As a writer, one of your main aims should be to market your content effectively. Remember that you will want to sell your content, whatever form it may be in. Your content could be a novel or articles on your author’s blog. In this day and age, the most effective way to market your work is through the internet.
This kind of media will give you a very long reach and allow you to hit a wider demographic. Before you do market your work though, you should have a set strategy.
The internet may be powerful, but a lot of other writers use the media form to market their work. You should be able to use the internet to the best of your ability. Here are tips on how to market your content online as a writer.
1. Understand the two kinds of content marketing
Before you start your content marketing journey, you should understand that there are two sides to content marketing.
There is inbound and outbound marketing. The main goal of inbound marketing is to attract an audience to your content.
Whereas, the main goal of outbound marketing is to reach out to your potential audience. This is where advertisements come in.
To do both would be costly for you, so it is best if you choose one. You could do both, once you are already established as a writer. From a marketing perspective, it is best if you start with inbound marketing, because it is all about your content and costs a lot less, and could still be quite efficient. Whereas with outbound marketing, you will have to pay to reach out to your audience.
2. Decide on your marketing goals
If you want to market your content online in the most effective way possible, it is important that you lay out your marketing goals. Remember that doing an online marketing campaign could be quite a challenge. As a rule, you should make sure that your marketing goals are as well-defined as possible. Before you set out on your content marketing, you should ask yourself the following questions.
1. What is your main goal? Is it to release a new book or set up a fan base for your work?
2. How much resources and time are you willing to spend on this endeavor?
3. What is your main marketing strategy?
Going into the content marketing process without defined goals is risky because you won’t know what you are working for. You may waste a year or two floundering about and not really achieving anything.
3. Identify your target audience
Aside from identifying your marketing goals, it is also important that you identify your target audience. Remember that there are a multitude of people that use the internet on a daily basis.
If you want to make your online marketing strategy as focused as possible, you should make sure to identify your target audience as effectively as possible. Take the time to decide on the demographic of people that may be interested in your work.
Your choice of audience will help maximize your chances of selling your work. Your target audience will depend on your content, and what genre you are writing in.
4. Set up an online platform
A key aspect of running an online marketing campaign, is setting up your online platform. Remember that you will need a platform from where you could conduct all your online marketing campaigns. As a rule, you should make your online platform both attractive and easy to use.
The best platform for your content marketing is an author website. Through your author website, you will be able to make your content as visible and accessible as possible. Your author blog will serve as the site where all your potential readers will look for your work.
You could set up an online bookstore on your author blog. You could also post articles that are related to your chosen genre. Aside from articles, you could also distribute how-to manuals as well.
When you design your author blog, it is important to make your blog as easy to use as possible. Make sure that the website navigation is not complicated. Remember that not all your potential readers are tech savvy. An overly complicated website may deter them from checking out your online platform.
It's important that you encourage your potential readers to subscribe to your author blog. When readers subscribe to your author’s blog, they will receive updates on any new content you publish.
5. Automate your email List
Email lists are described as the total number of subscribers your blog page has. It is a must when it comes to conducting an online marketing campaign. Remember that once you have your audience’s interest in your content, it is important that you keep them informed and interested in your work. A great way to do this is to send out newsletters and ads on a consistent basis.
If you have to send out your emails yourself, it could be quite a hassle. Fortunately, there are many options that allow you to automate the sending of newsletters. If you want to automate your email list, you could use various email marketing software. With this kind of software, you will be able to streamline all the emails you send to your subscribers.
6. Ensure your content is in the best condition possible
Whether you are selling a book online or writing articles, you should make sure that all your content is in the best condition possible. Whether you are marketing a book you just wrote, or a weekly article for your author blog, it is important that there are no errors in your work.
It is important that you double check everything before you release any kind of content. If you are releasing a book, you should have it edited multiple times. If you are releasing a long or short article, have it checked by an editor as well. This may seem like a lot of work. However, it is better to do the extra work than to get a mistake called out by a reader.
7. Offer freebies
A great way to attract potential clients is to offer freebies. It is human nature to be interested in free stuff. Take advantage of this, and offer freebies. These freebies could be practically anything.
They could be as simple as bookmarks and discounts or something as extravagant as a free set of your books. Giving away freebies may seem expensive, but the attention it brings to your content is worth it.
8. Write guest post to other sites
If you are an authority in your chosen genre, it is a good idea to write guest posts for other sites that have the same genre. Guest posts are content that is written by other writers for another site. While it may seem wasteful to create content for other sites, think of this as a way to enhance your reach as a writer. Just make sure to use your actual name, and also provide links to your own content.
As a newbie writer, you may find it difficult to get your guest posts on some of the more established sites. A great way to circumvent this is to write for Medium. The platform is free to use, and many new writers use it to establish a following.
9. Use various social media platforms
Aside from setting up your own author blog, it is also important that you use various social media platforms to increase your work’s visibility. Remember that the more platforms you use, the more visible your content will be. For example, you could create a Facebook page, and post links to your content through there. You could also tweet excerpts of your work through your Twitter account, and post images of your life as a writer through Instagram. Overall, the more efficient you are at using social media, the more influence you will have as a writer.
Conclusion
If you want to market your content online, you should make sure that you know what you are doing. Remember that the internet is one of the most potent media forms in the world. With these tips, you will be able to market your content in the most effective and efficient way possible.