| The
SBM Value Statement to Publishers & Self-Publishers:
We can help you sell more
books while maintaining profitability, Whether you are a
publisher or a self-publisher we can help you sell more books.
Are you using Social Media
aggressively? Do you have analytics on your buy pages? Are you
finding online partners and maximizing exposure? For
a complete "idea" list click here.
Strategic Book Marketing 101
Sales and Marketing professionals understand that completing a sale
is a two-step process (some say three steps or more, but for
simplicity let's boil it down to two steps). The two steps are:
1) Awareness = Marketing, and
2) The Close = Completing the Sale
Most individuals and publishers do not create
awareness via public relations, traditional means, or even use the web very well. In general, we see that most
publishing companies and self-publishing companies do an adequate job
at providing the "Close" via a purchasing website.
Awareness is typically referred to as Marketing. We will use
the two terms interchangeably. Without Awareness, the buyer doesn't know the book exists, therefore, they cannot buy it. It seems
simplistic, and it is. Without AWARENESS, there will be no sale. One
caveat: You want to create awareness within a "buyer"
demographic related to your title, not the general public.
Closing the Sale, or "The Close" refers to the
mechanics of completing the sale for the book. Hopefully, the
publisher has thought through the following: Is the book easily
purchased? Should the purchase go through Amazon, or the publisher's
website, or the author's website. Each has different costs, profits,
and viability.
Creating Awareness, Buzz, Marketing... And more.
Awareness about books can be created in a myriad of
ways including PR, radio,
tv, Internet search engines, blogs, traditional mailings, tradeshows,
interviews, etc. Every method has it's supporters and detractors.
Every author is more comfortable with one method over another. Some
companies are better at one method than another, very few companies do
it all well.
Our company believes that one of the simplest ways to create
awareness and give the author the most "bang for the buck"
is to make sure that the authors web presence is optimized. Whatever
marketing technique is used, it will generally flow back to a web page
to complete the awareness/close loop.
We believe in using PR and other methods to
drive sales to the web.
Optimizing Web Presence
Given the ever increasing and expanding nature of the Internet, and
the ability to focus on specific buyer demographics, it makes sense to
make sure that your web presence is optimized. Traditional sales of
your book will go through traditional channels, however, incremental,
and an increasingly greater share of your book's sales will go through
the web. Even radio, TV, interviews, etc, are typically going to refer
the buyer to a website for more information and to close the sale.
Where is your "landing page"? If someone goes to the web
to find you, do they end up at an Amazon listing, or a publisher
listing? And if they do end up at this listing, are you presented in a
way that differentiates you from your competition. Let's discuss the
three main types of Landing Pages for a book on the Internet. They
are:
a) An Amazon Page, or
b) A Publisher Page, or
c) Your Web page.
Particularly in the case of Amazon, you will be one of a list. What
would make me buy your book from a list where you look like any other
book? A publisher's page can be good, but it also may not show all
your strengths, and it is quite likely not optimized for search
engines.
Next... I Have My Landing Page, Now What?
Send it traffic, send it traffic, send it traffic!
Now that you have a proper landing page, and a proper way to close
the sale, it's time to generate traffic. These are the top ways to
generate traffic that we promote:
- Public Relations to build your name
- Reviews in major periodicals
- Interviews
- Blog Tours
- Advertising on both the web and traditional
media
- and more, more, more!
You've done the hard part, you've written the
book. Let us help you sell it!
For more information please email
Inform @ StrategicBookMarketing.com
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How
Well Do You Use All The Methods Currently Available to Sell Your
Book?
We believe in blending Traditional and Internet
marketing techniques for maximum sales.
Selling
Author's Work
in Asheville, NC. by deploying
book racks for "Local Authors".
(If you are interested in a Local Author program for your area
please email us.

Author
VIDEO Trailers
The New Frontier Using
Author Trailers on YouTube is a great way to attract traffic.
Click
here for an example.
that we created for one
of our high-profile clients.
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