Archive | May, 2010
Difference Between Book Marketing Strategy & Book Marketing Plan
The terms marketing strategy and marketing plan may sound similar, but the truth is that they’ve quite different. Many people often mistake the two for one another and that can sometimes lead to ineffective marketing, especially when it comes to your book. A marketing strategy is shaped by your goals and is more of a summary that illustrates your position compared to the competition. In contrast, a marketing plan is the actual application of what your strategy is. The marketing plan is your roadmap that takes you from point a to point b.
The first step in developing a marketing strategy is to decide what you want your promotional efforts to accomplish. Do you want to sell more books in Texas? Are you interested in increasing your audience base to include auto-biography fans? Create a detailed list of what your short-term and long-term objectives are and they will become the foundation that your marketing plan is built upon.
Your marketing plan will include in-depth details such as budget, sales forecasting, strengths and weaknesses and market data such as, market growth rate, consumer trends and competitive information. The combination of all marketing plan components will provide you with a working document that can be used to focus your efforts and measure their outcomes. This is important because it illustrates success and failures and allows for fine tuning your plan if needed.
You can’t have a marketing plan without a strategy and a strategy without a plan is worthless. They both are needed in order for your marketing efforts to work effectively. Think of these two pieces like a pair of legs – they’re both required if you want your marketing to stand on its own.
The nice thing about a marketing strategy and plan is that they aren’t set in stone. If you’re headed down a path that doesn’t seem to be producing the outcomes that you had hoped to achieve all you have to do is sit down and re-focus. Because these are working documents, they’ll grow as you grow.
Book Marketing Mistakes For You To Avoid
When it comes to book marketing, it’s definitely more of an art rather than a science. Standard marketing tactics are pretty straightforward and without much variance. It’s the level of creativity and personalization applied to the marketing tactics that can make or break them. Like all techniques there are a few mistakes that you’ll want to avoid making.
1. Not having groundwork for your platform. If you don’t conduct research and start building a network for your book before it’s published, you won’t have relationships or connections in place to help you push and promote what you’ve created. Like the old saying goes, “It takes a village.”
2. Narrowing the scope of your audience. You may have a sci-fi novel that would move Asimov to tears, but focusing solely on fellow robot enthusiasts is selling yourself short. Broaden your audience base by exposing your book as much as possible. Take care of ISBN title registration and ensure availability of your book through major wholesalers.
3. Failing to embrace technology. It’s been said many times throughout this blog, but just in case, here’s a repeat. Your book must have a website. It’s an absolutely critical marketing component that has a direct impact on sales and recognition of you as an author. Times have changed and online is where you have to be, including your book.
4. Poorly edited manuscripts. Your book is a reflection of who you are as an author. Make absolutely certain that you take the time to have your book professionally edited and reviewed for any text errors. Having clean and cohesive content is an essential part of any good book. Don’t cut corners with editing.
5. Poorly designed cover art. Hate to say it, but as human beings we’re attracted to aesthetically pleasing things. Spending the time to work with an experience graphic artist or designer can make a huge difference in how appealing or enticing your book jacket will look. Unattractive or substandard isn’t going to sell. This is one rare instance where you can judge a book by it’s cover. If it’s not appealing, it’s probably going to gather dust.
Take the time research and outline your book marketing strategy. There are a lot of moving parts so consider each one carefully before embarking on your book promotion journey. A little effort will go a long way.
10 Hot Book Marketing Ideas
There’s an endless supply of marketing ideas and suggestions for promoting your book. Some of them work and others, not so much. No matter what marketing strategy you choose to implement, the success of your endeavor boils down to execution. Without proper execution, many wonderful ideas end up dead in the water. Keep this in mind before your jump head first into the marketing ideas below. Careful planning can transform these tips into amazing marketing techniques that have the potential to catapult your book sales.
1. Make a Video
Selling your book means you need to connect to your audience. When people see you and hear you they can make an instant connection. As it stands, video searches are growing by leaps and bounds and word on the street is that Google is developing voice recognition and auto-captioning, which means that videos will soon be searchable by text.
2. Short Story Teasers
Create a story about your story. Many authors are finding that these separate mini-versions work like trailers for a movie. They’re hooking the audience and leaving them wanting more. Offer the story for free, keep it short and simple and watch the interest grow.
3. Contests
Life is one big carnival and people love it when they win a prize. Create a contest and give-away an autographed copy of your book.
4. Gather Reviews
There’s no escaping the power of a good review. Even though readers don’t hang out on book review sites, getting the websites where they do hang-out to read and post a review offers instant appeal and credibility.
5. Build a Website
Don’t build a website about yourself. Make it about your book. Turn the book into an online character and put it in the limelight. Integrate a strong advertising and promotion campaign on each page within the site. Include links to the media attention and book reviews that you’re receiving.
6. Virtual Reader Communities
There are a ton of these sites out there and they’re a goldmine full of book marketing opportunities. Visit Goodreads.com, LibraryThing.com, AuthorsDen.com and RedRoom.com for tips and inspiration.
7. Book Competitions
Check your ego at the door for this one. Entering author competitions is a super hot way to network, promote your book and, quite possibly, win the whole kit and kaboodle. Join a local or national author society to learn more about scheduled competitions.
8. Be Like Vaynerchuk
Read up on Gary V. and use him as a case study to market your book. Visit his site at: www.garyvaynerchuk.com
9. Compilations
Be a team player and submit your writings into a compilation book. Not only do you promote yourself, but others promote you too. It also lets you step outside your genre and broaden your audience reach.
10. Blog
Write about your book each and every chance that you get.
eBook Marketing Plan
You’ve written your eBook. You’re ready to share it with readers. What is your next step? Promoting your ebook requires some marketing creativity and tenacity. Roll up your sleeves and put on your marketing cap. These marketing basics will get things moving in the right direction. You can always customize and build on them once they’re in place.
Start with an ebook mini-marketing plan. It doesn’t have to be fancy or deeply detailed to start. Just a nice, tidy outline that answers some key questions and lists some of your primary objectives with your ebook. For instance, who is your audience? Where is your audience? How many downloads are you aiming for per month? You can easily outline this in a simple one-sheet, but make sure to put some thought and consideration into your questions and answers, as well as realistic and attainable objectives.
Use what you’ve got. Take the resources and tools that are already available to you and use them to your advantage. For instance, if you have a blog, use it as a vehicle to build a marketing campaign for your ebook. Create an editorial calendar and start planning your blog posts around themes directly related to your ebook. Tie in a link to your ebook and a call-to-action for ebook downloads in each and every post. Make sense?
Here’s where your social media profiles come in handy. Update your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts with ebook mentions and links. Get the word out that your ebook has arrived and that you’re ready to share it. Consider putting together a download contest and challenge fans and followers to try and be the 100th person to download. Award the winner with a prize like an iPod that includes an audio version of your ebook.
Make your ebook front and center on your website. Feature it prominently on your homepage and use starbursts and call-outs on subsequent pages to remind visitors to download a copy of the ebook. You’ll also need to drive traffic to your website. Write articles and press releases announcing the launch of your ebook and start posting and distributing them on ezine sites.
With a little effort, you can create momentum and generate buzz about your ebook and do it all with out breaking your bank.
Taking Social Media to the Next Level
Quite a while ago, I wrote a post on something that I saw happening that disturbed me. It seemed that everywhere I went in my social media circles; I was confronted by hate. Actually, I was simply seeing the tools of social expression and free speech utilized in a way that I abhor. Some people really enjoy engaging in demeaning and destructive behavior. N the face of this I find it important to support people gathering to learn how social media can bring us together, not tear us apart.
In Hawaii, our islands are separated by water, lots of it. Further, we are separated from the mainland by miles of open Ocean. Since our physical location isolates us, facilitating communication and community is crucial for our progress. Recently, our communities have begun to explore the role of social media in our own social progress, city to city, island to island.
Taking Social Media to the next level in Hawaii was the focus of the event held at the Hawaii Convention Center this past weekend. Graced with exceptional speakers, including our own Oahu resident Roxanne Darling, the conference touched on many subjects that intersect with social media including branding, start-up capital, privacy, Facebook, blogging, WordPress, customer service, fans, followers and the democratization of publishing.
Chris Pirillo communicated the importance of not trying to get creating community “right” if it means that you sacrifice creating any community at all. Perfectionism doesn’t belong in your social media strategy.
Chris Pirillo on using social media
Geoff Livingston presented his ideas about publishing content and creating branded networks. Using the example of Lady Gaga, he spoke about her ability to enthrall her community. She is not afraid to let her community use and contribute to her content. It has moved every one of her past six singles to #1. (Click on his name to read his presentation).
Andrew Hyde shared strategies and insights on using social media for start-ups, from getting funded to finding your audience and market share.
Andrew Hyde on start-ups and social media
Aaron Brazell showed us all of the trends and upcoming changes happening in WordPress (my favorite blogging platform). WordPress is about to release the highly anticipated WordPress 3.0 and Aaron explained how companies should look at the latest developments.
Aaron Brazell on WordPress trends
Jesse Stay took us on a tour of Google, Twitter and Facebook in his presentation From Fishers To Farmers. The main idea he wanted us to adopt is to “fish where the fish are” meaning that with the number of people on the internet and using social platforms that you ignore social media at your own peril.
Roxanne Darling rocked the use of video in social media in her presentation on Online Video For Business. Explaining the power of video to communicate, convince and convert, she detailed many different types of video and using them to market your business powerfully.
Clearly, we are beginning to see this kind of education as paramount in the adoption of these technologies, philosophies and strategies to bond communities and bridge gaps, physical or otherwise. In the case of technology and society in Hawaii, I would think we would be early adopters – since we like to “talk story” so much. Sharing is part of the culture here. It is our Aloha.
And for many, the Aloha is why we live here.
So how do you think we will be effected by social media?
