by Cathy Lewis
Like an expectant parent, you anticipate the arrival of your newly printed book with eagerness and excitement. But the work isn’t over yet. It’s time to go into publicity mode.
Your next move is to hire a PR agency that specializes in book marketing. You want a firm with experience, a great reputation, and a proven track record to get your book off and running.
You and the firm will create a digital marketing strategy — building a brand, creating (or refining) a website and social media channels, establishing an engaging tone for your messaging, and adding appropriate, appealing images, videos, interviews, and other relevant content. Together, you and your publicity team will establish timelines for fresh material to keep your online presence fresh and relevant. If you’re incorporating digital advertising, additional appropriate content will be created for that, including images, videos, cinemagraphics, and copy.
Measuring Your Strategy’s Success
Once all the pieces are in place, they also have to be tracked. Many indicators can measure the effectiveness of promotion elements in place, including:
• Digital Property Traffic to your website, your blog, and your social media channels
• Interactions and Engagement by influencers and on social media
• Attendance at Events or speaking engagements
• Media Coverage and reviews
• Leads, such as gaining brand ambassadors and getting requests to be on mailing lists for more information
• And, of course, Sales, including Internet sales and distribution
Sales are certainly the bottom-line metric for success. Yet with authors and books, there are nuances to consider. Each month of a campaign builds a stronger foundation for future success through a combination of both measurable and unmeasurable results — and both are key.
Within that sales funnel are multiple touch points. For instance, your PR agency schedules an author appearance on an influential radio program and thousands of listeners tune in. A few may go and purchase your book immediately, but for many others the broadcast creates an initial awareness and interest. Some may wind up at a party, or at the water cooler, and mention the book in conversation — expanding the awareness of you as an author as well as a net of potential, tangible sales.
It’s difficult to trace the origin of each sell — much like trying to trace the path of a dollar bill over the course of a few months. Yet what may seem random is all based on the foundational strategy and actions taken to further that strategy. Together, they combine to achieve the planned results.
Marketing Your Book through Teamwork
Together, you and your PR team build a collaborative relationship based on trust, confidence, and transparent communication. You as the author are in on the discussions concerning marketing strategies and tactics so that you understand the necessity and function of all the components and have confidence in the overall strategy. That means communicating frequently about progress among coordinated efforts and their associated measurements of success.
Through the campaign, you and your PR firm can celebrate achieving each marketing goal — whether it can be gauged through tangible, immediate efforts or not. At the same time, your efforts to establish your digital persona and presence are establishing and solidifying your brand as an author — not just for this book, but for others to come.
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Cathy S. Lewis is president of CS Lewis & Co. Publicists, a boutique publicity firm that’s been turning authors into newsmakers and generating book sales since 1996. Learn more at www.cslewispublicity.com.