If you want to engage more readers, expand your following, and methodically organize your efforts, you need a book marketing plan, regardless of how experienced you are as a writer or how new you are. Unfortunately, too many outstanding writers go unappreciated because there isn’t enough marketing and sales support.
However, developing a marketing plan before the book launch helps an author have a comprehensive perspective on creating and distributing a book to readers. Marketing is even more important in this digital world because information consumption habits are continually evolving among the audience. Moreover, effective marketing strategies can help catch readers’ interest, sell or distribute more books, and boost your author profile. In addition, you can start building direct connections with your readers and a following with the right marketing techniques.
So, making a book marketing plan, where you evaluate your new position, identify your primary goals, and select the means for achieving them, is a smart place to start when figuring out your marketing strategy. This is what you can do to make your book a success.
Creating A Book Marketing Plan
Finding out your position in the industry and conducting market research are two of the essential stages in creating a marketing plan. By investing more time in research, you will gain valuable insights that will allow you to experiment with other marketing methods in the future without having to start from scratch each time.
Evaluate Your Current Situation
You need to assess some criteria to determine at what stage you are standing. It includes factors about your book, yourself as an author, and most importantly, your target market. Here are some factors you can consider:
You must first decide a few things about your book, such as:
- What is the subject of your book?
- Are there any books on a similar subject?
- What distinguishes your book from those of your competitors?
You should also take into account a few aspects of yourself as an author, such as:
- Are you well-known in your industry?
- Do you possess specialized knowledge on the subject of your book?
- What distinguishes you as a writer?
Additionally, you should figure out a few things about your target market, such as:
- Who is most likely to buy your book?
- What common passions do they share?
- What themes unite these individuals?
It isn’t recommended to include broad groups like parents over 30; you need to be more specific. List as many different audiences as you can that you believe would be interested in your book. In the future, whether you are a published author or self-published, having an engaged audience with which you are familiar will be advantageous.
Analyze The Competition
- Who are your major competitors?
- To whom are they advertising? What types of audiences do they attract?
- Where are their publications being prompted?
- What marketing strategies do your rivals employ?
You won’t need to reinvent the wheel if you simply follow your competitors’ smart ideas. Knowing your competitors well can also enable you to position your book more effectively in the marketplace.
Develop Your Core Marketing Message
- How would you succinctly sum up your book?
- What few sentences would you use to sum up who you are?
- What key messages do you wish to spread across various media outlets?
Having a few strong core marketing messages from the start can help you learn how the audience responds to your communication signals; however, you can later change them according to the situation.
Set Your Primary Objectives
Prioritizing your primary objectives can help you decide which marketing strategies to use. Good objectives are clear and achievable. Make an effort to balance the difficulty of your goals when setting them. Setting objectives that are too difficult will not get you very far, but setting goals that are too easy will also not get you very far. So, establish goals for selling your book first.
The following examples of setting realistic objectives can be helpful to you:
- Create a fan following on a platform.
- In one year, sell a thousand books using digital marketing.
- Plan public speaking events to increase your brand’s recognition and revenue.
- Speak with podcasts, publications, newsletters, etc.
- By starting a blog and increasing traffic to it, raise awareness.
Choose An Appropriate Strategy
You will need to create promotional strategies for your book based on your objectives. With an appropriate marketing strategy, you can start achieving your specified objectives. Every goal could have a different strategy. For instance, if building a fan base is your objective, one possible technique is to do so by setting up a Facebook page. From that point forward, you will need to include the necessary measures to grow your Facebook presence. This could entail creating a Facebook page, interacting with other individuals, creating content, running paid advertisements, and so forth.
Alternatively, suppose you want to plan public speaking engagements to increase your visibility and revenue. In that case, you can develop a plan that involves direct communication with various organizers via emails, LinkedIn, and other means. For example, finding a location for your event and advertising it online, in bookstores, or wherever else you decide are possible steps related to the approach. It will be simpler to attract more attendees if you have a fan base you can connect with.
Create Promotional Material
Once you begin promoting your book, there will probably be a number of marketing channels you should be publishing to daily or weekly, and it’s easy to start feeling overwhelmed. Don’t put yourself in the position of needing to produce fresh content every day. Instead of writing all of your material on the day of, make sure to plan ahead and prepare it in advance so you can schedule postings.
Create a content calendar to schedule when and what content you will post to generate the most interaction.
Some examples are:
- You can hold contests where readers can win a free book by tagging and following their friends.
- You can tease your book cover concept before announcing it publicly across all of your networks.
- Create a media kit that you can hand to bookstores, so they have all the details they require to promote your book. For example, a press release, the back cover blurb, a schedule of your book signings, information on where to buy your book, and the publishing date should all be included in your media kit.
- Create a template for your email list and a list of blog post topics. You will have a timetable with all of your content ready to go when it’s time to launch your book promotion.
Gather Reviews
There are many books available, but readers don’t want to waste all of their time in reading them. However, the importance of book reviews in persuading readers that a book is worthwhile of their time and money cannot be overstated.
So, reach out to influential people, bloggers, genre enthusiasts, or well-known reviewers and offer them a free copy in exchange for an honest review on your website, Branes & Noble, Amazon, or another site where people can buy or search for your book. Reviews on numerous websites can contribute to the impression that people are talking about your book, and word-of-mouth advertising is a potent method for increasing book sales. You will have a number of reviews waiting in the wings on the day your book launches, ready to dazzle potential customers.
Decide Your Marketing Budget
The next stage would be to estimate the approximate cost of each activity after listing various approaches and actions. Select lower-risk strategies you think will have the most impact if money is tight. Even while manual outreach is time-consuming, it’s economical and a terrific way to expand your network of contacts.
To plan out your marketing strategies and be ready for them, you must decide how much you are willing to spend on your book promotion.
Consider your audience and what it will take to reach them, including the type of material you must produce and the platforms on which it should be distributed. For example, are you going to make a promotional video or a book trailer? Are you going to run Facebook ads? Are you planning to publish a print book, and have you considered the expense of printing it? Also, take into account whether you will have to travel for conferences, readings, or book signings.
So, make a spreadsheet with a list of all prospective expenses to determine how much cash you will need to reach your objectives.
Set A Suitable Timeline
A timeline is crucial for tracking your progress and getting ready for tasks that could take longer to complete. Every definite action you plan to do should have a deadline. You should also establish a schedule for ongoing tasks that must be completed periodically.
Remember that many of the actions you will do will pay off over a longer period. It’s okay if you don’t notice results immediately because marketing is a continuous and time-consuming process.
And the most vital aspect is to remember to monitor your progress. How many new followers have you gained this week? How many books were sold in the previous month? How many brand-new visitors did your website receive? These outcomes are frequently attributable to additional actions you took, such as arranging an author event, obtaining media coverage, using Facebook advertising, etc.
Conclusion
So, have you ever wondered when you would give yourself a high five and crack open a beautiful bottle of wine to celebrate? The key word here is realism. Also, remember that your book marketing plan shouldn’t contain any unrealistic goals.
That’s it; now you have written your entire book marketing plan. You currently have a detailed plan to follow as you do your book launch. Best of luck!