My most successful book marketing strategy
Book promotion lists target warm leads
I am about to share with you my #1, absolute favorite, highest converting book marketing sales strategy: submitting your book to be featured in a book promotion email list.
Book promotion lists are run by companies that send out email blasts of special ebook deals/sales to their massive lists of subscribers. You may have heard of some of my favorite companies before: BookBub, Written Word Media, Robin Reads.
Here is the gist of how they work. You submit to one (or all!) of the above companies to be included in whichever of their lists match your genre. If approved, they tell you which day your book will be included in their list. On that day (or slightly before), you put your ebook on sale for anywhere between .99-2.99 (whatever was agreed upon when you submitted your application.)
Through using these companies, authors have sold massive numbers of books, hit bestseller rankings (usually on Amazon), and generated lots of reviews of their book.
Why does this strategy have such good conversion numbers?
The entire purpose of these lists is to recommend book deals. Meaning, everyone who has subscribed to these lists is LOOKING for a good deal on a book. Plus, they are only opening the email they get because they are hoping to find a good deal inside. (This is what we call a WARM LEAD.) If they didn’t want to find a book today, they wouldn’t bother opening the email.
In addition, these companies are very good about only listing a handful of books per email, so your book isn’t lost in a long list of other recommendations. So if someone OPENS that email, they will for sure SEE your book, they are in the right MINDSET to buy a book, and the PRICE is so low there is little barrier stopping them from purchasing.
Why would you put your book on such a steep discount?
First, the obvious: 200 purchases at .99 is a lot more than 10 purchases of 9.99 (or whatever your ebook is regularly listed at.) Because these companies only list ebooks, there are no extra print costs associated with this sale, so it is all profit (minus whatever cut Amazon or your distributor is taking, of course.)
Second: These companies have massive lists, so if this strategy is successful, you could potentially get a LOT of sales.
Third: You want “quick purchases.” You are trying to remove any barriers a customer would have to buy your book. A .99 book is a no-regrets, don’t-have-to-think-about-it purchase.
What does a successful book promotion give you?
More sales—and thus, more money.
Increased traffic to your book’s sales page. Let’s say you send everyone to Amazon, just to keep the example simple. When you get a wave of traffic to your book’s Amazon page, Amazon’s algorithm notices that your book is suddenly popular. What does that mean? Amazon wants to make more money off your book, so the algorithm will start to favor your book in places like the “Also Bought” section or other spots on their site—so your book will get in front of even more new eyeballs! (This is true if you sell through other non-Amazon sites, too.)
A few more reviews. We’ve talked before about why reviews of your book are so important. But only a certain percentage of readers leave reviews. I’ve never seen any hard data on what percentage of your readers will leave a review. It depends a lot on your audience and genre. I’ve seen authors claim their purchases-to-reviews numbers at everywhere from 1% up to about 4%—so it isn’t high. However, as the rule of percentages go—1% of 100 is a lot more than 1% of 10. So if you can get a bunch of readers to buy your book at .99 and maintain close to your average review ratio, you can potentially get a lot more reviews.
Some warnings
These companies are not sending your book to their email lists out of the goodness of their hearts. They will charge you a fee to be accepted onto one of their lists. The price varies based on the company and the genre you write in, but prices will be listed at their sites before you submit. Note that BookBub is the most expensive, but it is also the biggest and most popular. So you will have to decide whether the bigger price tag is worth the bigger reach.
How much you can discount your ebook will vary based on the SIZE of your book. I have had clients who wanted to put their book at .99, but were unable to because their ebook was too big. Amazon wouldn’t go lower than $2.99 in their situation. So make sure you TEST whatever sales platform you are using to see what price you can set your book at BEFORE you submit to one of these book promotion lists. I recommend setting the price as low as you are able to. Even though 2.99 is still a great deal, a lot more people will buy a .99 book and you will likely get more sales the lower you set the price.
If you are NOT accepted into these lists, note that some of the companies allow you to place an ad at the bottom of their email instead (still listing your book’s sale with a graphic of the cover.) I have utilized this option as a backup strategy for clients and STILL landed them in Amazon bestseller categories by doing this.
Because this marketing strategy requires you to change the price of the book, those of you who have a separate publisher (are not self-published) will need to coordinate this with your publisher. Don’t be shy to speak to your publisher about trying this! Although this strategy originated in the self-publishing world, all major publishers (including the Big 5) have gotten on the bandwagon. In fact, some self-published authors have complained about that because the popularity of this strategy among traditional presses has driven up the price. So SPEAK UP to your publisher about trying a book promotion site and see if they have any experience/desire to go this route.
Where I Am This Month
Book Marketing Support Group
If you live near me, you are in luck! I am starting an in-person book marketing membership club with my local art center called the Book Marketing Support Group. There will be some book marketing education, plus a lot of independent time to get your marketing tasks done and have accountability from myself and other authors. It will be FUN and will help prevent your book marketing tasks from slipping through the cracks. We meet once a month at Watermark Art Center in Bemidji, Minnesota. We will be starting soon and doors are only open for a couple more weeks, so if you are interested, apply right away!
Podcast Interview: Read & Write With Natasha Tynes
If you love learning via podcasts, don’t miss this great conversation I had with Natasha Tynes about mastering a minimalist approach to your marketing! Listen wherever you get your podcasts.