A marketing plan is a crucial publishing component for an author. A good marketing plan will give focus to your efforts to get your audience’s attention. A good plan makes it easier to get and nurture leads. Developing a sound book marketing plan requires an expert team to maximize the return on your book promotion investment. Here are four common mistakes to avoid when promoting your book.
1. Lack of a Marketing Plan
The marketing plan is a collection of tactics to achieve specific goals. These goals might include; increasing your reach online, building new book awareness, or increasing book sales revenue, increasing book distribution, earning the attention and respect of a specific audience for other purposes (such as getting speaking engagements, leading seminars, etc.) The tactics in the marketing plan should all work together to accomplish the specific goals you outline. If you aim to develop your author brand over five years, the marketing plan explains how different promotion activities lead to your final goal.
2. Failure to Get Input and Buy-In from Stakeholders
As an author, you probably have a team around you: people who have a vested interest, a stake in your success. Your publicist, the publishing house, your legal advisor, distribution partners, board of directors, and accountant, even people who may be referenced in your book. They all have a stake in you being successful. They might see opportunities or potential problems that you might have missed. For instance, the accountant might help to stretch your marketing budget over a long period instead of splashing it on just one big event
3. A Lack of Research and Details
The marketing plan must be a product of research you have done on the market you are in or are wanting to reach. Leave nothing to chance or assumptions. Important details might include the market size, available book distribution channels to your market where your market congregates, what other similar resources do they buy, how easy, difficult (and expensive) will it be to reach the audience that will be most receptive to your message.
The tactics you intend to use to reach your marketing strategy goals should be detailed enough. For instance, if you plan to tap into a new audience over the next three years, your tactics must outline how to get there. A tactic might include making guest appearances on platforms that allow you to be seen or read by this target audience. Your publicist may book interviews for you on podcasts, radio, or TV. And you could also collaborate on short pieces of work with authors who are already visible to your target audience. The more detailed a marketing plan, the better it will work.
4. A Lack of Performance Tracking and Reporting
Once you begin executing your plans, it’s essential to keep track of the results. If you run an ad, how many responses did you get? If you post a video, how many views did you get? If you do an eblast, what was the open rate? The click-through rate? You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Failing to monitor the performance of your marketing efforts will likely result in you wasting precious marketing dollars. Don’t just keep spending money on a strategy because it feels good. Analyze everything. For instance, if your goal is to create enthusiasm for an upcoming book, you need to monitor conversations in your audience community. Are people recommending or referring your book to others? Are they posting positive online reviews? Are people previewing your book landing page but not buying?
Higherlife Publishing & Marketing’s expert team has created marketing plans for authors connecting them with their audiences. We will conduct research, develop a strategy and the marketing plan to get you in front of your readers. For a free 30-minute book marketing consultation, click here or call 407-563-4806.
