If you think writing your book was a challenge, wait until you start marketing it. Marketing can be one of the most challenging, most terrifying, most divinely rewarding tasks you’ll ever undertake. Unless you’ve written your book as a hobby or as part of a therapeutic process, you want it to sell, right? Awesome! Keep reading for ten marketing tactics and strategies you can implement today to send those books flying off the shelves.
Use your Google search bar and an online keyword finder to identify the best keywords and long tail keywords that will help readers find your book online.
Create a video book trailer and put it on YouTube – one of the most powerful, frequently used search engines in the world. Then put a link to it everywhere you are online – social media, in your email signature, where you guest blog – everywhere!
Identify your ideal reader. If you don’t know who you’re selling to, you won’t know how to reach them. Ask yourself the following questions:
who is my ideal reader?
how old are they?
do they shop online or offline?
do they prefer kindle or print books?
what blogs do they read?
Build an email list of your readers. Offer a lead magnet – a checklist or other freebie – for signing up for your email list. You’ll have a list of people who already have an interest in your product, and those folks are much easier to sell to.
Enroll your book in Amazon’s KDP Select program. Readers are more apt to read a free selection and you get paid from an established pool of cash even though the reader gets to borrow or keep the book for free.
Leverage the unparalleled power of social media to create an author brand, engage with your readers, and position yourself as an expert.
Choose a strategic partner who can help you sell more books. A strategic partner is a fellow business owner who has a complimentary, but not competitive, business and who comes into regular contact with your ideal reader. For example, a chef and a foodie or a divorce attorney and a financial advisor.
Partner with other authors. Get together with other authors to create a book bundle, to host a writer event at an indie bookstore, or to create a local writers mastermind group.
Perform at least one marketing activity every single day without fail. Mark Cuban of Shark Tank fame says that without sales you have nothing. He’s right, but without marketing you have no sales. Take time to put at least one marketing tactic to work for you every day of the week – even if you have to schedule it in advance.
Write a good book in the first place. Period. Enough said.
Try the marketing tactics above to jump start book sales. Business owners – and that’s exactly what self-published authors are – need to market, market, market. Marketing leads to sales and sales is the only way to get to profits.
If you need my help in reaching your writing goals, email me at CrystalClearPublications@gmail.com. Or, you can text, I'M READY to (443) 826-9646. Also, check out the PREMIUM course at Creative Writer's University.
https://www.creativewritersuniversity.com/ Cheering for your writing success always!
Crystal