By Books Author Denise Turney
Book marketing is a long, ongoing process. If you want a sustainable career as a writer, you need to learn and start practicing smart marketing techniques. Fortunately, there are technology tools to help.
For starters, you can get real traction at the right book marketing platforms using two strategies. One approach requires more of your time. The other approach requires more money.
Types of Book Marketing Platforms
AALBC.com, Book Daily, Artist First and Good Reads are types of marketing platforms. So too are TED Talk, Mosaic, podcasts and social media.
Book clubs, television programs that focus on books, press release distribution services and bookstores are also types of marketing platforms. But it’s your book blog and author website that are your primary platforms.
Each platform that you work should point back to either your author website or your book order page. If your only book order page is at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com, point platforms to your custom sales pages at those bookseller websites.
Getting Platform Results Is Not Free
That means that your social media profiles should include the link to either your author website or book order page. When you run ads through marketing agencies like Book Daily, add a link to your book order page in your profile.
If you have the time, schedule at least an hour a day to work book marketing platforms. The more time you invest at the platforms, the better. But don’t just posts. Find out who platform influencers are. Ask influencers questions, “like” what they share and follow them.
I’m a fan of social media posts schedulers like Buffer and Hootsuite. Just log into social media accounts and posts live once a day. You can get results with 5 to 10 minutes of work per social media platform.
Social Media and More Marketing Platforms
Pick two to three social media platforms to actively posts comments, ask questions and share motivational quotes on. See if your followers, shares, likes and overall engagement don’t go up.
Build your marketing platforms by:
- Blogging once a week or more (add keywords into your blog posts)
- Sending direct mail to book lovers
- Creating and distributing a weekly or a monthly book newsletter
- Scheduling at least one YouTube or Vimeo video posts a week
- Guest posting on high traffic websites like Huffington Post, Forbes and Entrepreneur. Include a link to your author website in your bio.
- Attending large book club events and cultural festivals. Pass out free bookmarks or book excerpts. Stamp your author website URL on all handouts.
Take two to three of the above steps at least once a week. If you’re short on time, pay marketing agencies to do your heavy lifting. Start small with spending. Avoid giving into smooth sales pitches and getting pulled into expensive marketing deals.
Measure Book Marketing Results
Make sure that you see measurable results, and not just an increase in traffic. Why is this important? Computer bots can send loads of traffic your way, lending the appearance that tons of people are truly interested in your book, when that’s not the case.
Don’t assume that just because your profile, website URL or book cover is at book marketing platforms that you’re pulling in the right traffic. An increase in book sales is a sure sign that book marketing platforms are working.
Requests for book excerpts, author interviews, more social media followers and increased reader engagement are other signs that book marketing platforms are yielding good results. If you receive more comments that focus on your book or its topics at your book blog after launching a book marketing campaign, it could be an additional indicator that platforms you’re on are pulling in your target audience.