Marketing before Writing
Are you following marketing hints and tips from posts in social media?
How is that working for you?
Often people give hints and tips on Marketing who are not Marketers and yet people take the tips on board without question!
This applies to tips about writing, publishing and marketing a book, too!
The biggest problem when it comes to tips about marketing a book is, the person giving the tips starts from the wrong point in the writing and publishing journey of the author.
Here is an example to show you what I mean:
The energy coach and trainer had her book finished, published and printed. Stacks of them printed in anticipation, ready for sale.
At that stage she realized, she had no plan and no idea how to get sales or how to even talk about her book to get people interested in wanting to buy it.
Business contacts told her to use FB ads – guaranteed to get results because they can be targeted. The problem, her book was not written in a ‘targeted’ way!
After several thousand dollars in ads, someone suggested social media posting about her book, they said it would be cheaper than ads as long as she’d post regular.
Who has time for social media posts, every day, several times, on several different social media platforms, she thought?!
So, she engaged a VA to do the work. That means, yes, it’s ‘cheaper’ than ads, but is still an expense if not recouped.
Results? Equal to the FB ads, not much, not what she had hoped for because, the post contend was not specifically addressing people who would be interested in reading her book.
She went back to the suggestion by her publisher: do a book launch!
(…in case you don’t know, publishers are Not marketers!)
The coach followed the written instructions from the publisher and set up a book launch.
She set up an FB Event page and invited people.
She hired a space at a hotel (yes, it was before our current restrictions!) and ordered platters for an evening launch, with a podium to read from her book at and a signing table and space for boxes of books next to it.
She even got a mention in the local paper about the event and sent out emails to her lists.
While she had around 30 – 35 people turn up in person and the platters were eaten up in a flash her book sales and signings amounted to only 25 which is not a lot in relation to all the time, effort and money spent on this marketing activity alone.
The first question I asked her, when she came to me for help, was:
“What outcome did you have in mind, for you book?”
(watch the video, top of the page, where I explain what I mean by ‘outcome in mind’ in this post:
https://stickybeakmarketing.com/training/)
Interestingly, the coach did have an outcome in mind, it was just not obvious to her how to go about achieving it, and NO ONE before, of the different people who’d made suggestions for her marketing, ever asked her this.
She wrote the book to show how her training program in Energy Healing worked for other Practitioners and how it can easily be integrated into practices of most Natural Therapies.
BUT she had not given the book an appropriate title that would make this immediately clear.
(read about how the book title decided the clients/readers you attract, here: https://stickybeakmarketing.com/your-book-title-determines-your-clients/)
Her book title was cryptic at best, you know, something you see many business or leadership coaches but also health & wellness coaches and consultants use, to make their book look ‘intelligent’ and ‘professional’, like:
‘Amplifying your Intuition’, ‘The Power of Facilitation’, ‘Conversations on Human Centred Change’…
WHAT does any of that mean? Nothing, it’s not clear what it is about and who it is for!
The biggest hurdle for this Energy Coach with marketing her book, meaning getting it into the hands of practitioners who could well integrate her method into their work, was that the book was not written specifically with only practitioners in mind!
Her chapters were a mixture of addressing client issues and training tips for practitioners.
Unfortunately, this coach had written well over 80,000 words (more than 300 pages) and was not prepared to spend time to re-write the chapters so we could bring a focus to the book, make it clear who would benefit reading it and place appropriate calls to action into the book to guide the reader to come and contact her.
(read my post on writing a book to get clients here: )
https://stickybeakmarketing.com/book-to-get-clients/
What we did do was, create targeted text, targeted blog posts, email content and a clear marketing strategy for her to specifically attract practitioners to read her book and come to her for more information on her methods to integrate them in other natural health practitioners’ practices.
(this is not always possible to do with a book that was not written with an outcome in mind from the start)
That type of work, deciding on who the book will be for, how to ‘speak’ to that reader inside the book and how to create trust throughout your chapters, is making the book ‘Marketing Optimized’, which happens throughout my Write and Publish a Marketing Optimized Book in 6-Weeks or less Program.
Simply starting to write a book, which many people do, and then expect to market their book after it’s finished and published, and then relying on marketing tips from ‘anyone, will not work if you did not start writing with an outcome for the book, in mind.
So where do you need to start to market your book?
BEFORE you start writing!
There is more to writing and publishing a book, even if people think the writing might be the ‘hardest’ part, or the ‘finding a publisher’ or ‘finding a printer’.
NO, the ‘hardest’ part, or the part that needs to be most considered, is the marketing of the book and HOW to market the book and that is best planned BEFORE you write the book!
If you need help writing your book and have NOT YET started, DM me. I work with coaches and consultants, like the Energy Coach who’s story I shared above.
My 6-Week Program starts with clarifying the outcome you wish to achieve with your book, and who you are writing it for.
I also teach every step of the way, from planning the book outcome, the chapters, the marketing, using my proven method (that can get you at least 1 actual client from your book out of every 5 books sold (or given away, whatever works for you)
And I show you how to publish your book on Amazon, so you have full control over your book, any changes you wish to make anytime, (which, incidentally, before mentioned coach only had the kindle version on Amazon and she was much relieved once her print version was uploaded and ready for sale online, was in place! No more having to package and mail out copies ordered herself!)
That means she (and you!) can sell it globally without having to spend time packaging and posting it out to people!
If you want help to write and publish a marketing optimized book to get either more clients, clients faster and easier because the book has developed trust in you, or the book was planned and written to be your authority tool that will open new doors, new industries or perhaps media opportunities for you, simply send me a pm and we’ll chat over messenger to see if you are a good fit for this program.
Enrolment is quick and easy and in most cases we can book our first, one on one session right away.
Looking forward to messenger chatting with you!
