marketing 103 internet marketing

Marketing 103 – Internet Marketing

Not only do you need a presence on the net, you should be actively marketing your books there as well.  Whether you want to use the internet to simply provide information to you readers or go far beyond that to actually sell your books, you need to have a strategy in place.   Direct marketing that works on other media, may not work on the internet.  You cannot simply take your brochures and excerpts and stick them on the internet hoping to be effective.

An internet marketing strategy should consist of four major components:

©      Internet objective – the impact you want to make

©      Message – what you want to provide the readers (information, get feedback, buy the book)

©      Method – what you plan to use to achieve your goals – email, ezines, websites, blogs

©      Effort – how much time and money you plan to spend

In an internet marketing strategy there are many routes to consider.  But before even taking one, you have to think of all the attributes you can use in marketing.  You do this by using Identifiers.

Identifies stimulate a reader to think of all the attributes of your work.  They are anything that can be associated with you, your genre or your book   They include your name or pen name, tag lines, logos, color schemes, symbols or anything that is unique to your work.  Identifies can link one book with another other, if that’s what you want to do, or it can link a specific genre with your name, if that’s the direction in which you want to go.  It all starts with what you hope to accomplish.

You need a strategy for your identifiers to make sure they communicate what you want your target readers to know about you and your work.

There are four main components to an Identifier Strategy:

• Objective – the role of your identifier in your marketing campaign.  This established awareness and knowledge in the minds of your target readers
• Message – the attributes of your book with which your identifiers are associated.  This should consistent convey your theme, genre or series.  For instance, if you write books with a consistent medieval theme, your message should be medieval, not historical. 
• Media – made your identifier visible.  This consists of advertising, uniqueness, genre, symbols, and hand outs.  Everything needs to relate back to your theme.  Consistency is important to success.
• Effort – amount of time and/or money you will spend on your identifiers

Your identifier helps you in the first stage of communication with your readers.  They establish awareness in the mind of the reader.  For instance if you book is a historical and you want it to stand out, you must find something unique that identifies you  and sets you apart from the pack.  Perhaps your book revolves around a specific era in history – medieval, regency, medieval magic, civil war, etc.  Choose something that will make the reader remember your book and continue the imagery through your series – a magic sword, a knight’s banner, a flag, something that will extend through your stories and tie them together and to you.   

Your identifier strategy should be strong and consistent with you’re the stories or series you are trying to promote.  The communication of your message should be consistent with your goal.  That communication is more powerful if all your identifiers are coordinated to give the same message.

You can also use Banner ads.  Banner ads need to be sticky and viral. 

Sticky means that people will want to read them and check out the links.  Whatever you put in your ad needs to be valuable – discounts, special offers, inside information. 

Viral means the readers want to send the links or tell other readers about your ad.  It must be seen as worthwhile – perhaps announcing a contest or short-term promo offer.

Don’t take out a banner ad without first knowing what hat you want to achieve by using one,  Banner ads are normally a short, tern investment, so make the most of them by making sure your message is precise and targeted.

Internet marketing can involve advertising, identifiers (name, logo, tags, style, and genre), sales promotions, selling and public relations – all communication approaches.

There are four major components to internet marketing:

• Internet objectives – the impact you want to make on your target readers
• Your message – what make your book unique,
• Your method – how you plan on getting your message out

Your effort – how much time and/or money do you plan to spend