All entrepreneurs have limited resources to spread their brands. Authors are no exception. Even the most successful authors can only do so much on their own. However, when authors team up with others who are eager to promote their books, the magic starts to happen.
It’s easier for a successful author to attract ambassadors to promote their books. While it may seem difficult for the newbie author to find people who will promote their books, it can and has been done.
There is a three-step process you can use to get more people to promote your book.
Step 1: Find People
Your friends and family can be a great source of sales, reviews, and word-of-mouth marketing. You don’t have to do too much selling to get them on board. Don’t underestimate them.
At the same time, we need to further our horizons to find more people eager to promote our books. Anytime I’m doing a book launch, I email my list and use my social media platforms to tell everyone I’m doing a book launch team and provide info on how they can join.
I get plenty of people just from this tactic, but let’s say you have no audience. What do you do then?
There are a few ways you can still find people. The two best ways are participating in groups, but even better than that, connecting with people on LinkedIn.
Participating in niche groups related to your book allows you to build several friendships, and while it’s possible that you can get these people onboard, some groups have rules against self-promotion.
The best play for recruiting people in groups is building relationships with them first and then sending them a message about your book. You don’t want to cold message everyone in the group about your book because they don’t know you, and that can get you removed from the group.
LinkedIn is completely different.
You can use LinkedIn’s search engine to find people with certain interests and roles. If I publish another content marketing book, I’ll go on LinkedIn and search for content marketers. LinkedIn will display thousands of people who are content marketers. I will then connect with 50 of those people every day, tell them about my new book, and ask them for help.
When you ask for help, it’s important to leverage Step #2 which becomes a constant throughout the relationship.
Step 2: VIP Treatment
Most people won’t promote your book unless there’s something in it for them. They could be promoting anything else, so you need to entice people to promote your book.
I recently promoted the book Write And Grow Rich. In fact, I plan to promote it heavily. That’s because I am one of the authors of that book. One great way to get people to promote your book is by sharing the spotlight and asking multiple authors to join in for their own part. 24 authors (including me) teamed up to write that book.
You may not be in a position to incorporate many authors for the same book, but this is something to think about for your next book. For the book you’re currently working on, you can still give your promoters the VIP treatment.
One of the most popular ways to provide that VIP treatment is to send promoters a copy of your book and give them exclusive content that you won’t make available anywhere else. Adding merchandise for the book is a special treat if you can make it happen, but at the most basic sense, a copy of the book and exclusive content do the job at making promoters feel like VIPs.
A final way to give your promoters the VIP treatment is to pay them for book sales. I am finalizing a free + shipping landing page for my book Content Marketing Secrets. Anyone who makes a book sale receives $1 per book sale and up to $1151.50 for each opt-in because of the funnel that follows. This is a more advanced approach to giving promoters the VIP treatment, but I wanted you to know about it because someday you may give it a try.
Step 3: Communication
You can find people to promote your book, but their lives are busy. It’s easy for people to forget things if they are not reminded. You need to continuously communicate with all promoters as important dates come up (i.e. the day your book gets published, pre-launch days, etc.)
Every book launch I’ve done and been a part of communicates in the two same ways. The first form of communication is an email list. Email everyone who agreed to promote your book when to start promoting and other important info. In addition to an email list, start a Facebook Group for the book. Billions of people use Facebook, and the people promoting your book probably won’t be the exceptions.
The Facebook Group is for sharing the same things you share in email broadcasts and for answering questions people may have when they promote your book.
In Conclusion
By finding people in the right niche, treating them like VIPs, and communicating with them, you can gradually grow an army of people eager to promote your book on the day it comes out.
Building a book launch team is crucial for the success of any book, and even if you are a successful author already, the book launch team will make a big impact on your sales.
What were your thoughts on these steps? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.