Amazing sales of your book rely on an effective marketing strategy. If you have written a new book, it is highly unlikely that you will get immediate sales and profits.
The truth is that even if you have published a praise-worthy novel, it requires time to get the desired awareness and attention. It won’t get into the collective consciousness of the audience immediately.
In consideration, you require a marketing strategy. It must back up your goals while taking into account the increasing competition and evolving trends. It’s no longer possible to depend on traditional marketing strategies.
We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected business markets. The shut-downs have led to long-lasting impacts on supply and demand. For example, in the book market, Amazon has cut down production significantly.
As a result, self-published authors are facing increased difficulties in their endeavors. So, if you want to make a living from your book, you need to develop innovative plans to enhance marketing and boost sales.
Don’t expect your publishers to promote your book. They are usually only responsible for the distribution. For the promotions, start working before the book is launched. Are you confused? Then hire book marketing professionals. They will help you with marketing that will lead to an increase in the demand for your book.
6 Powerful Book Marketing Ideas
To publish a book on your own, you need to spend time promoting it. This approach creates demand in time for your book launch. To do this effectively, you need to focus on learning how to market your books.
First, set a target that provides you with direction and a path to follow as you prepare for your book launch and beyond. Understandably, it greatly helps if you have a target audience in your mind when you are writing the book. Now, you’re looking to create buzz and engagement, which takes time. So to begin the process, you need to share information about yourself and the book first.
The marketing of a book is finding ways of connecting with your target audience. However, it is not a simple process. It greatly helps if you have strategies coupled with the right tools and techniques. It requires effort. Primarily, the focus is on increasing the book’s visibility, which significantly impacts the expected sales.
Here are some great marketing ideas for books that can boost sales and help in achieving the desired attention:
Design and Manage Your Blog or Webpage
A website or a blog is an excellent way to reach out to potential readers. Additionally, it provides a direct line of communication between the reader and you. Furthermore, the webpage or blog can give them the option to order directly from you.
The webpage or blog can also serve as an introduction to you and the book as well. Early bird reviews can also be highlighted there. These will help in building the right perception of your book.
You can utilize a webpage or blog to showcase behind the scene insights. These insights could include your journey, your inspirations, and your creative process. They help forge better connections with potential readers. And can have an impact on potential sales.
Define Your Target Audience
Any product will fail to have the desired outcome if its target audience is not clearly defined. The same goes for your book. Do you know your target audience? Have you tailored your work to the audience you intend to market to?
For example, if you have written a book on good parenting skills, you are targeting parents. Hence, you’ll require marketing strategies that specifically target parents.
It all starts with surveying the audience. It’s a critical marketing approach. First, you’ll need to find out the demographics, psychographics, and behavior of the audience. All of this makes it easier to understand your readers and market.
Once you know your target market, start planning on how to reach out to them. You’ll find various channels and marketing tools that you can use to connect with your audience.
Take Advantage of the Halo Effect
Cognitive bias is a real thing. Through this, you can understand why some brands and products are smarter and more credible. For example, Apple products are seen as more trendy and advanced than Samsung or other mobile brands.
Are you aware of the Oprah Effect? It refers to the impact and popularity once experienced after an appearance on her show. So, if you want to gain attention from the masses as a new author, you need to appear on shows when you can. Start by getting featured on a radio program as they are easier to get on to.
Additionally, these days maintaining an online presence can make it significantly easier to build an audience.
Your Book Must Have an Eye-Catching Cover
Ever heard the phrase, never judge a book by its cover? Well, the truth is that people do judge books by their covers. So, it means that as an author, you need to have an attractive cover.
So, it’s time to wear the ‘reader hat’ for your book and start thinking like your customer. Writing a book is a challenge. It involves a tremendous amount of time, money, and effort. So, it is worth investing in the cover for your book.
History shows that writers who didn’t care about the quality of the cover failed to attract and impress readers. Therefore, it is important to think like a reader.
Ask yourself, what was the last book you purchased? And then think about how much influence did the cover have on your purchase. So, the cover creates an impression and compels the potential reader to pick up and browse a book.
Connect With Media, Bloggers, and Influencers
Today, social media is a significant part of any effective marketing strategy. So to get your book out there, get the right people talking about it.
If you have any idea about marketing, you must know the effectiveness of endorsements and word-of-mouth. For influential marketing, you need influencers.
They don’t need to be very well-known outside of your niche. But do make sure that your target audience is well acquainted with them.
These days, it is easy to find bloggers and media influencers. However, the trick is to find the ones that align with your book’s target audience.
Then, contact them and offer a PR package that includes the book and related merchandise and ask for reviews on their accounts. This way, you can reach a much wider range of potential readers.
Take Advantage of Book Promotion Websites
To boost the sales of your books, you need to invest in promotions. For this, take advantage of the promotion sites for books. Then, choose the ones that would be best in giving you the desired results.
The process begins with finding some book promotion sites. Then, you will have to test these sites to see if they work for you or not. Finally, after the book is displayed on the promotion site, assess if the book sales have increased or not.
Some of the best sites for book promotions include:
- BookBub
- Bargain Booksy
- BookSends
- ManyBooks
- BooksButterfly
For your book, you’ll have to choose at least 2 to 3 sites for these promotions. It will increase visibility and help you build the right audience.
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that, like any other product, book marketing also requires a strategic plan. For example, you can’t expect to boost sales through a single tweet. Therefore, it’s up to you to manage the marketing yourself or allocate the budget to hire book marketing professionals.
It helps if you go beyond the strategies that we’ve talked about throughout the post. For example, a fully fleshed-out marketing plan for a book involves a dedicated book launch, social media attention, reviews, and media coverage. So even if you cannot do everything mentioned before, you still need to do some of them.
Selling books is not as easy as selling other products. Therefore, if you want people to read your book, you need to promote it and create buzz about it.
Marketing a book is similar to writing it as both require a proper plan with the right tools. The best strategies take into account both short-term and long-term goals.