MARKETING ... Offline and Online
CHOOSE ONE OF BOTH OPTIONS TO DO EACH WEEK, MONTH OR QUARTER
THURSDAY
As I mentioned previously, there are 100’s of ways to market and new ones show up every day. It can be overwhelming but you can’t let yourself be paralyzed by the many options.
My recommendation is to just pick one offline and one online option and start. Do TWO things each week, month or quarter depending on the complexity of the action or strategy.
Start simple!
OFFLINE MARKETING
Collateral Materials
Your one OFFLINE strategy might be to create one or more of these collateral materials. They are inexpensive to produce and can be handed out, mailed or emailed when you create pdfs, jpgs or pngs … design (or have someone design) a:
Bookmark
Business Card
Postcard
Sales Flyer
You can create one of these or get it done as a package deal. At some point you can use all of them. All of these pieces should have your Book Cover, a short Description of the book, a way to Contact you (email, social media or phone), where to Buy the book (a url for Amazon or your website), and your Photo. Your photo is necessary on a Business Card or Sales Flyer (it is optional on Bookmark or Postcard due to space limitations). If it is a children’s book and there is a prominent character, like Asher The Dog or your book is not published yet, then the character can be used effectively.
ONLINE MARKETING
Social Media Graphics
You might want to choose Email / Social Media Graphics as your ONLINE strategy, but the samples below can easily be printed and used as flyers to hand out at events. Again you want the same basic information as above but these graphics need to be saved as pdfs for emailing and jpgs for social media platforms.
Many people have emails if not an actual list so pdfs are good for attaching. Most Social Media platforms (Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) do not allow pdf uploads so you also need jpg files. A .pdf is an unchangeable format and a .jpg or .png is just a file format designation for a graphic, just like .doc for word documents or .xls or .cvs for spreadsheets.
Again these can be simple like Baby Bear and Rotary Perfect Engagement, or a little more detailed like Piper, Daphne or our publishing guide, depending on if you are promoting during a launch of a new book or developing an ongoing campaign.
We create different Social Media Graphics for hardbacks, paperbacks and eBooks (which can be read on multiple electronic gadgets: phones, tablets, kindles, nooks, or computers). We also do this based on our audience and how they like to receive their information.
Some of you where asking silently or out loud “Why do I need to include my photo?”
It’s a valid question. You don’t have to use your photo. However, if you want to speak to audiences to accelerate your return on investment (get paid to speak or read your book). People like to know who they are dealing with. A photo gives someone a level of comfort. You are a real person. People buy from people they know, like, and trust, and a picture goes a long way to making that connection even before you meet on zoom or in person.
If you have marketing questions, feel free to ask them in the comments or on any chat thread.
Cheers to your marketing success, Liz