Crafting a Custom Marketing Plan
Has someone ever mentioned creating a marketing plan to you? Have you done it? Sometimes, when I tell authors they need to develop a marketing plan, their eyes either glaze over or they go into fight or flight. It doesn’t have to be that way. Marketing plans are simple documents that lay out in an organized and logical way how we are going to develop a platform for your book and capitalize on its success as it moves upward. There is nothing complicated about it (except maybe doing a lot of honest thinking and a bit of research), and it is something that every author owes to his book after spending so much of his life creating it.
As an author, I once believed that marketing was someone else’s job. However, I soon realized that crafting a robust marketing plan is just as much my responsibility as it is for anyone else. After all, I possess an intimate knowledge of my book and its intended audience, a depth of understanding that surpasses that of anyone in the marketing or PR department. They might just scan it quickly (or sometimes even just read the book blurb) before they decide to put together their own plan. I firmly believe that the author should take the lead in this.
When you search the web, you’ll find countless templates for marketing plans. But I advise against using any of them. Instead, create your own. Your book is unique, so why shouldn’t your marketing plan be? The format of your marketing plan is not as crucial as the content. It's the content that leads to actionable steps. That’s where your focus should be.
What should be in the content of your marketing plan? That’s straightforward and unique to your book, as well. Everything you can think of. This is the time to leave no stones unturned. There are opportunities everywhere, but only if you take the time and research to determine them. In future posts, we’ll get more details on this, but for now, here are a few things I’d like you to start thinking about.
The prominent starting place is identifying the selling points for your book. As previously mentioned, you know this better than anyone. Brainstorm this. Write down everything that comes to mind. If something sounds far-fetched or you have no idea how to use it, don’t worry about it. Please write it down. If it is unique and special to your book, then it will be necessary and profitable somewhere down the road.
Once you have identified your book's selling points, the next crucial step is to identify the people who would most likely be attracted to those selling points. This requires a thoughtful consideration of the type of person, their age, their gender, their interests, etc., who would likely, based upon the selling points, be a potential reader for buying your book. This is not a task to be taken lightly. It requires a thorough brainstorming session and extensive research. For each type of individual and each group, give excellent reasons why they would like your book. List all the reasons. Some reasons will be more concrete; others will be more abstract. Keep them all. Some readers are more concrete, and some readers react via more abstract motivations. Keep everything. Nothing needs to be left uncovered. There will be lots of written brainstorming, so don’t fear it. At this point, nothing looks pretty. The organization will come later. The important thing is to get your brainstorming down in each category.
Once you have your target audience, define how you will reach each. Where do potential readers that you have identified go? What events or conventions do they attend? How do they buy their books? What do they read other than books? Magazines or other places where you could advertise? What do they watch? Same thing. What advertising or publicity opportunities present themselves? What do they listen to? Is an ad on the NPR drive home a good idea? Is that your target audience of a reader? Keep brainstorming, researching, thinking, and coming up with all the ways you will touch each of these individual readers and groups you have identified.
This next step is sometimes forgotten, but doing so sometimes results in lost money and opportunity. What sort of subsidiary rights are relevant to your book? Some are given: hardcover, paperback, audio, and eBook. Include those. However, not all books make great movies, so if yours isn’t appropriate, leave that out. Some would, though. There are ways of getting your book in front of readers who might want to turn it into a movie. Maybe your agent will want to give the movie rights to a sub-agent with whom he works? Be sure to include it. Would this book sell well in a foreign country? Is the style very French? If so, mention it. A French sub-agent maybe should be written down in the mix.
Now you have a pile of notes. Start organizing. This is where you combine everything into logical sections and identify various areas you wish to explore. This is going to become your marketing plan. It will contain all the things you have brainstormed, but it will be put together in a format that builds on success. It starts here; it goes there. If this happens, then this goes into play. Have fun with this stage. Make all sorts of contingencies. If a strategy doesn’t seem to find legs, abandon it and put more effort into the other steps. If your social media advertising takes off, you may want to implement your strategy for upping that avenue. Put your outreach in the order you wish to follow based on time, money, success, and failure.
And that’s it. That’s the sum of it. That’s your marketing plan. This plan comes from you, the author, because you wrote the book. Therefore, you should ensure that every nuance has been addressed. Someone at your publishing house can then take that plan and modify it with their thoughts as they brainstorm, but at least you’ve given them the foundation. The worst-case scenario for those without publisher support is that you have a plan. The best-case scenario for those who get publisher support is that you have a blueprint that the publishing house can build on to make it even stronger using their resources and yours.
The whole reason for building a marketing plan is to create a flexible roadmap to success. If one road closes, you have another path already laid out. If another road opens, you take advantage of that, too. Your marketing plan is a blueprint for opportunity that will be used by everyone associated with the promotion of your book. Give your book the love it deserves. Take the time to assemble a marketing plan that gives that unique book legs.
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