Time-wasting Marketing Traps Authors Can Avoid

EPISODE EIGHTY FIVE

If you feel like you’re constantly marketing but still not seeing book sales, you might be pouring your energy into the wrong strategies.

In this episode, Jenn & Marcus discuss how you can stop spinning your wheels and start focusing on what actually moves the needle for you and your book.

You’ll learn:

• Common marketing tactics that waste time and money (and how to avoid them).

• Which analytics and metrics matter the most when assessing marketing efforts.

• A simple framework to map out your reader’s journey through your marketing funnel.

Grab the free Pick Your Platform guide to clarify where you should show up online:
https://jenndepaula.com/platform

Ready to create a book marketing plan that works for you?
Check out the Book Marketing Starter Kit:
https://jenndepaula.com/book-marketing-starter-kit

TRANSCRIPT:

Marcus dePaula: Jenn, how do you see authors wasting their valuable time and money on their marketing efforts?

Jenn Hanson-dePaula: Many authors don't have a strategic plan in place. They're just winging it. Many times, authors see other authors doing something and they think, "Oh, that's what I have to do," or they have this long list of shoulds that they need to be doing within their marketing and they're just winging it. Many times when authors do that, they think, "Oh, I'm supposed to be doing this. I must be doing the right thing," but they're actually just spinning their wheels and not seeing that progress or seeing the growth, the sales that they're setting out to do. Many times, we just go with the flow and do a bunch of shoulds rather than what I need to be doing to actually connect with authors.

Marcus: It just becomes busy work.

Jenn: Exactly. That is really the biggest time suck when authors say, "I feel like I'm wasting so much time when I should be writing. I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. What's even the point?" This is really what it comes down to.

Marcus: What are some things that authors should keep an eye out specifically where you see them spinning their wheels and draining their time?

Jenn: Well, the first one is obviously social media. Many authors ask me, "Do I have to be on social media?" There's no "have to" in any of this. When you hear someone say you have to be on TikTok, you have to be on Instagram or Substack, the outlet is never the answer. What I always encourage authors to do is to think about, where do they enjoy spending time and where do they feel like they would enjoy connecting with their readers or even with their fellow authors?

One of the first things that you want to do is think about, "Do I even enjoy making videos? Do I enjoy writing more? Do I enjoy making conversations more?" That is going to tell you and point you in the direction of where you should be. We have a really great free download called Pick Your Platform that helps you really find where it is that you are going to connect with your readers in a way that is going to spark joy and you're going to actually continuously show up.

That's one of the first things. When we focus on being someplace that we actually like hanging out and where we like to participate in conversations and to connect with people, we're going to show up more regularly. That is really the first thing. You do not have to be on a specific outlet. You do not have to do X, Y, and Z that you're being told to do. First, step back and assess, "What is it that I want to participate in," and then go from there.

Marcus: I've also seen authors see that, "Oh, well, I'm getting a lot of views on this platform even though I don't really enjoy being on it. Is it worth it for me to continue to post on Facebook or on TikTok even though I'm more of an Instagram person or whatever?" What are they focusing on that could send them down the path of spending time that's not going to pay off for them for their book sales?

Jenn: Views don't equal sales. We always think, "Oh, if I'm getting millions of views or if I go viral, then that's just going to automatically translate into sales." No, it's not. Views are really more of a vanity metric. When we focus more on the views rather than on people actively clicking on the link in our profile or clicking on the link to learn more about our books or about our services or whatever it is that we're promoting, that is the true metric to follow.

When we only look at views, we aren't even thinking, "Okay, is this the right person that's seeing this video?" If I made a viral dog video but it has nothing to do with my books, that's not going to equal into sales. When we only focus on the views, we're only looking at the surface metrics. What we want to do is to focus more on what are the people that are actually interested and drawn to my book or drawn to what it is that I'm teaching to actively click on that link to either sign up for our newsletter, to learn more about our book on our sales page, and that kind of thing. The views aren't a solid metric to base your success on.

Marcus: I see a lot of authors too expressing frustration about the fact that Instagram keeps changing the algorithm. That becomes less of a factor when you're focusing on that connection when you understand exactly who your ideal reader is, because if you're just trying to go viral, then, of course, the algorithm is going to have an impact on those view numbers that don't really matter anyway.

Jenn: You need to remember that you are your algorithm. The algorithm isn't this big machine that's out to get you. That doesn't work everyone in the same way. The content that you're putting out there, how you're engaging with your audience, with your readers, that's going to determine who the algorithm puts you in front of and puts your content in front of. The algorithm wants people to stay on the platform. They want more views. The way that they do that is putting content that they know people will actively engage with.

If you're putting out content that is completely contradictory to the people that you're engaging with or if it's not clear on what your content is about or who it's for, that's when it gets messy. Why I harp on knowing exactly who your ideal reader is and what your messaging is, that is what is really going to give the algorithm, if you're on Instagram or TikTok, the information that it needs to put you in front of the right people.

Marcus: It's not just knowing who your ideal reader is. It's also knowing who you are as a creator. That not only helps you figure out where you need to be, but it also helps you figure out what it is that you have to say that's going to resonate with those ideal readers, and thus get the algorithm to put your posts in front of them more frequently.

Jenn: Exactly. It applies to any form of marketing, whether it's social media, whether it's Substack, whether it's podcasts or media or doing speaking events and live in-person events. You have got to be crystal clear on what it is that your book is about, how you want to communicate that, how you want to connect with your readers as a human being, because that is what is really going to convert. We focus so much on the connection, connecting with your ideal readers. Yes, that's that first step, but we have to know how to convert them, how to turn them from a mirror onlooker to an actual buyer. That's the key.

Marcus: Then to get back to your earlier point about not focusing just on the views and those surface numbers, what should authors actually be looking at that's going to be worth their time when it comes to the metrics to see and assess what's working and what's not working?

Jenn: We always want to be looking at the bigger picture. How are we actively connecting with readers? How are we communicating our messaging? How are we clearly communicating what it is that our book is about and why it is for them? Many times, we only look at those surface metrics, those views, the likes. Comments are good, but what we really need to be thinking about is, okay, I am getting what we were referring to as vanity metrics earlier, but are they taking action? Are we actually driving them?

Do we have a call-to-action for them to take that next step, whether that be to sign up for our newsletter or to learn more about our book on our website, to actually go and purchase the book or whatever it is that we want that next step to be? Those are really the metrics that matter. That's how we know. Even if we don't have access to our Amazon sales page or any of those sales metrics, that is what's going to be a better indicator of, "Okay, is this translating? Are they actually going from Instagram to buy my book?"

The thing that we need to always focus on and remember is that those metrics, the views, and all that, that is at the top of your funnel. Our funnel is just that. It's a funnel. When we see that Instagram or TikTok or any way that we are connecting with readers as at the top of the funnel, that doesn't mean that it's the most important. That means that that is how they are discovering us and we're making that initial connection.

What we're trying to do is funnel them down, filter those people that just might be mere window shoppers into actual buyers. Those numbers like your newsletter subscribers or the people that are actively following you, those numbers are going to be smaller than the numbers that are on your Instagram or TikTok followers page, because I always liken social media as being window shoppers. They're just poking around. What we want to do is filter those mere onlookers from the active buyers by filtering them down into our newsletter.

That's why a newsletter is so important. When we only focus on collecting or gathering more and more and more people on our social media, but you're not filtering them down into something like your newsletter, they're warm, they're a warm audience, and you can actively sell to them, that is going to be 10 times more powerful and more effective in regards to your sales numbers than just trying to, again, collect more and more social media followers. You have to focus on converting them from a social media follower into a subscriber and into a buyer.

Marcus: I do see some people in our space that also get a little too obsessive with seeing every stage of the metrics and the engagement and doing the tracking pixels and all that stuff. The stuff that we focus on is just the broader website traffic, seeing where the traffic's coming from. You look at which posts and comments and stuff, obviously. Again, that's the top of the funnel, seeing how many people actually sign up for our newsletter.

Then once we send newsletters out, we're looking at how many people open the newsletter and then how many people click on the links that are in the newsletter. It's just a broader thing. We're not spending a whole lot of time adding all of these mechanical things into our funnel so we can track every step of it. There's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want to do, but we feel like our time is better spent creating that content that we know that the people want to see and giving them that journey through the content instead of worrying about where they're at in our journey.

Jenn: It's also remembering that it's a bigger picture. When we look at everything, and ads are a little different, tracking your ads, especially when you feel like you have an ad that's it, that's really connecting, reading those on a daily basis is important. If you're just looking at your social media metrics, when you look at them daily and some days, it goes up, some days, it goes way down, it's going to drive you mad.

Looking at it more from an overview saying, "Okay, the overall month of May was great. Yes, this week was a little down," and so then you can see, "Okay, what content did I post there that didn't really resonate? What did I post that just went through the roof?" That's how you can learn what is actually making people pay more attention so that you can do more of that. It's definitely a bigger-picture view that you want to take.

Marcus: That's a good point too. I always start with looking at the month metrics. I zoom out. Then when I see interesting little spikes here and there, then I'll zoom in and see, "Okay, what specifically was it that I posted that day that people responded to?" I'm not going day by day. I'm looking at the overall trends, month to month, week to week. We have to assess it to see. We have to look at some data points, but it's not letting those data points become all we focus on in the grand scheme of things that we have to do with our limited time. Then you mentioned ads. We do get a lot of questions about investing in ads early on, especially during a launch campaign and that sort of thing. You have some very strong opinions about ads.

Jenn: I do because so many people think that ads are the answer to everything. Throwing money at something will be the solution. Again, when you don't have a clear message, when you don't have a clear way to communicate and convey to your readers what it is about your book that makes it stand out, you're just going to be piling more and more money into the fire. When we can use ads as maybe gasoline to add to the fire, when we know something is already working, that we know, "Okay, this is really tracking with people. This is a great converting message that really turns people around," that is when you can really step in to use ads.

Now, one thing that I do recommend is if you're doing something like a social media ad, let's say Facebook ads, when we test an ad, we're paying for that. That can add up. Especially if you have a very, very limited budget, that's going to eat up your budget. You'll hear a lot of people say, "It takes a lot of money to make a lot of money." That's fine. If that's how you want to do it, that's your prerogative. If you are wanting to play around with ads or even test that out, what I would recommend is taking it as a post first.

See, "Okay, are people actually clicking on this? Are they engaging with it? Am I actually seeing people click the link to learn more or leave me a comment if you use Manychat or something like that?" That is going to be a better indicator if that is going to be an effective ad. You don't need to test a bunch, do a bunch of A-B testing, and paying for that. Try that within your feed first to see if that is going to get you the results that you want. Then once you do find one that really pops off, then that's when you can invest some money behind it in some ads.

Marcus: The other thing that I see a lot of authors trying to do is going into that ad strategy before they even have their complete online presence built out. They don't have a newsletter set up. They don't have multiple ways to capture people's contact information on their website. There's nothing wrong with just making an ad to say, "Hey, buy my new book," but that money will be much better spent. The time you invest in that will be much better spent if you have your overall platform and that funnel, that journey that you want your readers to go through fleshed out and that framework in place to where they can engage with you on a deeper level than just putting an ad out there to promote one specific thing.

Jenn: It's always time well spent setting that foundation, getting yourself situated, knowing what people are responding to, knowing what it is that you should invest, not only your money but your time into. When I say a lot of time, it doesn't mean you're taking months and months and months. This is taking a couple of weeks to get these things in order, then testing it out. When you do that, you're not going to just be throwing money away or wasting a lot of your time. You'll be much more effective and much more strategic.

If you're looking for help on building out your marketing systems and getting your overall framework in place, I would highly recommend that you download our free Book Marketing Blueprint. It's going to help you get things started, but then the next step would be to get The Book Marketing Starter Kit. That is going to give you your overall framework. That's going to give you your unique strategy and plan that will help you get your marketing in place, help you connect with your ideal readers, and ultimately help you sell more books.

Marcus: As always, we love to hear from you and see what's working for you and what you're struggling with so that we can know what we need to talk about on the podcast in future episodes. Let us know in the comments on our website. Let us know on social media and send us an email. If you haven't signed up for our newsletter, you can do that as well.

Jenn: Thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon.