How Authors Can Boost Book Sales for Free
Authors, you might be making a big marketing mistake that is costing you continued book sales. And nobody wants that! So today I'm going to show you an easy to apply strategy that will help you:
continue to see book sales
grow without buying ads
keep your sales momentum going
…all year long. So let’s dig in!
In order to understand how this mistake is happening and when it takes place, we need to discuss the three different phases of book marketing.
The Three Marketing Phases
The first phase is the Attraction Phase, which begins right around the time you start writing your book up until about two months before your book releases. We use the Attraction Phase to build our audience, to get to know people on social media and making connections. It’s not the time to promote. This is the time to connect with others so you have a good foundation to launch your book.
The second phase is the Promotional Phase which begins about two months before your book's release date until about two weeks after the release date. This is when you are going focus on promoting and building up anticipation for your release. This is when you can do pre-orders, plan events, schedule signings, and build that excitement and anticipation for your book to release.
And the third phase is the Follow-up Phase which begins about two weeks after your release date and beyond. Your book has an infinite lifespan and we can continue to talk about the book for as long as we like.
And this is when the mistakes begin to happen.
The Big Marketing Mistake
Many times authors tend to overlook the Follow-up Phase. We tend to become so focused on the launch of the book and getting it out to the world within the Promotional Phase that we don't plan for the continued lifespan of our book.
It’s an honest mistake because the Follow-up Phase is actually a relatively new phase. Before we had social media and online marketing we did not have the opportunity to follow up directly with readers and continue those conversations.
When social media came onto the scene around 2005 it was a huge opportunity for authors to go directly to their readers and make a personal connection and relationships. Before then we had to solely rely on publicists and marketing professionals to reach out to editors, program directors or booking agents to help us get onto tv and into magazines and newspapers. All of those resources had finite lifespans and very limited space available, so we all had to compete for those few opportunities to get our book seen by the public.
Being able to actually connect directly with our readers through social media brings many new opportunities. But for some reason we still get stuck back in that mindset that after our book launches we tend to move on to the next thing and not continue that conversation.
The Marketing Solution
The Follow-up Phase is the secret sauce! It might seem too easy, but just this simple act of continuing the conversation can help you continue to see sales all year long. Knowing that your book's life span is infinite and that it's going to go on well beyond the release date is something to always keep in mind. So continue to talk about your book, drive them to your Amazon page and website to learn more about you and your book.
Continuing to talk about your book on your social media outlets and through your newsletter is easy to apply to your strategy. Let's say you post five times a week on social media. All you have to do is commit to posting once or twice per week about your book to drive people from your social media outlet to your website or to your amazon page. You need to remember that it takes on average eight impressions in order for anyone to take action. That is why we want to continue to talk about our book and drive those conversations to our website. That is the best way to warm up those leads, to show the value of your book, and to take interest.
Just because you're ready to sell your book doesn't always mean that your readers are ready to buy your book. That does not mean that you've lost a sale. It just means you have to continue to talk with them about your book in a way that will keep them interested.
These conversations also give you the opportunity to stay at the front of your reader's mind. It’s about continuing to show up on social media and in their email inboxes, demonstrating your book’s value, so that when your readers are ready to buy, you are right there to make it easy for them.
So remember to focus on the lifespan of your book and not just on the release.
If this is something that you need more guidance on, download the Book Marketing Blueprint. It’s FREE and it will help you create a strategy and plan to help you to simplify your book marketing, grow your audience, and continue to see book sales.
Click below to grab your copy!
