Digital Marketing Best Practices for Authors
Authors tend to get overwhelmed by the idea of marketing. Marketing your book digitally can be quite a learning curve. How do I run a social media account? Why should I even bother if I don’t have any followers? I’ve been there, I get it. It can feel like you’re just sharing content into a void without making any real connections. When it comes to our projects, we want to just release it into the world and hope that it reaches people.
But the truth is, if you want people to connect with your book, you’re going to need to connect with people first. And I’m here to tell you that marketing your book online is not as hard as you might think.
Here are some marketing best practices and how you can use them both on and offline to build a reader list.
Show up
When you start using social media it can be easy to post once and then revert to consuming all the other content that everyone else is sharing. Don’t fall in that trap.
Show up consistently and you’ll start to make connections. It won’t be instantaneous, and you probably won’t go viral. But virality is not what we’re going for. We’re looking for a dedicated community that will support you whenever you release a new book. To get that community requires a steady dedication on your part to interact online.
Get comfortable with engaging with other authors, agents, editors, and your readers. Comment, like, and share their posts. When another author has a new book out, share about it. By doing so, you’re building rapport with other creators and your own followers. Other authors will be thankful to have you sharing their work. And your followers like to see that you’re engaging with others and not just constantly promoting your own book. In other words, be a human on the internet.
That being said, don’t try to engage on ALL the social media platforms. You don’t have the time or bandwidth. Instead, learn who your readers are (or who you want them to be) and go where they go. For example, if your readers are mostly women, you’ll probably want to hang out at Instagram. If your readers are mostly men, X will probably be your platform of choice.
Build Relationships On and Offline
I know I just said that the benefits of digital marketing is that you don’t have to go anywhere, but I can’t stress enough how important real life connections are. If you’re able, take time to attend conferences, or writer’s meetups. The connections you make there, will also transfer online where you can continue to engage with them, any time and any place.
Build a Brand
Authors groan whenever brand building is suggested. It can be so difficult to know how you want people to perceive you. But hear me out. When you’re building a brand I don’t necessarily mean a logo or brand colors (Though I personally love that aspect of branding). I mean create familiarity between yourself and your readers. What type of books do you write? What type of books do you read? What are your hobbies? How do your hobbies and interests reflect in your writing. Readers need to know what to expect from you as an author, and want to know more about you as an individual.
Nail Down Your Bio
A good bio, whether on your social media or at the end of a piece you’ve written is vital to gaining new readers. When someone enjoys a piece you wrote, they’ll look at your bio to learn more about you. This plays into brand building. A reader who’s just found you, should be able to look at your bio or your social media feed to discern if you’re the right writer for them.
When writing your bio on your website (and yes, you should have a website), include all of your qualifications and interests. Make it personal. Readers want to know what you’re about and where you invest your time.
When writing bios for social media, you’ll want to tailor them to each social platform. Some platforms will adhere to more professional information (like LinkedIn). Others will be more personal and based on your vibe or aesthetic (like Instagram).
Digital marketing is one of those things that we all have to have to engage in order to keep up with the rest of the world. Today, you need to use digital marketing for you book if you want it to connect with the right readers. Hopefully these tips will help you step out of your comfort zone, build relationships, and connect with people in new ways.
Want to know more about digital marketing?
If you want to know more about how to build a brand, I’m working on a branding PDF download for authors. Subscribe to my newsletter to stay in the loop for when that comes out!
