A very large percentage of the book buying audience uses the Internet to find books. This is not likely to change in the future. Therefore a laser sharp book marketing strategy is essential for authors, as that is where your buyers will be found.
Book marketing (specifically Internet book marketing) is unlike real world marketing. It requires a completely different kind of marketing strategy. Here are 7 simple but very important ideas that might help you improve your results.
1. Understand Your Goals
Marketing should result in the exchange of money for a product, in this case a book. If this does not happen, then marketing becomes a ‘feel good’ exercise. Therefore the goal should be to get that potential buyer to take action and exchange something of value for your product. Telling somebody about something is one thing. Marketing on the other hand is communicating in such a way as to cause your buyer to:
* Do an Internet search
* Share personal information
* Press a buy button
* Share what they have found with others
* Become a fan
This type of communication is both a science and an art. Telling somebody about something is one thing. Creating action on the part of the potential buyer is quite another thing altogether.
In traditional marketing, we chased buyers around via advertising. That does not work well in the Internet environment, regardless of what you may have heard. In this environment, it is not really important that you find book buyers – it is more important that book buyers find you. This is the primary difference between ‘real world’ book marketing and Internet book marketing. Advertising campaigns in the real world are designed to identify buyers. We don’t have to do that on the Internet, as the buyers identify themselves by the very search terms are using. All that is required is that we get in front of them (hopefully first) when they’ve made a buying decision.
3. Competition / Branding
You are competing with every other book in the world. In the old days there are only so many books from which to choose in a bookstore. Now every buyer has every book available, everywhere, online with a simple click of a button. Your branding approach must be laser sharp. You must tell a better story than the other zillion authors out there. And you must get your buyers to take action.
The primary question any book buyer asks is “What’s in this for me?”. You must be able to state specifically why your book will meet your buyers’ needs. If you spend all your time telling your life story or bragging about yourself you will feel good perhaps, but your buyers will simply click away and go elsewhere.
5. Know Your Buyers
Whatever you do, don’t try to sell to ‘everybody from 18 to 80’. Your book is not for everybody. Even if it was for everybody, the real power in book marketing is found in segmentation. If you are sending one single message to your entire target group, you are in real trouble. An 18 year old female will not react to a message that is appealing to a 50 year old male. Nor will a 50 year old male react to the message designed for an 18 year old. You must understand the segments within your overall target audience, and develop a message that resonates with each one of those segments individually.
Yes I said it again. It is the most important aspect of marketing. You must understand what it is your buyer is looking for when they ask the question “What’s in it for me?” Your branding, your sales messages and every piece of communication you put out must dovetail in with THEIR needs as they perceive them. It is not what you want to say it is what they want to hear. ‘Everybody should read my book’ or ‘I wrote this book for everybody’ is a horrible marketing message. ‘A particular target audience slice should read my book because they will get benefit’ is a great marketing message.
7. Don’t Threaten Your Buyers
That seems like a silly thing to say. But in many cases this is what we see when we hit an author web site. “BUY THIS BOOK NOW!!!!” Completely wrong and very threatening. This is like walking into a store and the salesperson takes one look at you, runs up and says “GIVE ME YOUR CREDIT CARD NOW!!!
Is that really the impression you want to make on your target audience? Buyers must be led to a buying decision throughout the messages you’ve developed for that target audience slice. While a call to action should be near the beginning, only a NON-THREATENING call to action should be there. This non-threatening call to action can take many forms.
To summarize: the key to book marketing success is to get in front of pre-qualified buyers who have already made a buying decision with a very specific message designed for that profile that demonstrates that you have precisely what it is they seek. It’s not easy. It’s not simple. But failure to take a professional level approach to marketing a book can only result in failure.
Whether a product costs 99¢ or $99, the buyer goes through the same decision making process. You must understand how buyers go through that process and have a strategy that will lead to success in every single component of the buying process.
Want more? – click here to watch ’13 Ways To Improve Your Book Market Results Today’.
