How to Use Digital Marketing Techniques When You’re Self-publishing on a Budget
By: Kimberly Grant
As many of you readers know, I am a self-published Amazon author with small book sales. I am currently in a grace period. Book 4, The Servants, has been on the market for a while and I am about to release Book 5, The Chosen One, in March 2022.
Knowing that I have a looming book release, it’s time to think about my online promotional strategies. Here’s a glimpse into my planned promotion. Shhh. Let’s keep this between us.
Starting With the Basics
In the past, my digital strategy included promoting my books on social media and via a Google Ads campaign. Alas, I have not succeeded in book sales with this strategy because I didn’t really consider my customer. Thinking about how my potential customers will get to my books is key. If I’m only selling books on Amazon, then I need to reach my customers where they shop.
My first major marketing strategy will be a keyword strategy, in which users searching specific keywords on Amazon Kindle will see my book cover via a paid promotion on Amazon. I will also partner with Amazon to send out promotional emails to users who have an affinity for the urban fantasy book genre; since that is the genre I write in.
Users Need to See
It’s not enough to just have a book cover that’s shown to Amazon users. I want to capture people to build brand awareness, as well. That’s where my trailer comes in. I can run a Google Ads campaign on YouTube to serve my trailer as an in-stream ad. That way, users with an affinity for fantasy entertainment, like Game of Thrones, will get to see the trailer for my book.
These YouTube ads will build awareness for my brand, so that when someone is on Amazon looking for their next great read, they can have brand recognition of my book cover. (The book cover is featured in the trailer.)
Can’t Forget To Socialize
Even though social media provides vanity metrics when it comes to actual conversions, having my trailer run on my social media accounts is still important. It helps with brand awareness, brand recall, and will increase visits to my social media accounts. My plan for social media is to upload my book trailer for The Chosen One to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram a week before the book’s release.
I will then add a snippet of my book cover as wallpaper on my Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. Next, I will create a few Instagram reels to generate awareness and increase my reach as an urban fantasy novelist.
On A Budget
While this may seem like it’s an ambitious plan to promote my new book, it is actually digital marketing on a small, yet cost-effective scale. Sure, it will cost a few hundred to promote on YouTube, Google, and Amazon. However, that is considered a shoestring budget as compared to the amount of money that could be spent with offline or direct mail efforts. Just the cost of stamps alone would be worth the same amount of three social media ad campaigns.
While online promotion feels like a daunting process, it’s fairly simple once you get the hang of it. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was online marketing. The great thing about online marketing promotion is that you can correct your mistakes in real-time; which helps with sticking to your budget. You can get a sneak peak of the trailer for The Chosen One on my YouTube channel now.
Interested in more marketing tips? You can read my previous marketing posts here.
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