How To Effectively Market Your Business Book
As a business owner, the one thing you need most is building a trusted community who will recommend you to others. Next to marketing, publishing a book can elevate your brand to new heights. But how exactly do you effectively handle both without delaying your publishing date?
Before even considering becoming a published author, let’s take a look at a few of the benefits:
- Increases visibility and sales
- Attracts influencer connections
- Improves your brand perception and authority
- Opens the door for investment opportunities
- Draws attention from the media
While there’s a lot of time and effort involved in writing, the process of selling your book begins even before a single page is finished.
The best time to start the marketing plan for your website and social media channels is NOW. But you’ll need to write from great knowledge and with the right tools. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your time and making no progress in your overall strategy.
In today’s online networking environment, book tours and traditional marketing methods have become a smaller part of creating visibility to your audience. This is especially true for those who purchase books online. We now tend to connect with our readers directly – through webinars, live broadcasts, email campaigns, tweet chats, and more.
Where to Begin
A great marketing plan begins at the website stage. It then moves into consistent remarkable content on your blog and social media. The goal is to build an interested audience at least a year ahead of your publication.
Start small, building your social net worth sooner rather than later, focusing on the right social networks in order to maximize your reach and effectiveness.
Tap into your current trusted network of relevant connections and influencers who will be willing to share your content on their social media accounts and blogs.
The more relationships you can build online will greatly increase your book sales and media prospects.
As your business establishes authority in a specific topic, there are a few points to consider before making a plan:
Focus on a Selected Number of Social Media Platforms
The two top performing social networks are Facebook and Twitter. Most audiences are still engaging here, even after Facebook’s recent privacy concerns.
Before moving beyond these two platforms, find out where your readers are most active.
This all depends on your niche and whether video is a part of what you are publishing.
For example, business authors who are in the non-fiction category should look closely at networking and engaging on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook in order to connect with like-minded professionals. This is different from fiction authors, who experience greater exposure on Instagram and Pinterest.
Start Building Authentic Relationships
- Focus on readers who will become the interested buyers of your book(s)
- Consider segmenting your subscriber list in order to nurture the right audience in your email campaigns
- Start a specific hashtag Twitter chat or live webinar
- Engage in focused social groups for your niche
- Utilize paid advertising
- Strongly consider guest blogging
Building your prospects usually takes between 6 months and a year, depending on how active you are. Always keep in mind that it takes time to build authentic brand followers. But in the long run, it’s far easier to sell a book to a fan than a stranger.
Provide Valuable Insights
You can keep your readers interested in your upcoming publication by offering free advice, reports and helpful videos, and by hosting valuable giveaways during the early stages of your launch. Once you build a strong level of anticipation for your release, you will greatly increase your chances of word of mouth marketing and sales.
A subscriber List is Like Gold
As social media continues to evolve, one thing remains the same — staying in touch through email.
Make sure that what you will give your readers in exchange for their email address is something they ‘can’t live without.’ Weak offers equal low subscribers. And while many people are choosing not to opt in through a blog, you can use other creative methods to encourage signups. These include:
- Reaching out via social messaging apps
- Creating a form they can sign up on through your advertising
- Podcasts
- Videos
Marketing Management Tools Don’t Need to be Expensive
There are a quite a few resources available that will enable you to track, engage, and share content with your readers without the need for a large budget. Many of these can be connected to your RSS feed as well, which can promote your posts throughout the day. As your budget increases, you can invest in higher-end management solutions.
Host a Book Giveaway
Contest tools such as Rafflecopter or Createspace can generate interest in your book with a free copy before the official publishing date. Tap into your existing network and ask them to promote your giveaway while providing a copy to them in return for the favor. After the contest has ended, reach out to the winners to thank them for their interest and to stay in touch for any future publications and announcements.
Publishing a book for your business can greatly enhance your brand authority online. But the timing of your publication needs to be right in order to get noticed. Jumping into this too soon without a ready audience could cost you in both credibility and valuable time and resources.
Do the work of generating interest and cultivating relationships first. There is no substitute for a well thought out content marketing plan. Be sure to employ one before your first publication is announced.
You may also want to read: How the Right Content Strategy Will Aid Your Inbound Marketing
Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_gopixa‘ / 123RF Stock Photo
Susan Gilbert
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