As a follow-up to the previous article, I found an interesting article about where and how to market a book.
https://www.tckpublishing.com/how-we-sold-50000-books-without-a-marketing-budget/
Some of the links in that article lead to interesting articles, such as how to work with a book review blogger. One thing that article makes a point of is that ‘word of mouth’ is an important type of advertising. And not just any word of mouth – word of mouth from a reliable source.
Quoted from that book review blogger article:
“That’s because the more people are talking about your book, the more people will talk about your book. We all like to discuss things we’re excited about, and we enjoy it even more when we can talk about them with friends or other enthusiasts.
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It’s this feeling of wanting to try what your friends like that make reviews so powerful—they offer social proof, the psychological principle that we’re more likely to try something our personal network has already approved. Having lots of great reviews means that your book has been tried and liked by lots of other people, and that makes even more people think it would be a good idea to read it.
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The more places your book appears online, preferably in connection with a great review, the better. You’ll appear higher in search results, have more people exposed to your work, and generally start building better awareness of your brand.”
That further emphasizes that social media, and social networks, can be a powerful advertising tool because they can allow people to connect and share their honest thoughts. People are more likely to listen to genuine honesty, or what they believe is genuine honesty, than listening to an advertisement made by whomever is trying to sell something.
Genuine reviews can be scary to some people – especially companies who don’t want their products to be criticized. There’s a solution to that, though – make good products.
When you make a product, do the best that you can. If the product is good enough that people are happy with it after they buy it, then you’ve made a good sale. A happy customer is one who feels that the product was worth the price that they paid and they are happy with the results they see after using the product. That type of customer may tell other people about your product and you might get more sales.
If your product isn’t good enough to compete in the marketplace, take it as a lesson and try to learn how you can improve your product.
Remember, the product isn’t about you – it’s about your customer. When you make something for someone else, it needs to be valuable to that person (otherwise why would that person want it?).
Social Media and Social Networks try to level the playing field. Marketers don’t always do honest advertising. People want recommendations from people whom they think they can trust – people who don’t have a vested interest in lying to them.
Not all marketers are dishonest! But some people don’t know who is dishonest and who is honest. Sometimes the companies who give product information to marketers do not give marketers negative information about the products. And even if they do, it’s the marketer’s job to present the product in a good light (or risk losing their job). That’s why some people prefer to read reviews from people who are not being paid to advertise the product.
When using social media, keywords (or hashtags) are important!
Knowing which keywords to use is something that varies based on each product, the situation and timing.
Here are some keyword / hashtag suggestions, though:
Product’s name (or a shortened version of the name that’s unique to that product and that people easily recognize)
Catchphrase or Slogan (something unique to the product that looks good as a hashtag)
Author’s name (or name of a person who represents the product / business)
Publishing Company (or name of the company that makes the product)
Imprint / Brand / Series Title (if the product is part of a series or a brand that you want to associate the product with)
Choose 1 – 3 of those and stick to it across all social media (when possible).
The hashtag (or keyword) can become a well-known identifier of the product which makes it easier for people to use in their own tweets or posts so that others can find them. A well-known keyword or hashtag can become sort of like a branding that others in the community can use.
And start a conversation about your products. People love talking about things. They like sharing their experiences.
Thank you for reading this article!
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