Since my last post, I’ve been navigating the world of marketing, getting informed about every aspect and I’m now saturated, read overloaded, with information. I’m working on a marketing plan and found many useful sites with more advice than I could possibly want. What to do with all that information?
Business Goal Drives Marketing Strategy
Lucky enough for me, through an old training at work, I get regular newsletters about product marketing. I thought, a book is a product so the same principles must apply, right?
They do. A newsletter came recently about social media. What the article reminded me was that social media is the outcome of a business strategy, it is not meant to be the strategy. The business goal is what should drive the marketing choices. If social media supports a goal, then it’s a valid marketing strategy.
First, what are my goals? Here they are, in order of importance:
I write because I’m compelled to and get pleasure out of it; it’s a way to escape
I am publishing because I want to share my stories
I want to sell books
So far, so good. Pretty simple goals. What’s more important to me out of those three goals? The last few months, based on how little time I worked on #1, I have put the most importance on #2 and #3.
This leads me to the topic of this post, marketing.
Marketing serves goal #3. As with everything else, it takes time to establish a marketing strategy for the first book and I expect I will only need to make adjustments after I see what works and doesn’t. So a lot of effort up front but a lot less going forward. It’s an investment.
Notice in those 3 goals I have not stated I want to outsell the most popular books in my genre. Sure, I want my books to be a success but based on everything I’ve read, I can spend a lot of time on marketing and not necessarily get proportional success. All that time will come at the price of what is most important to me, to write. Researching about marketing has already cost me weeks of writing.
Still, it has been worth determining a marketing strategy, even if it’s a simple one because although one of my business goals is to sell books, for me, it's not all important, at least not right now.
From a marketing standpoint, my goals are:
To increase awareness of me as an author
Make interactions with me as easy as possible
Reach readers of my genre
Build trust and loyalty
Of all the suggestions and advice I read about, here is what I am taking away that support the above points.
Email Marketing / Email list
There are a lot of email options. Mailchimp seems to be the most popular one, with a free option that allows you to manage up to 2000 subscribers for free and send up to 12000 emails in a month (that’s equivalent to 6 emails per subscriber per month). If I get up to 2000 subscribers, I’ll be happy. Such a solution would definitely last me a while. If it doesn’t it means I probably have some revenue to upgrade. The outstanding question I haven’t answered is if I need to upgrade, is Mailchimp still the best choice, at least cost wise.
I found a lower-cost alternative with Elastic Email. I can send up to 150000 emails a month with a limit of 5000 a day, no limit on number of subscribers, for free. As I don’t intend on inundating my readers with more than a few emails a month (because more than that would come at the expense of writing), I’ve got a long ways to go to reach the daily limit of 5000 emails a day (equivalent to 5000 subscribers unless I sent to more subscribers over multiple days).
What got me interested the most is the cost if I reach the limits: it’s 9 cents for 1000 additional emails. That’s a very low cost compared to the lowest monthly plan of Mailchimp which is 10$ a month. And I like that they're a Canadian company.
But the choice of an email platform depends on the type of book you have and how much bells and whistles you need for a email marketing platform. I just want to send pretty emails to my subscribers and I don't want to pay much. The list of available platforms is huge and before picking one, look at the reviews and comparisons.
Elastic Email does come at the price of requiring a little more technical knowledge and fiddling. The choice of email platform should be a personal one. I’m not looking to blast my subscribers every other day but when there is something worthwhile to report.
Tying a domain email to an email platform
A side note about how to use an email from your own domain, something I googled so much my keyboard has burnt tracks on it and that I never got a good answer about.
What I wanted to know and googled was whether or not I needed to purchase an email box to use an email platform. The answer is no, which I really learned after I decided I would just sign-up to Elastic Email and figure it out as I went.
What I fiddled the most about tying my purchased domain to Elastic Email was that it was at my web host (wix.com) that I needed to set up the email records, not where I purchased my domain. The email platform will determine if you only get one email to use for free or multiples. I haven't tried to set up multiple emails with Elastic Email so I can't say yet if that's a limitation. But I used my first name with my domain name.
Mailing address in email marketing
Another aspect of email marketing that had me doing a lot of research is that legally, the sender using email as a marketing tool must include a valid mailing address. Using a personal home address isn’t something I want to do nor is it recommended, the biggest reason privacy. I don’t have a business address I can use so what to do?
Here are the options I looked into:
Get a P.O. Box
Get a private mail box
Get a virtual mailbox
In Canada, a P.O. box is about 14$ plus tax a month if paid annually. A private mail box at UPS is $240 plus tax/year. However, when I asked for the price of the UPS mailbox, a virtual mailbox option was given, without a contract, with a fee of $5 for every mail or package received.
As I don’t need the mailbox to receive anything physical, it begs the question why I would want to pay for a physical box in which I don’t expect anything to ever be delivered? All I need is a valid mailing address to send updates to readers who subscribe. The UPS virtual mailbox seems the best way to go at $5 per item. As I don’t expect to receive anything, this is the best solution to me. The best part, the address looks like a similar address to what it would look like if it was a physical address, it doesn’t look like a P.O. box. One item checked off my list.
Before I found the virtual box option (which is the real physical address of the UPS store), I was considering another option.
Encourage readers to follow me on Amazon
For a reader to use the Follow option, the author must first have set up an Amazon author page. To see how that works, I looked for an author who had one set up. I was surprised at how few authors (at least authors I want to follow) have done this. It wasn’t obvious to find the Follow button. I finally found an author and hit Follow. I did this for two authors.
It was harder to find where I could see the two authors I am following. If it’s difficult to find for me, it will probably be difficult to find for my readers.
I finally got an update from Amazon confirming I was following one of the two authors (a few days later). And at about the same time, a notice that this author had an update. Nothing about the other author.
Although it’s a viable, though a very much less than ideal solution to keep readers informed, it comes at the cost of the email coming from Amazon rather than the author. The other downside is that Amazon owns the email list, not the author. But if a valid mailing address wasn’t an option, because of cost or other reasons, this could be an option. Do not use a fake address, that is not a viable option.
Website and Blogging
I have both of these covered (you know this since you’re reading this). There are ways to drive more traffic to my site. I may not t use them fully yet but I will work on that further now that I posted my book cover and blurb. But I have at least improved my pages' SEO settings. All I need is a release date for Resurgence.
Now that I picked my email marketing tool, I added a subscription page to my website.
As for blogging, I have always wanted to blog about writing but had never taken the time. I am not selling tools or material to help other writers and I don’t plan on doing that. I obtained free help along the way and I am paying it forward. Besides, those most likely to read my blog will be writers rather than readers of the genre I write in. But that’s all right, I will eventually blog about my books too and those posts my readers will likely want to read.
I prefer to gain a following slowly but one who is loyal and truly wants to follow me. That supports my marketing goals.
Facebook and Twitter
These are social media that shouldn’t be ignored. These are easy (and free) tools that you can use to build a following. Just don’t be annoying. If your content has value besides “buy my book!”, you stand a greater chance of success. My value, at this time, is to help other authors like me.
I already created my Lori-Ann Claude Facebook page now that I have a professional author photo. Note that it's a page rather than a profile. There's a big difference. A page you can use to market yourself. Your own profile, you're not supposed to. There are marketing tools that come with creating a Facebook page that are not available to a simple profile.
And yes, I have started to tweet under LoriannclaudeAu! I even posted 4 tweets!
Book Sites
I’ve recently signed up to Goodreads. Every author should create an author page on this site. There are probably many other sites I can name but I’m only just getting familiar with this one.
Again, remember not to be annoying and if you participate in forums, be mindful of the rules. Forum moderators can be your friends unless you post about your books where you're not supposed to.
Free Material and More Free Material or Is It?
What I learned these past few months is that to build email lists, many, hmm, how to call them, advice givers, give away material about one thing or another about self-publishing or marketing, but they are trying to get you to spend money on a product they’re selling, yes, related to self-publishing or marketing but additional material. Some write fiction but their marketing is focused on selling tools to help self-published authors.
I am not complaining about the quality of the free material. In fact, most of the free information they provide is good and useful. But still beware of the following indicators that you should think twice before spending any money if you’re just starting out.
1) Some prey on impulse buyers
I subscribed to two newsletters where both of them offered me a course or product at a discount for a limited time, not that long after I subscribed. One said he was going to a subscription model soon and I was better to buy the tool right now at a discount.
I’m not very susceptible to such tactics but the same cannot be said of everyone. Again, I am not saying the offer wasn’t valuable but the email made it sound like success is not achievable without the tools being sold. I need time to make a good decision. Being rushed doesn’t give me time to look into their offer properly and evaluate my needs. We all like a good deal but it should be for something we really want or need.
2) They hook you with free material
If you have ever looked into Wattpad, then you know that many authors have built a good following or got discovered on Wattpad by giving away free stories in installments. This allows them to better sell their subsequent books especially if the story hooked readers enough. There’s plenty of data that supports this and offering a giveaway is a trick I will likely use as part of at least one marketing campaign.
The problem in this instance is that the free material is not to get you to buy their “next” book, it’s to get you to buy something about helping you better publish or market, not to get you interested in their “writing” like the next installment to a thrilling story.
3) They make you think you really need what they sell
Is what they’re selling worth it? Perhaps, perhaps not. I suggest before buying anything from them is to look at reviews of their material, good and bad (look in more than one place for reviews), about what you’re considering paying for. Most of all, ask yourself, “do I really need this? Do I need it now?” It may depend on where you’re at in your journey. Consider that maybe you can live without what they’re offering. Remember also that they use every trick to get you to buy something.
So use their free advice first, see how it goes. Look for more than one way to fix a problem you encounter, then consider all your options.
I’ve read often enough that money should flow to author and not away from then. Keep that in mind.
4) They inundate you with emails
I’m all for getting emails with great information but one email a day starts to get annoying, even if it's just to send me a set series of email. Sure, there’s an unsubscribe link but the emails would be a lot less annoying if each email didn’t end, in some way, in trying to sell me something or reminding me of something they have to sell.
That just turns me off and actually taints the trust they first built in my first contact with each one. It's like they don't value my time.
Amazon Marketing Services
Once you have a first book published, you can create a marketing campaign using Amazon Marketing Services based on how much you want to spend. I won’t go into the full details about AMS in this post, there is plenty of literature about this already. This is an option I will consider once Resurgence is available.
This can help boost awareness of a book if you’re willing to spend a little (or a lot) of money.
Reviews
Based on what I read, getting reviews for your book helps. Be aware that when a reader rates a book in Kindle after finishing it, it does not generate a review on Amazon, it only serves Amazon to determine what to email you about next. Readers have to go to Amazon to leave a review.
Find a way to encourage readers to take the next step to leave a review besides giving a star rating. You can also give advance reader copies but expect that you will not necessarily get a review from all of them. A site like Goodreads has many groups that help you find willing reviewers (or readers willing to read your book who may leave a review afterward).
Conclusion
For my first book, I have decided to keep it simple when it comes to marketing. I need, I want to get back to writing. Yes, I want to sell books and want to start off on the right foot. But I won’t get it all right the first time, even if I follow all the advice I read about. What works for some doesn’t necessarily work for all or for me.
My simple marketing strategy:
Website and blog (done) with a book landing page (done)
Facebook page (done)
Twitter (done)
Set up a mailing list (done)
Amazon author page (once Resurgence is published)
Join Goodreads and joining group discussions (done)
Create a Goodreads author page
All right so the majority of my posts to date were about self-publishing and very little about writing. The reason for this is that my focus since last fall has been about publishing my first book.
The main topic remaining about self-publishing is formatting my book for distribution, which I'm about to embark on.
After that, I will post about self-publishing and marketing only when I learn something new worthwhile to mention as I learn what works and doesn't work for me. I won’t go into this much detail about publishing my subsequent books.
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