By Dana Lynn Smith
A written book marketing plan is an essential tool in effectively promoting your book. One of the first priorities in developing a marketing plan is to define your target audiences. Your audience may be wider than you think. Your marketing plan should include strategies for reaching several different target audiences, including:
1. Readers
These are people who buy the book to read. This is the most obvious category and it includes your primary audience (the “ideal customer” that the book was specifically written for) as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic.
2. Purchasers
Many book buyers purchase books for other people. For example, people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, and women buy men’s health books. Companies and organizations buy books to give away to their customers, members and prospects. Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks?
3. Influencers
Don’t overlook the importance of people who communicate with your target customers and can let them know about your book. This includes bloggers, other writers in your genre, journalists, book reviewers, and other experts in your field.
In online marketing, the “influencers” may be the most important category of all. Think about how much you can multiply your book promotion efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers and customers.
Other people who cater to your target customers can promote you and your book in several ways, including blog posts, links to your website or blog, Twittering, newsletter articles, and media sharing tools like Digg and StumbleUpon. It’s important to develop relationships with these influencers, as part of your book marketing plan.
Traditional and online media are also important influencers. You can reach them through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article distribution. Be sure your book marketing plan includes strategies for promoting your book to all of these important target audiences.
Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer’s Guide series, www.SavvyBookMarketer.com. For more book marketing tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter and get your free Top Book Marketing Tips ebook at www.BookMarketingMaven.com.
Courtesy: www.ezineArticles.com
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
The Complete Guide to E-mail Marketing: How to Create Successful, Spam-free Campaigns to Reach Your Target Audience and Increase SalesResearchers estimate that by 2008 e-mail marketing revenues will surpass $1.8 billion dollars annually. Are you getting your share? According to Jupit... Read More >
