Why email marketing really does sell books (and 21 other things to think about while we’re at it)

POSTED ON: 04/03/17 TAGS: Budget Facebook Lessons Masterclass

by BMS

In a recent post on Twitter, marketing whiz and self-declared ‘book champion’ Sam Missingham shared a full suite of her own #bookmarketingtips for the great and the good to share widely. We brought them together for you here, because we’re nice like that. 

  1. Email marketing sells books. Build an email list. Then use it properly (more than once a month).
  1. BookBub sells books by the shedload – if you can get your book(s) on there, it’s 100% worth the money.
  1. Put some effort into the design of your emails (most are ghastly). Please, please, please optimise for mobile!
  1. If people never click on your emails, delete them. Then segment the remaining to optimise open & click through rates.
  1. Every other industry in the world uses email marketing at the heart of their activity. They don’t do that for fun. It works.
  1. Every single book marketing campaign should have at least two data capture opportunities (most have none).
  1. Competitions will return the worst quality data. They are also lazy (although we all do them). Think bigger.
  1. More generally, if you have no idea where to start with marketing, look very closely at the activity of similar authors.
  1. Things you should look at – their social feeds, website, email newsletter and the categories they choose on Amazon.
  1. Authors – your website should work for you. What one thing would you like a visitor to do? Sign up? Download free book?
  1. You DO NOT need a big budget to do great book marketing. You need ideas, time and energy.
  1. If you don’t believe 11. let me list the books with big budgets that didn’t sell.
  1. Facebook offers extraordinary targeting with paid-for ads. Follow @pbackwriter and learn how – look at his courses.
  1. Never, ever waste money on a book trailer. They DO NOT sell books.
  1. Social media sells books (nowhere near as well as email) but you should choose social channels you can use properly.
  1. Do not spread yourself across all social channels and do them all badly. Choose two or three and put energy and time into.
  1. Not sure what to prioritise? Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads would be my top three. But, different genres work different channels.
  1. Wherever you choose to focus your social energy, you must commit and engage regularly.
  1. Working with book bloggers, booktubers and bookstaggramers. Yes, do this. A lot. Use this army of book champions.
  1. Blog tours work and will reach the most concentrated audience of book-lovers of all of your marketing.
  1. Encouraging readers to talk about your book as early and as much as possible is key. Georgina Moore (@PublicityBooks) is a master at this.
  1. If you are worried that someone is ripping you off with secret marketing sauce and trying to get you to spend money, DON’T!

 

Think you have others to add, or disagree? Join the discussion with Sam back on Twitter or let us know in the comments below.

 

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