Would you as an experienced entrepreneur bring a product to market without a go to market plan? You wouldn’t, would you? Many entrepreneurs write and publish books without a moments thought about how they are going to use their books, let alone how they will market and sell them.
When in book planning mode, it’s a great idea to get clear on how you want to build your personal brand and promote your book. There can be nothing worse for a writer than getting to the end of the writing process and wondering ‘what next?’ Yet many do.
Your overall business strategy
Your book marketing is a big part of your personal brand strategy and not the overall strategy.
Look at your overall business strategy and consider how your book compliments with that. Get clear on your values, passion and vision and then look at your books dovetails into the rest of your plan. It’s not about where you can fit it in, it is about developing an integrated marketing and personal branding plan.
Does your book meet the needs of your market?
Your book is a product when it comes to creating your go to market plan, in that, you need to know what problems it is solving so that you can position it in the right way. I expect that you are writing a book that fits with where you want to take your personal brand, and you will have already decided on your ideal reader, aka your target market.
Are you clear about how your buyers buy from you?
Do you know how your buyers purchase from you? Will your book follow the same pattern, or do you need to create another way to attract them? Consider the route your customers take, ask if this is appropriate and if not, start to research how you will get them into your book sales funnel. What I have discovered is that my book clients come mainly from personal recommendations. Course clients in other ways.
Your book launch may not generate lots of leads and that’s ok
Your physical launch may not generate as many leads as you might have hoped. However, it is an invaluable ingredient in raising awareness of your brand. Plus it creates a wonderful feel good factor sharing your journey and your book with those that did come to your launch. There should be lead generation activities before and certainly on an ongoing basis afterwards.
Test what your readers want before you launch
From the moment that you know what you are writing your book about, test your readers. Ask for feedback about suitable titles and subtitles, float book cover ideas to them, share ideas about different aspects that you are covering and tell them about the journey. Design every interaction so that it gives you valuable feedback and builds a fan-base waiting to read your book.
Have a follow-on marketing plan
Start with a roll of brown paper and coloured pens and kick-start your brainstorming and then create a list of activities in a spreadsheet or business planner to keep you on track. Think author bio, social media profiles, professional photos, videos, sample chapters, blogs, interviews, podcasts, infographics, Tweets, website, Facebook page, adverts, webinars, actual book launch, virtual book tour, email lists, Amazon author page, follow on courses etc. When I say etc, I mean that there are many, many more ideas than just these listed. Pop on your thinking cap on and ask around about what has worked for other authors. Research what other authors have done. Gather ideas and assess them. Then work out in what order you will do them. Some are a must and some will be nice to have. Always test, test, test.
Have a plan and then take consistent action.
Start promoting early
My advice is to start early. Writing a book can be a challenging process without having to worry about all of the marketing that has to go into to it. The earlier you start, the more rewarding it will be, and your brand and books profile will be raised long before launch day.
Start today
Today tell your community that you are writing a book. Ask for beta readers now. What about case studies, ask for them next.
Be brave and be bold. Get out there and rock your book.
There is much more to marketing your book than the brief overview here. However, whatever you do – create a plan.
