By Misty M Beller @MistyMBeller
Over the past twelve weeks, we've discussed a myriad of ways to market books, some free and some paid but with a higher ROI (return on investment).
Today, I'm going to share the marketing activities that are my Go To's. Those that have become my mainstays (my low-hanging fruit). As I help others develop their marketing strategies, these are approaches that I always highly recommend. With each item below, I'll link to the blog post that discusses the "how to" in more detail.
Are you ready? Let's hit the list!
- Facebook Paid Advertising: I love the fact that you can advertise any book at any price point through Facebook's ads. The book doesn't even have to be released! I often use this for books on pre-order and books that I'm not ready to put on sale. The most important thing here is that you create a catchy "billboard ad" and set the demographic for your target audience.
I also love the reporting, which is typical for Pay-Per-Click advertising, but really gives a good picture of how many people saw the ad, how many clicked, and how much I'm paying per click. You can have several images in the same ad, so I'm careful to make sure I'm using images that have a high enough click rate that the clicks don't cost more than the royalty I would make on each book.
Remember, Marketing is about getting Visibilty for your book, so you bring in readers and start the word-of-mouth buzz.
- Ereadernewstoday.com (ENT): This site uses targeted email distribution, and is (in my opinion) a great price for the ROI. ENT can be challenging to get your book accepted as a feature, but it's not as hard to obtain as the King, Bookbub.com. When working toward securing an ENT feature, you'll want to consider the following:
- The book must be on sale.
- They don't publish a minimum review requirement, but I've noticed at least 10-20 reviews are the norm.
- Bookbub.com: As I mentioned before, Bookbub is the king of book advertising, and I've never seen an ROI less than 200-300% on a BB ad. My average sales during a Bookbub feature are around 3500 ebooks at teh $.99 pricepoint. With that said, they're difficult to obtain. Basic requirements are:
- Book must be on sale during their promotion.
- It cannot have been offered at the same or better than the sale price for more than 14 days in the previous 90 days.
- In my experience, I've never had a book approved with less than 25 reviews.
With the above two sites, I've developed a strategy where (once I reach 10 reviews) I begin submitting to ENT. Once that ad is approved, I make sure not to discount the book more than 14 days before returning it to the regular price. The sales from the ENT ad always bring in more reviews, so within a few weeks, the book is usually ready to submit for a Bookbub ad. That can often be a drawn-out process, and you're only allowed to submit once every four weeks. Once you finally get a Bookbub ad approved, it's a beautiful thing!
Those are my go-to's, and I fill in with lots of other advertising tools as needed.
What about you? What are your go-to advertising strategies? Leave a comment to share!
Misty M. Beller writes Christian historical romance, and is author of the bestselling novels The Lady and the Mountain Man and The Lady and the Mountain Doctor.
Misty was raised on a farm in South Carolina, so her Southern roots run deep. About ten years ago, she made a career change from farm life into the business world, where she now works as a Senior Manager and Director of Process & Training. Her husband and two daughters are gifts from God, keeping her both grounded and crazy.
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