A Marketing Plan in 5 minutes

You may be asking yourself why you need a marketing plan since you’re a writer, not a marketer, but if you want to be a successful author, you need to be both. Being a writer, you want to sell books. To sell books, you have to market yourself. No matter what type of author you are or become, whether you’re traditionally or nontraditionally published, being an author means you’re creating a brand, and essentially starting a “business.”

But never fear—I’ve created a marketing plan for you. My marketing plan includes social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and SEO. If this feels overwhelming, that’s okay—you’re not alone. That’s why I’m here.

You could spend hundreds of hours on a marketing plan, but even spending a little time on a plan can really enhance your success. I suggest you start on a small piece, like my marketing strategy and go from there. And if you still think it’s too much? Contact me for help. I’ve developed wonderful strategies to help you achieve success.

The point of a marketing plan is to give you a focus. A means to an end. Proof that you’re actually doing something and people SHOULD listen to what you have to offer.

First off, what are your goals? Think SMART goals. What do you hope to achieve? What makes sense? For instance, if you want to become a bestseller on Amazon, how do you do that? You need readers to buy your book on a specific day. Say you need 500 people to buy your book. Sounds like a lot, right? What if you met with people and promised gifts if they buy it on that specific launch day? What if you focus on an ebook for .99 cents? And you spend 6 months finding those 500 people. If you meet with people a few times a day, then you could get 500 readers. If 500 is still too much, start with 50, then go up to 100, then 200, and so on. This may require in-person marketing, but usually, you’ll find people through bookstores, libraries, writing and reading groups, friends, family, etc.

Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

Next, I want you to think about your target market. Who are you selling your books to? Women? Men? Young adults? Millennials? Figure out who it is so you can better capture that audience when you advertise.

Now, I want you to think about where you will sell your books and where you will market. For instance, you could sell on social media, your website (Wordpress has free options!), email marketing (newsletters. Mailchimp is free for your first 500 subscribers), and other websites.

Once you’ve got that, think about SEO. What is SEO? These are techniques used by search engines to help you become more discoverable. You will use these tactics through your website and blog through keywords, a good website design, blog consistency, interlinking blogs, images, and more.

Finally, you need a way to measure your metrics. Many social media platforms give you access to analytics, so you can understand which posts perform the best, who is engaging with what, your impressions on said posts, and more. You can also get metrics with Google Analytics, plug-ins (like Yoast in Wordpress), and more. Measuring is vital to the success of your book and brand because it shows what people do and don’t like and what people engage with the most. By learning what people love, you can continue crafting those types of posts and stories and earn more followers and more readers.

Elizabeth Suggs is the owner and founder of Editing Mee. When she’s not writing or editing, she loves to dive deep into books (the weirder, the better!), and she loves to take random long walks to unplanned destinations.