Successful Social Media Ebook Marketing Strategy
If you’re feeling a little investigative over the cogs and processes making up effective ebook social media marketing strategies to replicate for your brand, you’re in the right place. We’ll help you find your footing when caught by the ever-changing whirlwind that is social media marketing.
“Creating an ebook publicity strategy” sounds like one task. However, the truth is you’ll need to build multiple segments individually before they can come together as a complete strategy. So we’ve broken down that anatomy into five major sections—the head, heart, skeleton, body, and limbs of SMM marketing.
The Skeleton—Goals & KPIs
Much like its original counterpart, the skeleton of your plan is what keeps the rest of the strategy in place. With so many options, techniques, and tools out there—not to mention other ebook marketing strategies that might wow you—it is easy to get lost in the hubbub. You might even try all of them, but that usually ends up in disappointment and disbelief—”How could it not work for me?”
Here’s the thing: your ebook is unique. Your brand is unique. What works for others might not even work for you. So, the biggest tip we can give you is to create a focused plan and avoid getting distracted by the shiny pebbles strategy on the other side of the fence.
And the trick to staying grounded? Lay down a skeleton composed out of your main goals.
Forget what everyone else is doing. Instead, ask yourself: why do you want an ebook marketing strategy in the first place? What do you want it to achieve? At this point, your answer may be a general statement like, “I want to get more leads” or “I want to get more exposure”, and that’s okay. It’s a good start, and we can build on that. Just be very, very sure that this is what you want.
Once you have a basic idea of your goal, you’d need to make it concrete with measurable key performance metrics (KPIs). Let’s use an example to explain.
Ben has a fiction ebook he wants to sell online, and Mindy has a business ebook she intends to use as a free giveaway on her website. Ben’s goal is to get sales, and Mindy intends to generate more leads.
With these goals, Ben might need to keep track of metrics like:
- Cart abandonment rate
- Average order value
- Average abandonment order value
- Gross margin
On the other hand, Mindy might need to:
- Track bounce rate on her website
- Assess her landing page heatmap for click and scroll data
- Measure the quality of her leads
Both users have different skeletons, and the plan that builds upon each will ultimately cater to their specific needs.
The goals and KPIs act as a handy guide when you expand on your strategy. They can also be good deciding factors when you are unsure whether you want to use a certain marketing strategy or not. Simply go back to them and ask, would this serve my goal? If yes, then ahoy, new marketing technique! If it won’t, there are plenty of other fish in the marketing sea.
The Heart —Audience Research
Your audiences are the heart and soul of your marketing strategy. They are the reason why you’re doing what you’re doing. And the good thing about creating ebook social media marketing strategies is that you already have an idea about the people you want to cater to—after all, you made a full resource for them! But to set up a targeted strategy, you need to know where they are going to be.
Start with the big five—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Conduct thorough research and check which platform(s) your audience uses the most. If you come up with more than one, then set priorities. If you believe there are multiple platforms with an equal frequency of visits from your audience, keep a note of that, too. It will be important in the next stage.
Important tip: Before moving onto platform research, keep in mind who will download/buy your book. Sometimes, the marketing audience may not be the same as your ebook audience. For example, in the children’s books genre, you won’t be aiming your social media marketing strategy at children—your ebook audience. Instead, you’ll focus on their parents–or other adults looking for ebooks as gifts.
The Body—Content Strategy
Content is the meat of your social media plan. It fleshes out the foundation you have laid out and creates a cohesive structure for your ebook publicity strategy.
Here are five of the most effective social media marketing techniques, in terms of content, to get your ebook noticed:
1.Piggybacking on current or trending events
Marketing companies everywhere use piggybacking—riding the trend wave—to exploit the interest spike on a certain topic. So keep an eye out for the most trending topics and create content using these elements.
Here are some great examples of piggybacking:
2.Connect with influencers and bookstagrammers
If you can get a shout-out from influencers and bookstagrammers, your ebook publicity graph will get a major spike. Tap into their massive reader audience with this method.
3.Post in groups, forums, and communities
Literary groups, forums, and communities are great places for book discussions. You can post about your book and invite people to read them or request an honest review in exchange for a free copy.
Teaser videos and posts released before a book launch can slowly build hype until the ebook finally hits online bookstores. Use book snippets, images from within (if available), or other related material to get your audience interested.
5. Create a pinned post for your new ebook
Pin posts on social media so it remains on top. Make it appealing and include a link so that visitors can click on it.
Once you create a draft of strategies to use for your social media content, your ebook marketing plan’s operational structure will be ready.
The Limbs—Tools & Testing
So, now that you have your goal and KPIs set, you understand where you need to target your audiences. You also have a solid content plan. Think you’re all set, right?
Well, mostly.
You can work with what you have till now, but we’re still missing some important parts of a successful social media marketing strategy.
Enter limbs, which, in our case, are the social media tools and testing techniques to transform your ebook marketing strategy from just satisfactory to a powerhouse. Let’s discuss both.
SMM Tools
Some of our favorites:
- Social Media Post Generation: Tools like Canva and Biteable are great at simplifying the visual post creation process. They have easy drag-and-drop features and pre-built templates for posts and videos.
- Audience and Topic Research: In-depth research with Buzzsumo and Cyfe can gain you an edge over your competitors.
- Social media management: If you use more than one platform and need to manage scheduling and posting. Employ tools like SproutSocial, Hootsuite, SocialPilot, Buffer, and MeetEdgar for ebook marketing management.
SMM Testing Techniques
A/B testing will help you understand if you’re getting through to your audience or not.
Some of the major A/B tests for your social media posts:
- Headlines: Test different approaches by adding statistics or changing their tone.
- Body text: Test what works—length, hashtags, call-to-actions and more.
- Visuals: Test what gets you more audience engagement.
- Frequency: Your audience will have certain high engagement times and days. So, keep an eye on that data to pick out days with the most productive engagement.
Now, let’s take your ebook publicity to the next level.
The Head—SMM Professionals
We saved the most important for last!
Even if you have every other part of the plan ready, you still need the brains to make it work. If you have experience in setting up ebook social media marketing strategies or already have the Creative Writing Experts‘ SMM team on your side, then you’re ready to go on full speed ahead! But if you’re like most authors and don’t have that luxury, let’s talk about our ebook marketing services.
Want to discuss your requirements? Get on a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our ebook publicity experts today!
