need to experiment at first to find what works best for our market, and then engage with our market in as personal terms as possible.
Karen, I have been thinking of ways to use domain names that we buy because we don’t want to have them available to others who hope to resell them to us at preposterous prices or other more nefarious uses. It’s something most of us writers don’t think about until it’s too late. Do you advise doing topics like this that are more advanced?
If so, what is the best technique for upping the traffic to them?
Hugs,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson.
Terry, that's absolutely true; it's all about being consistent at your marketing efforts.
Carolyn, I've bought domains that are in my field, just in case I want to use them. If you have a website with a hosting service, like Bluehost, you can have a number of website on one account at no extra charge aside from the cost of the domain names. This is where the domain names can be used. The problem though is you'll have to maintain those sites. I just keep the domain names I don't use unassigned with my hosting service.
Doing topics like this is a great idea - if a writer has a question about something and we can answer it, we should.
Upping traffic to the websites you do have up is doing all the basics, including content marketing, social media marketing, and the other tips in this article. It's about being consistent.
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Fantastic comprehensive article Karen! Thank you.
It's so much that we must have a plan and a schedule to stay on top of it.
Delivering content is strategic for Book Marketing and I like that you pointed to adding three internal links as well as paying key attention to our headlines.
Thanks again!
Good information for every author, Karen. Thanks for sharing.
Linda, it's so true that every writer needs to find what works best for them. Just like everything else, it's not a one-size fits all!
Deborah, I'm so glad you found the article comprehensive. Yes, book marketing does take planning and a schedule that should be maintained. It's getting comical, like the carrot dangled before the rabbit: do this, do that, and just maybe you'll get in the search results and get visitors to your site. It's crazy that the rules are always changing!
Suzanne, glad you liked it!
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