For an author who writes in multiple genres, it can be confusing how to set up your author platform.
In this training, I will give you a quick branding tip for authors on how to brand yourself when writing in multiple genres.
Listen Below:
Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Stitcher | RSS
Click here to leave an iTunes review and subscribe to the show. Read my step-by-step tutorial and find out all the details here. If you have a specific question, I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a message here.
Re-Branding or Changing Your Brand
Just last week I was having a one on one coaching session with one of my Author Audience Academy members. We were talking about this whole topic of branding.
She writes multiple genres and she asked me, “Shelley, I just don’t know what to do. It gets confusing.” So we talked through the different branding things.
This is so timely because I am also in the middle of doing a little bit of tweaking to my brand. I’m not completely rebranding, but just a tweak and a change to my branding in the next few months.
Right now, I am juggling between being an author coach and as a business owner of Author Audience Academy. I also just launched my book Broken Crayons Still Color at the end of last year, 2016. At the same time, I also launched a podcast that goes along with the book.
So, I have that as well as some other Christian books I’ve written. And then, I just blossomed and developed this whole side of creating art every day. I’m now teaching art classes on SkillShare.
As of today, I have 8 classes but I have probably 10 more ideas. And you know what? I am actually making money doing it!
I also want to do in-person classes, and it’s something that is just coming out of me. So I’ve been thinking about how do I integrate all these things into my personal brand, ShelleyHitz.com?
So back to my Author Audience Academy member’s question, I shared with her something that I plan on doing. And she said, “Oh, I never thought of that before!”
I want to share it really quick with you here today.
Creating Landing Pages
My quick tip for you today is to create a landing page for your site. That is what I plan to do. I really tend to lean towards personal brands. However, there are occasions where you’ll need to have separate websites.
If you have a personal brand like I do at ShelleyHitz.com, you can house whatever you’re doing under that personal brand. If your branding or whatever you’re doing changes, then you still have your personal brand. It’s your name.
What I plan to do is have a landing page whenever anyone goes to ShelleyHitz.com. It’s going to say something like, “Are you an author? Click here.” And then it goes to all my author stuff.
I’ll also have another one that says, “Looking for Broken Crayons Still Color? Click here.” And another one which says, “Do you want to learn art? Click here.”
So I’ll have three different places they can go on my website. Those are the three main things that I’m doing, but they’re all integrated.
I was brainstorming the other day on some ideas for how to integrate my art and the Broken Crayons Still Color into my branding. With my art, I am now hosting a lettering challenge on Instagram. I really encourage people to join; it’s
called Hope-Filled Lettering.
The main thing that I wanted to share in my book Broken Crayons Still Color is hope. I want the readers to know that no matter what’s been done to you or what you’ve done, there’s still hope. My lettering challenge is also all about hope; it’s about sharing your story too.
So in the caption of whatever you letter, the word that day, or the phrase that day, you have to share part of your testimony or story. It’s really been amazing to see what’s happening as people are interacting with my testimonies and sharing their own. They are being empowered to share their stories. That’s the backstory.
I came up with the first draft of what my rebrand would look like. Here’s how it goes.
“Shelley Hitz is an author coach and artist empowering you to share your story in creative ways by publishing books, creating art, and letting your light shine for Jesus.”
My target audiences are Christians. And I do that through all the different ways that I have going on. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to have a million different websites. You don’t have to try to keep up with a million different things.
Just stay focused.
With a personal brand, that typically is going to be what many authors are going to operate under; your name.
Setting up Landing Pages is Marketing
With my coaching client, however, there was a very good reason for her to create a second brand, a second website. She could potentially get a ton of search engine traffic on the topic that she wants to do. So, I gave her some things to research and to think about. She is still going to make that decision on which way to go.
Whatever she does, she can still have that landing page that could lead people to her current book series, and to something else that she’s doing. You could have a landing page where you can tell people where to go and what to do. It’s marketing.
Set up Calls to action. Tell them the next step to take. Tell them what it is you want them to do next and where to find it. Try to make it as simple as possible.
Now I’m sharing this with you before I’ve actually done it myself. I have not done it yet because I had other things that have taken priority in my action list. So, that’s something I still want to do.
I still want to set that up, but it’s also giving me time to marinate on the idea. I still have time to pray about it and ask God about it more. I felt like God had given me that quick little phrase and byline, but I’m not sure if that’s the final one yet. That’s just the first draft.
So I’m still thinking on it. It may end up looking completely different for me, but I at least wanted to share the idea with you.
You can have a landing page that sends them to the different things that you do. This way you won’t end up having a million different websites and URLs. Just send them to your name. And ShelleyHitz.com is where you can find me.
I hope you found this helpful. If you did, please share it with your author friends. Until next time!
Watch the Video Below:
Click here to get notifications for my Facebook Live training.
Have Comments or Questions?
Share them in the comments below.
Leave a Reply