In this post I want to share with you what I call the Promotion Pyramid, three things every author needs to have as part of their book marketing strategy.
You can watch the video replay from Periscope or read the transcript below:
If you have a book published, how many of you love the process of marketing your book?
How many of you love marketing? You just can’t wait to dive in to marketing tasks.
Yes or no?
If you’re like most of the authors I coach, you’re going to say, “Not really.” Most authors I work with love to write, but don’t necessarily love the process of marketing. I would say that most of you probably can related to that.
Now, I do love marketing. But it can get overwhelming at times.
However, sometimes we simply need to transform the way we see marketing. That way, when we transform the way we see marketing, it won’t be something that we dread, but something that we look forward to and enjoy.
How Do You See Book Marketing?
To illustrate this, I’m going to share two different scenarios.
Scenario One:
Scenario one is, you’re walking down the street. You’re late to a meeting. Your hands are full. You have all this stuff going on. Your mind is going a million miles a minute.
You look at the corner where you need to cross. There’s a guy standing in your way. He has a bullhorn. He’s standing on the street corner, and he’s shouting something.
Now granted, he does get your attention, but it’s kind of annoying. But, he’s in your way and you are late. You need to get where you need to go, and you don’t really hear what he’s saying. You notice him. He does get your attention. But you just keep walking on by.
Scenario Two:
Scenario two is, you have an acquaintance that don’t know her very well. She sees you in the store and she says, “Hey, I have been wanting to get to know you better, and I would love to invite you to my house for coffee. By the way, I make really good coffee. I’d love just to have you come over and we can get to know each other a little bit better.”
You’re respond, “Well, I’m really busy this week, but maybe next week.
She’s says, “Sure. Any time.”
So you guys set up an appointment for next week. You get to her house, she invites you into her home, and she gives you free coffee that really is awesome. She delivers on her promise. She gave you that free coffee and it was really, really good.
You have a great time. She asks you about yourself. She tells you some stories about herself. Then she invites you to a barbecue again next week in her neighborhood if you want to come back.
A Book Marketing Strategy That Works
A lot of authors tend to be more like that scenario one in their book marketing strategy, where we’re broadcasting, “Buy my book! Buy my book!”
To be honest, we’re probably annoying people more than we’re getting our message to them.
However, what I want you to do is I want you to transform the way you see book marketing, to see marketing as a relationship with each individual person that you come in contact with.
At the core of marketing is relationships.
When we start to think about marketing this way, whether you’re introverted or extroverted, no matter what your personality is, you have relationships in your life. You have people that you know, like, and trust. That’s part of marketing.
Yes, real marketing is all about relationships.
When we start seeing it this way, not only will we not dread marketing, but we’ll start seeing much bigger results.
Scenario two represents the basis of what we often call permission marketing. Permission marketing is saying, “Hey, I have something of value to offer you. I have this really, really good coffee. I have this free offer. I have this free video series. I have this free PDF. I would love to invite you into my house, into my website, into my online home, and I have something of value to offer you. I want to get to know you. I want to tell you some stories about me. I’m not just going to spam you every day on my email list.”
That’s permission marketing.
You give somebody a choice. They can say, “Yes, I want to sign up for your email list,” or they can say, “No, I’m not interested.”
However, you want to deliver on your promise.
Just like in scenario two, she said, “I’m known for really good coffee,” and she delivered on that, we want to deliver on our promise, whatever we’re offering to our audience.
3 Things Every Authors Needs to Have as Part of Their Book Marketing Strategy
I want to tell you three things that I believe every author needs as part of their book marketing strategy. I call this the Promotion Pyramid.
If you want to have long-term results, if you want to have sales over the long haul and not just a quick boost of sales from a book launch or paid advertising.
#1: A Website
Your website is your home online. It’s that hub where everything else goes from.
So I want to ask you today, are you homeless? Or do you have a home online?
It doesn’t mean you have to blog. It doesn’t mean that you have to be blogging all the time. But a website where people can find you, they can contact you, and they can know how to buy your books, products, and services.
#2: Social Media Presence
The other thing I believe every author needs is a social media presence.
Oh, I know what you’re going to say. You’re thinking, “Oh, Shelley, social media drives me crazy. It overwhelms me. I feel overwhelmed.”
But you know what?
You only have to do one or two. Choose one or two social media platforms and do them really well. Hang out there a lot and interact with your audience.
Find where your audience is. If you write young adult, or if you write for teens, teens often hang out on Instagram. If you have an audience that is filled with adults of pretty much any age, most adults are on Facebook, and you’ll find them there. If you have a very image-driven content, Pinterest might be a good place for you. Or if you service businesses, LinkedIn maybe.
But just choose one or two. Don’t feel like you have to do everything. In our culture, you do need to have an online social media presence.
#3: Subscriber Email List
The third thing I believe every author needs in their marketing plan is a subscriber email list. That’s what I was talking about with the permission-based marketing.
An email list where people are signing up. They’re subscribing, and they can unsubscribe at any time. You do not want to spam people.
You do not want to just create a list in Gmail or Yahoo or whatever, and send a bunch of bcc, a list of emails on bcc. That’s considered spam and it is illegal. I see authors doing it all the time, adding me to their email list without my permission. To be honest, it’s very annoying.
You want to have a permission-based email list, where you’re inviting people in. You’re giving them something of value. You’re inviting them to build a relationship with you, and then you can continue from there.
The Promotion Pyramid
I believe that each one of you has a message to share with the world in your book, in your business, whatever it is that you have, in your ministry.
By using this book marketing strategy I call the Promotion Pyramid correctly, you can have long-term success. Using this exact strategy, I have sold hundreds of thousands of books, literally, since 2008 when I published my first book. I’ve sold over 103,000 books.
I want to see you have success as well. Instead of being that bullhorn on the corner, “Buy my book! Buy my book! Buy my book!” I want you to be the one that’s offering that amazing cup of coffee that they want to come back for every single time.
They can’t wait to hear from you. They’re opening your emails and they’re listening to your podcasts. They’re reading your blogs, because they know you have value to offer.
Go Deeper
I can’t share everything on this short training, and so I’ve created a freebie for you with tutorials on each part of the Promotion Pyramid: your website, on your social media, and on creating an email list. Download it at promotionpyramid.com.
Your Thoughts?
What do you think about this book marketing strategy? What has been most successful for you to sell more books?
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