Book marketing is the channel through which an author achieves the entire purpose of writing the book, which is getting the book to the targeted audience. Achieving the above goal would be impossible without an effective book marketing strategy.
The issue oftentimes is that many writers fail to see their books as products that require proper marketing. As a result, less emphasis is placed on acquiring the necessary skills to effectively promote and sell these books, leaving many of them gathering dust on bookshelves.
Even though every writer and author dreams of seeing their work reach new horizons and generating both recognition and financial rewards for their intellectual and financial investments, the lacking factor oftentimes is knowing the right strategies to engage to get the desired result.
In this blog post, we discuss six strategies that will help you get copies of your book to your desired audience.
- Social Media:
There are an estimated 4.4 billion users of Social media platforms all over the world. Making them one of the most effective ways to easily reach more people and increase productivity.
By following some proven strategies, authors can successfully expand their existing audience base.
Below, we will explore ways in which authors can grow their audience on social media.
- Create an author profile.
- Increase your audience by interacting with people by engaging posts made by others, and via groups where readers of your genre can be found.
- Share short stories, articles, and excerpts from your book to keep your audience engaged.
- Interact with followers and other authors on their posts and through direct messaging.
In general, by utilizing social media, you have the opportunity to launch captivating campaigns that will announce your book and attract a larger audience to your profile.
- Website and Blog:
Owning an author website helps you to build a strong author brand that allows you to engage with your audience through blog posts or newsletters, and also sell and promote your books directly. This can also help you reach out to potential publishers.
Components of an Author Website
(i) Home page: The homepage comprises a short introduction into who you are, what you do, and some blog contents that you have written.
(ii) Blog page: This will allow you to showcase your expertise by sharing valuable articles, stories, and other interesting contents with your visitors. Links to interesting blog contents from an author’s website can be shared on social media and via newsletters to drive traffic to the website and sell books and courses.
(iii) About page: This gives well-detailed information about the author. These include; achievements, published books, and other projects and services that you can offer.
(iv) E-store page: This is where all completed projects are displayed to make buying easy for visitors.
Alternatively, an author’s website can have a page showing courses developed by the author. An author’s website is another marketing strategy that shows people that the author is well-organized and worthy of their trust and patronage.
- Create Visibility for Your Book by Hosting Contests and Giveaways:
Contests and giveaways are great means that authors can employ to promote their books and increase visibility.
For example, as an author, you could make your followers guess something and win copies of your books. You can decide to host competitions on your social media handles or via your website and give copies of your book as prizes for winners. You can also give out copies of your book on specific days of the week and month.
- Price Discount:
Offering a price discount is a powerful tool that can be used to captivate potential readers, drive sales, and create a buzz around your book. For example, If the original price is $100, you can decide to do a price slash for $80 and let it run for a week or more. That way, people who might have conceived the idea of getting a copy can take advantage of such an opportunity.
Discounted sales can be used to gain massive attention when done during holidays such as Christmas, Easter, and New Year celebrations.
Discounted sales do not mean that you value your book less but that you want more people to have more copies so that you can achieve the purpose of writing the book and get a return on your investment. Everyone loves discounts, not minding even if it is just a cent that has been taken off the original price.
- Reviews:
Sharing reviews from people who have purchased and read your book will also help increase sales. People are often convinced that something is good and beneficial when they hear or see what others say about it.
Get honest reviews from your readers and share them with your audience on social media and on your sales page to increase sales.
- Facebook Ads:
Facebook allows you to run ads targeting specific audiences from a certain area or across regions where you would like your book to be seen and read. Although Facebook ads will cost you money, you can set a budget that will allow you to run ads for several days in a week.
You can also drive traffic to your book sales page on your website by running ads on Facebook. You can also run ads from Google ads to your website, taking advantage of keywords.
Conclusion
Book writing is a great investment as it demands a lot of time, energy, dedication, and financial commitments on the part of the author. This is why authors ought to view their book(s) as products that should be well marketed, even though it will require investing more finances to achieve that goal.
The importance of book marketing cannot be overstated. It is one of the basic avenues through which authors can get renumerated for their efforts invested into creating their books.
The points discussed in this blog will not only help you sell more copies of your books but will also put you in a place to become a well-known authority within your genre of writing.