Now that you have learned about the various places to sell your eBook, it is time to develop and marketing plan. I cannot stress this one point alone: Marketing can make or break your eBook sales (or any sales for that matter).
If no one knows about your eBook, they will not be able to buy it. You could have the cure to cancer and death, but if no one hears about it, they would never know how or where to buy it.
Therefore, the marketing plan must be well thought out and executed with precision. In this article, I will talk about all of the tools you can utilize for your marketing mix. You don’t necessarily need to use all of these, but you do need to use something! Pick and choose any of the methods below and apply to your own situation.
This will be divided into a couple of sections: Ways to market your eBook (free and not free). Also, remember that when selling your eBook, it isn’t much different from any other business or product. So take note of all advertisements you see, and get ideas from that.
How to Market Your eBook Using Advertising (Paid) Methods
Here is a brief list of all the methods you can use to market your eBook:
- Online Ads or Classifieds- This is best done through a program such as Google Adwords, Yahoo Publishing, Microsoft, or one of the other very popular advertising/publishing networks. These methods will usually be based on either clicks or impression. You choose keywords, and then bid on them. Or, you negotiate a certain price for each impression (hit) the ad receives.
- Newspaper Classifieds–If your eBook has wide appeal, you can consider advertising in the appropriate methods in a newspaper. This usually isn’t quite as targeted as an online ad campaign, but it can still be a method to consider.
- Direct Mail Advertising–If you have a method to obtain a targeted mailing list, this too can be a great way to reach potential customers for your eBook (or real book). To do this, you can check with local advertising companies that specialize in direct mail.
- Online Infomercial or Commercial–This probably isn’t for everyone, but some specific type of eBooks or self published books may do very well when advertised on an online infomercial type scheme.
- Email Marketing–You can utilize email marketing to send out emails to lists of subscribers. To do this, you can build your own list and use a service (such as Aweber) to send the emails yourself. Or you can hire a marketing company to do this for you.
- Magazine and/or Publishing Ads–This is similar to the newspaper classified ads. In this method, you could choose targeted magazine publications if your eBook or book applies to the target readership. This can be a great way to boost sales.
- Radio Advertising–Know a radio station or program that has listeners that may be interested in your book? Perhaps you can consider marketing and advertising your eBook course on the radio.
- Affiliate Marketing–You can always set up an affiliate program to entice people to drive sales for your product on a commission basis. This works well for many companies, and there are many affiliate software scripts and programs you can use (such as commission junction, clickbank.net, etc.)
- Paid Reviews–You can also use a company such as reviewme.com to help you get reviews and traffic from people reviewing your eBook. This way you not only build up buzz and a web presence, but many times you can get a backlink to help drive traffic to your site.
- Press Release–A press release is another great way to potentially get your book some publicity. Authors submit press releases all the time to let everyone know of a new book they have written. If your press release gets the attention of a news station or a story, then that can be a big payoff in terms of sales.
- Buy Domain Name—Are there any domain names you can buy that are expired or get a lot of type in traffic that are related to your eBook topic? If so, this could be a great way to pick up some of this traffic and convert it to sales.
- Have a Contest or Promotion–This is a great way to attract some traffic and attention. Give away a prize or have a mini-contest to help get the word out about your new product.
Ways to Market and Publicize Your eBook or Self Published Book for Free
In addition to the paid marketing methods above, there are also TONS of great ways to market your eBook for free! Here are some ideas below:
- On you own Blog or Website–Don’t miss the very obvious and cheap (or free) way to market your book by setting up a blog or website. This is a great way to really attract potential traffic. Make sure to include lots of great keywords, a great sales page, some frequently asked questions, and more.
- On Social Networking Sites–Visit Myspace, FaceBook, Twitter, and other sites? Be sure to market your eBook on those sites as well. Don’t spam, but market it in a way that is appropriate and you could gain some sales.
- In email signatures–You can always include a signature on your email with a link that links to your product. This way, any and every person you email is a potential customer, and they will know exactly where to get your product.
- On YouTube–Create a cool video talking about your eBook and release it free on YouTube and other video sites. Take time to make a great video highlighting your eBook or self published book’s content. You may even want to answer some questions, give a “preview,” have an interview, and other things. This is a great way to drive sales.
- Go on Talk Shows–Many authors try to visit talk shows to help promote their books. If you can pull some strings and do this with your local news, or with a show that has a relevant audience, this can be huge.
- Visit Seminars, Debates, or Clubs–Networking with other people in your field is a great way to attract sales. If you can visit a club or meeting place and exchange cards, you may gain a potential customer or business partner.
- Wear a T-Shirt–Get a Shirt that has your site’s logo on it and wear it in public often. This may help you to get some traffic. Also, do the same with your vehicle, and any other thing you can think of. Hey, it can help!
- Create a Promotional Page on Squidoo–If you take time to write a good article that promotes your material, you can literally spread that all over the web. Include your sales page on sites such as Squidoo, free article directories, and more. These can help drive valuable traffic to your site and increase sales.
- Send a Newsletter–Send out a free newsletter, announcement, podcast, or other things that can help you keep and attract potential customers. This is a proven and effective way of increasing sales.
- Website Forums and Bulletin Boards–There are website forums for just about any given topic. Sign up to be a member and place your URL in your signature or profile information. Then, try to post as much as possible to network and get your name out there.
How to Completely Fail At Selling Your eBook or Self Published Book
I have just provided 22 potential ways to market your eBook (with 10 free ways). If you really want to fail, simply do none of them. Want to succeed? Write a great and relevant eBook, and then market it using any or all of the methods above! Yes, marketing is a huge deal. That is why companies take so much time to advertise on the web, radio, tv, fliers, and more.
Again, if you don’t market your product, it has literally a zero chance of selling anything. If you market it, you at least have the chance to make sales.
Just be cautious and count your costs. Make a budget for advertising, and pick the methods above carefully that best suite your product. Then, continue to evaluate the different marketing methods to see which one is producing the best results.
Next, learn how to create a great sales pitch page.
Also, learn how to completely set up digital delivery if necessary to sell you eBook 24/7 (even while you sleep).
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Posted under Write an eBook, eBooks
This post was written by Ben on July 29, 2009
