If you want to reach a bigger audience and sell more books, you must do the marketing research. My version of it is called The Crushing Kindle Marketing and Visibility Study and it has helped 100% of my clients become #1 bestselling authors. This process should be done BEFORE you write your book because it will give you critical information you need to avoid “hope marketing”, i.e. writing a book that you hope will sell. Yet, too many authors don’t even think about marketing until after they’ve written their book. But, don’t worry, if you’ve already written a book and did not do the marketing research first, it’s never too late to go back and make changes to your book and/or your listing.
The study is comprised of five elements.
- Positioning your BookIf you’re book doesn’t stand out from all the other books on your topic, it will be overlooked and no one will buy it. So, you have to see what other books are out there on your topic and how they approach it. Once you know that, you have to figure out how yours is different. It can be something as simple as explaining it differently, or it could be as unique as a proprietary system not found anywhere else.
- Finding the Best Keywords You want to find the best keywords to use in your title and subtitle so you get the most visibility. Using the best keywords means finding the words that the majority of people look up when they are looking for your topic. You can do this using a program like Wordtracker www.wordtracker.comor Uber Suggest neilpatel.com/ubersuggest to get started.
- Writing a Hooky TitleYour title has to be memorable and “hook” your potential buyers in to take the next step. If they can’t remember the title, it will be difficult for them to look it up, let alone buy it! This is one of the reasons most titles are short. But, it’s not enough to be short, it must grab the person’s attention. There are different ways to do this: using curiosity, cleverness, being thought-provoking, using whimsy and/or alliteration for example. But, no matter which title you choose, you want to make sure that it’s unique because the fastest way to lose sales is by have a title that is shared with other books. When there are multiple books with the same title, your potential buyers will get confused as to which one to buy, so they will give up and leave.
- Creating a Benefit-Driven Subtitle Your subtitle must explain what your book is about, the benefit they will receive from reading it, and why your ideal audience should buy it, It’s also how you will differentiate your title. People have to know why they should buy your book over all the others and why it’s the best choice for them. It might be that it’s a step-by-step system, or it might be that they get results in a certain amount of time for example. This is why you must do the research first to see what other books are available and how yours is different, otherwise it’s going to be difficult to come up with the right subtitle.
- Finding the Best CategoriesBooks on Amazon are catalogued by category. With millions of books on the site, it’s important that you make it as easy as possible for people to find your book no matter how they search for it, and categories is one of the most popular ways that people search for books. On the flip side, putting your book in the wrong categories can exile them to the hinterlands of Amazon, so it’s vitally important to get your book in the right categories.
So, for maximum exposure and sales, figure out how to position your book properly, how to find the best keywords, and then write a hooky title, create a benefit-driven subtitle and find the best categories for your book before you actually write it. And if you’ve already got a book or books out there, go back and go through these steps for each book immediately and stop leaving a bunch of money on the table!
BTW: In this week’s podcast, Kim Thornton shares how she’s used this process in her work. Episode63: How to Write, Market & Sell Kids Books with Kim Thornton
To get started get my FREE Bestseller Title Formula Checklist www.booktitlesecrets.com
