Have you ever heard about some of the strange ways that people are using to promote their books On Fiverr, you can pay someone $5 to write your book title on their body. You can pay a little more to have someone dress up as a science fiction character and read your synopsis on camera. There are a lot of bizarre book marketing strategies that people use to promote their book today.
I’m not saying that you should use any of the above examples, but I just wanted to highlight that when it comes to book promotion, the sky’s the limit.
We’re going to be looking at some book marketing strategies that are quite unorthodox. But I assure you that they are extremely effective if done correctly. The idea here is to use a small portion of your marketing budget to think outside of the box. These unconventional tactics should be a part of every writer’s arsenal.
Here are some strategies to keep in mind before you pull a rabbit out of your hat!
#1: Being Weird Without a Reason is Just Weird
Weird does work but only is there is a valid reason for it. Look at all of those Snickers commercials where people are transformed into someone else because they’re hungry. They are weird, but effective because of the audience being targeted. I doubt those same weird tactics would work with a business book.
“Hey, I’ve got a clown dressed in a bikini. Why? Because he hasn’t read my book.”
That’s just weird.
Avoid being weird just for the sake of it because it just comes across as – well, weird!
#2: Be Weary of So-Called Experts
Everyone calls themselves an expert but how many on the internet are bonafide experts? Not all the many to be honest. So before you hire one of these experts to market your book, check their history. You’ll find a few who can really deliver on their promises but chances are if the marketing “expert” has low prices, then there is a reason they are so cheap. Do your homework.
#3: Quality is So Much More Important Than Quantity
Let’s use Twitter as an example here. We all know that you can spend $25 and get 100,000 followers on Twitter. The problem is that most of these people are not real. So when an “influencer” says that they will promote your book to their 200,000 followers, don’t fall for it.
I would much rather spend $100 to get my book in front of 10,000 real, interested readers than spend $10 to get my book in front of 200,000 fake accounts.
With that said, I’m not saying to avoid these types of services altogether. $10 is not much money to test something new as long as it seems legitimate. Some people are just starting out and offer lower prices to build their reputation. You can always use a tracking link to see how well the promotion worked.
#4: Give People What They Want
I see so many promotions that offer to give away a $50 Kindle Fire when people enter, but if you stop and think about it for a moment, then most of your target audience as an author will be people who already own the device. Add to that the fact that so many people already have a Kindle Fire and you’ll see that this is not the best promotion. Instead, if your book is about the video game industry then you might try giving away a free NES Classic, which is much more difficult to find. That will get your audience enthusiastic about signing up!
Final Thoughts on Book Marketing Strategies
Having a very limited book marketing budget should not be an excuse with so many free options available for book promotions. You just have to put in the work and be creative. You spend countless hours bringing your idea to life so what’s a few more hours to properly promote it.