A Blueprint for Authors to Simplify Book Marketing
Does the idea of writing a blog, creating a newsletter, coming up with social media posts - let alone write your book - make your brain spin into overdrive?
When you think about each individual task that you have to do with social media and book marketing, it appears to be a lot. But what if I were to tell you that managing it can be a lot easier (and less time consuming!) than you might think?
And to tie another layer into this question, one of our newsletter subscribers (hi, Grace!) asked how she should decide where her content goes: in a newsletter, her blog, or social media. She wasn’t sure what the difference was.
I’ve addressed these issues with many of my coaching clients. My favorite reaction is their sigh of relief when I share my “work smarter, not harder” approach, which I’m going to share with you today.
It all boils down to this: one piece of content can cover the entire gamut of your social media and marketing needs. Let me break it down for you.
Before we jump into the blueprint, I need to address two important elements:
Know who you’re talking to. Here I go again talking about your ideal reader! Why do I keep bringing this up? Because everything dealing with your marketing and social media centers around knowing who your ideal reader is. When you clearly know who they are, what they are interested in, what they respond to, and how they discover that information, it will make your content speak directly to them and easy to discover.
Content is king. Creating quality content for your ideal reader is the driving force of your marketing. Readers have no shortage of options. But when authors create consistent content, it keeps you and your book at the front of their minds. It shows why your book and writing stands out from the rest and provides great value to your readers.
Taking the time to identify exactly who your ideal reader is so you can create excellent content will simplify your marketing and make it significantly more effective.
So now that you’ve created an amazing piece of content - this can be a blog post, a video, a podcast episode, etc. - what do you do with it? Here’s my blueprint to simplify the process.
Step One: Find Pull Quotes
There are nuggets of information, inspiration, or intrigue that you can use for social media. When I write a blog or record a podcast, I pull key points or ideas that I can use for social media posts. These ideas could stand on their own, but they are a great way to spark more interest and drive additional traffic back to your blog post.
If you have a podcast or a video blog, you can use services like Headliner (it’s free!) to create short clips that you can post on social media.
Several authors have asked if they should simply post their blog as a long caption. Remember, you don’t want your fans to just live on social media. You want to drive them to your website. I would create an image with the pull quote (I use Adobe Spark - it’s free and really easy to use!) And use the caption to spark more interest to drive them to your website.
Step Two: Don’t Overthink Your Newsletter
You don’t need to create completely different content for your newsletter. In fact, I strongly recommend that you drive your newsletter subscribers to your blog/podcast/video posts on your website.
If you’re thinking, “Well, I posted this on my social media - won’t they be sick of seeing it twice?” You need to remember that your fans don’t always see everything that you post on social media - never assume that they see everything.
Keep your newsletter short and sweet. What I recommend is writing a short greeting, spark their interest by sharing what you’re blog post is about, and then including a link to your post. If you want more information on what to include in your newsletter, I have more details in this post.
Step Three: Create Multiple Headlines
Another great way to use one piece of content in many ways is to come up with 2-3 different headlines. You keep the original headline on the blog post but you use the new headlines for images to share on social media.
For example, a client of mine wrote a blog post titled, “Why You Need More Bitter Foods In Your Diet.” A second headline that we used to create a second social media image was, “A Delicious Way to Improve Your Digestion.” They both pointed back to the same article, but we had different headlines that continue to spark interest.
Step Four: Break It Up
There’s a big debate around if long blog posts are better than short. I don’t believe there is a blanket answer to that question. In fact, I think it comes down to what your ideal reader prefers and responds to.
I always try to put myself in my ideal reader’s shoes. I know I don’t have a lot of extra time to read long blog posts. So when I see a reeeeally long blog post, I tend to move on.
If you end up writing a really long post, consider breaking it up into a series. You’ll have more content to share and it will be more digestible for your readers.
I recommend you keep your blog posts to about 500 words. If you’re doing a video, try to keep it between 2-5 minutes. Be mindful of your reader’s time - you can pack a lot of punch in a short post.
Step Five: Re-Share
A big mistake many authors make in content creation is only sharing it once on social media. The beauty of creating meaningful content is that you can use it over and over again. It’s not a one and done resource.
What I suggest you do is recycle your content. For example, I have blog posts that I wrote years ago that I can re-share as social media posts every 3-4 months because they are still relevant and useful to my ideal reader. You need to remember that not everyone sees your posts when you share them. And your audience is growing all the time, so this is new information for them.
Step Six: Repurpose Your Content
When you have a cohesive and intentional plan for creating great content, you’re able to repurpose it in multiple ways. For example, you can bundle up several blog posts to create a PDF download as a newsletter incentive. You can use that content for speeches or talks that you give. You can use those blog posts for a book you’re writing. There are multiple ways you can repurpose content in powerful ways. Work smarter, not harder.
As you can see, creating great content is at the core of effective marketing for consistent social media engagement. But that doesn’t mean it’s more work. In fact, when you’re strategic and thoughtful about what you create, you’re actually saving yourself a ton of time.
If you want to go a step further and get all of the tools, resources, and help that you need to market your book, grow on social media, and sell more books - join The Author Circle membership!
