If you’ve just now published your first book, you are FINALLY ready to move on to the next big task: marketing and promotion! There are many proven methods when it comes to marketing your book. If you’ve published through IngramSpark or Amazon’s KDP, you’re off to a good start with world-wide distribution to retailers and wholesalers. Congratulations! Now what? What can you do in addition so you can sell more books directly and cut out the middle-man to reap a better profit? Lets take a look at a few possibilities.
Website / blog
There’s no question about it, if your desire is to sell as many copies of your book as possible, you simply need to invest in a website. Get one up ASAP and get to work at gaining traffic through consistently posting articles and offering valuable information to your niche audience on your blog. You are the expert, so be the expert in your posts. Please note that Google prefers your own URL when it comes to setting up a website, so instead of going for a freebie blog, make the extra effort and financial sacrifice to have a professional website built. You can’t go wrong getting a web hosting account with your own domain as well as WordPress set up. In many cases it only takes a few clicks to turn one on, and get a nice template installed. Going the extra mile will show you’re serious and boost your authority in a subject while winning trust in a wider circle.
Find some easy-to-follow DIY SEO tricks and implement them to increase organic search results. You need people to link back to you, so the first “trick”, really, is to write great and engaging content that people naturally want to share. Be sure your site is intuitive and takes no effort on the part of the reader to spot your new book and either a shopping cart to buy it, or a link to the right places (Amazon, B&N, etc.). Your articles and titles should include the most important keywords relating to your newly published book that will help rank in Google sending a hungry target audience directly to you. Remember, keep your website clean, up-to-date and be sure to add all your social media links! Which brings us to point the next point:
Social Media and Youtube
A strong web presence includes activity on multiple platforms of social media. The first obvious thing that comes to mind is to regularly link out (along with an image) new articles from your blog on all the major platforms. You can easily do this by hand, or you can use services like dlvr.it or Buffer, and many others. Take time and post to each one individually to yield better share and retweet results if you don’t want to spring for a paid service. When posting, use attention-grabbing headlines, hashtags, (don’t overuse), and consider your timing for the most possible visibility (like, not Friday afternoon at 4pm!). Most importantly, give away value. It’s tempting but short-sighted to post about your new book and go on mentioning it incessantly. Take a long-view approach and spend time building a strong network—more on that later.
Now don’t forget about YouTube. Check out the video below for a better understanding on the benefits of using YouTube as a powerful marketing tool for your product. Keep in mind, the more you plug into various social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc.,) the more effectively you’ll spread your net. Google loves a well connected, active blog: your web traffic will increase.
Build an email list
Make good use of every page view by offering your visitors an opportunity to sign up for your email list, this way you don’t lose potential readers for future articles and promotions. Give something away that has value for someone in your niche to entice signups. Give, give, give. You can use web pop-up forms to collect emails (check out Easysendy) as well as other tools like Thriveleads and Optimonk to name a few, to help create and build your email lists and potential client base. Our personal favorite is OptinMonster: not cheap but world-class and has a TON of great features. Once the necessary tools are installed on your site, begin to pull together valuable and engaging content to send out to your list on a scheduled basis. Include a catchy headline to encourage your readers to click through and read your updates. Periodically, you can send out book promotions, discounts or whatever works to keep your network thankful to have you show up in their mailbox.
Network and run promotions
Make the time to reach out to various book review/promo sites and submit your work. You should connect to as many as you can for the widest audience possible. Seek book reviews, offer free copies or discounts, share social media, and a link for your newsletter. Always look for new opportunities to broaden your community. Here’s a list to get you started.
And finally…
Give, give, give, then give some more
Probably one of the most promising strategies for true growth in your business and sales is your level of integrity, generosity and commitment to your work. When you enjoy what you do and offer value to others, you gain sales as a by-product; marketing and selling become an exciting and integral part of your overall success – not just an aggravating arm of the business. Theres’s lots of ways to give whether it’s offering a free product, or volunteering to do guests posts, offering helpful comments, liking and sharing other’s work while putting yourself out there in goodwill – but use commonsense and don’t wear out the welcome mat. Contribution to those in your network/industry will always come back in your favor, so there’s no need to worry about giving things away and losing profit. There’s nothing to fear in plain and simple goodness. It’s a win-win situation all around. The goal is to make your efforts communal, relational and build the industry as a whole, not simply propagate yourself as if you weren’t connected.
“And they lived happily ever after…”
We’re only skimming the service to give you a decent starting point. You’ll discover much more as you begin to delve deeper into marketing and self-promo – including book signings, training sessions, talks and lectures, and the list goes on. So, get on with it, and go as far as your vision and energy take you!
