Archive for Marketing Strategies
Market Your Book with Videos: What types of videos can you make?
Posted by: | CommentsIn a prior post, I wrote about the importance of using video to spread the word about your book. What types of videos can you make? My advice – make videos that you want and like to make! Why? Because those will be the ones that you’ll be most comfortable doing – and your passion and enthusiasm will show thru.
If you start making certain types of videos that don’t resonate with who you are, that’s also going to come thru loud and clear. Align your passion with your presence to get the best result.
Here are some ideas about different types of videos you can make – all which can be helpful in promoting your book:
Interviews: Create short interviews of you being interviewed about your book. You can have a friend, colleague or even another author interview you.
Testimonials: Interview others about their thoughts on your book. If you’re some place local, take along a Flip video and conduct interviews on the spot. Also, ask readers to send you a link to any video testimonials they might create on their own.
Bookstore videos: Take short videos of you speaking about your book and perhaps even walking up to where you find a copy on the shelf. Get permission from the bookstore prior to shooting video and ensure other people are not in the video unless you have their express permission.
Request videos from others: Besides testimonials, you can request that others send in videos about how they applied the information in your book, what they learned and so on. These would differ from a traditional testimonial about the book in general.
Videos from classes, presentations, or TV appearances : Don’t forget to include video snippets of prime moments from classes, seminars or other live events. Make sure you only use clips that include you unless you have written permission from others.
There are many other types of videos you can make. Prior to creating a video, inquire and receive the proper permissions or releases as you may not have republishing rights to the material although you’re the one in the video.
Market Your Book – Video adds dimension – it makes you real to your target market
Posted by: | CommentsVideo is probably one of the top strategies you can use to build buzz for your business and your book. Whether you’re posting them to YouTube, directly to your blog or to other popular video-sharing sites, you’ll find they’ll earn you great search engine popularity.
More important than that, videos add dimensionality to who you are. You become more real. Words on a page can reveal only so much about who you are. Audio engages another sense which adds a second dimension. Much can be revealed through your voice – your overall sentiment, your attitude and your energy level.
With video, you can take it a step further. Viewers can complete the picture. They can “read” your body language and put the whole picture together so to speak. A video is just a step removed from meeting you in person – and much more convenient especially if there are geographic differences. Since it’s impossible to meet everyone, videos are a convenient way to share yourself with the masses.
If you happen to be camera shy, no worries. You can still create videos by interviewing others, adding audio narration to PowerPoints and using other creative techniques. Still you can reap great rewards from using this particular medium and it’s worth a consideration as you assess all the different ways you can market your book.
Blog Talk Radio – Create more visibility for you and your book
Posted by: | CommentsBlog Talk Radio is an online application that allows you to host a live or pre-recorded radio show via the internet. It’s free, easy to set up and all you need to get started is a telephone and a computer. If you aren’t familiar with Blog Talk Radio, click on over to find out more. Better yet, search for a radio show that might be interesting to you and listen in for a few minutes. What’s nice about Blog Talk Radio is that all shows are immediately archived and ready for replay after they’re broadcasted.
In a prior post, I wrote about you starting your own radio show. If that’s not your cup of tea, you can still take full advantage of the great things it offers by being a guest on pre-existing shows. That’s right, you can search thru the gigantic list of Blog Talk Radio shows and reach out to other hosts.
For the most part, talk show hosts are continuously looking for guests to feature. They want to host articulate, energetic guests who can add value and who are aligned with the goals and objectives of their show. Search thru the radio shows and start making a list of those that would be a good fit for you and your book.
Make sure you have a one-page media summary about who you are, your niche and other informational tidbits that are relevant to radio and/or TV show producers/hosts. It should include complete contact information, a summary of who you are and why you’re an expert in your area, images of you (color and b/w), and links to your book blog or website. Keep it to a single page – with plenty of whitespace. Make it easy for the show host to easily determine who you are and why you would be a great guest for their show. Also include a list of media/interview questions. Again, try to keep this on a single page.
Contact the hosts to see if there might be a good fit. Make sure you have a good system to track all of this information because it can be quite time-consuming to keep track of everything.
You can use this marketing strategy on a regular basis to maintain visibility and credibility. And don’t forget that added bonus that you can tweet and post the link to your broadcast show via a variety of social media. Give it a try. You’ll be helping out the radio show hosts and helping to build your online brand at the same time.