A Simplified Book Marketing Plan for Authors
If you're an author who's struggling to figure out how to best market your book or how to even come up with a plan to put into place, I'm so glad you're here! I'm going to share how to create a simplified bookmarking plan that's going to help you reach more people so you don't pull your hair out in the process.
One of the biggest misconceptions about marketing is the idea that if you do more you'll get bigger and better results. That isn't always true. Many times it’s just tossing ideas out to see what sticks. And that isn't a way to market your book.
One of the keys to simplifying your book marketing is to focus on quality rather than quantity. You need to remember that your ideal readers are not everywhere online. They are only in a few key places, so that's where you need to be as well. Don't spread yourself too thin and try to be everywhere and to be everything for everyone.
To identify who your ideal reader is, think about people that you actually want to connect with. Think about people who are interested in the same books that you're interested in, who are interested in your genre, who have similar hobbies and interests. Make a list of these characteristics to formulate one singular person.
This will help you be focused within the content that you create. And when you're focused it will help you to stand out more online.
The tool that we're going to use to simplify our book marketing is a funnel. This funnel is going to help us lead our readers to we want them to go and to be intentional with our content. It will also make our plan simple to execute. If our process is confusing, random, and all over the place, it's hard for us to follow. And that will make it even harder for your readers to follow as well. With this funnel we're just going to fill in the blanks and it's going to lead us exactly where we need to go.
Step One - Awareness
The first step in our funnel is awareness. We have to let people know that we exist and that we have a book available. So building that awareness is done mainly on social media. That’s where people are hanging out online. So when you know exactly who you want to connect with you're able to know exactly what social media outlet they are going to be hanging out on. For example, if you have an ideal reader that is in their 50s or 60s they're probably going to be on Facebook and maybe Instagram. If they're younger they will be on Instagram or TikTok. If you write non-fiction and are trying to connect with business people being on LinkedIn would be important. So knowing exactly who you want to connect with is going to indicate where you need to be hanging out online to build awareness.
Step Two - Connection
The second step in our funnel is connection. We’ve gotten awareness and we've created a spark of interest. So now we want to connect - we want them to follow us on social media, to visit our website, read more from our blog and find out more about what we offer.
Step Three - Content
The third step in our funnel is content. Our content is the backbone of our entire marketing plan. What we need to remember is that social media is always going to change. There are going to be new features and new outlets. But our content that is going to stay the same.
So identify two or three topics that you want to talk about - especially within your social media. Think about what books you want to talk about and what you want to share from your book. Think about hobbies, other interests or causes that you're interested in or passionate about. Think about those three topics and circulate that content week after week. That’s going to help you become known for something and give you parameters to work within to simplify your approach and create your brand.
Step Four - Newsletter
The fourth step in our funnel is your newsletter. This is so important to your overall marketing strategy because you don't own the connections that you have on social media. You always want to drive those connections from social media to your newsletter list. You’ll usually do this with a free incentive. Your newsletter is essential in creating a really strong foundation that you can build an entire writing career on.
Step Five - Sell
Through the first four steps in our process we have warmed up our audience, we've gone from just becoming aware of who we are all the way down to signing up for our newsletter. So the fifth and final step is selling using your newsletter to sell. It is so much easier to sell to a warm audience, which is what your newsletter list is. Trying to sell to a cold audience on social media is very hard. You want to sell to people who are already paying attention and who are already interested. And those are people that are on your newsletter. When you have people on your newsletter is when you can start cycling through your sales process by giving them more value and asking them to buy.
So those are the five steps of our funnel! Marketing doesn’t need to be complicated, overwhelming or unobtainable. When you have an easy to follow system, you can see big results.
If you want to take this a step further, download our free Book Marketing Blueprint. It will help you to simplify your book marketing and see bigger results.
As a busy author who has a lot on their plate, having a simplified plan in place which is doable, strategic and intentional, you can lead your readers exactly where you want them to go and see a more powerful result.
