~by Rodger Johnson
I’ve been writing professionally for over a decade—mostly magazine pieces, marketing copy and other types of business communication. There is one lesson I learned, however. Save everything—even your scraps. This may seem like advice that would lead someone to cameo on the reality TV show Hoarders, but no. Stay with me.
For authors of fiction or non-fiction, this is a lesson not for generating more ideas for new books, although surely scraps can lead to new creations, but these leftovers are great marketing collateral too.
Here’s a True Story
Once, I worked with an author who had written a devotional book. While the book was a great asset for believers to strengthen their faith, it was the stuff that never made the final cut that became the backbone for our content marketing strategy.
My author had researched her topic so well; however, the scraps we transformed into supplementary lessons to complement the devotionals in the book. This did three things for our online marketing strategy:
· By offering up this content as a supplemental material, it drove curiosity for the book, which increased the number of people who viewed the author’s website, particularly the book page.
· Each blog post was a lesson in itself, so people could strengthen their faith with just the blog content, which is the cornerstone of any marketing strategy.
· Through the blog the author was not interrupting what people wanted to consume, but being what they wanted to consume, which built tremendous trust.
From this approach, there were tangible results:
· The author’s community and audience online grew quickly. And those people were loyal, return visitors.
· The people shared the content with their followers, increasing the reach of the author’s content, which strengthened a marketing phenomenon called word of mouth.
· People actually purchased the author’s book. Why? Because her table scraps gave the people reading her blog a taste of the book. It also edified them at the same time.
The Payoff for You
What does this mean for authors like you? Simply, an effective marketing strategy that uses content you’ve already produced can fuel book promotion, build an engaged audience, and persuade them to buy your book. Instead of my author interrupting people with the typical “Buy me! Buy me!” approach, the author built trust first by offering useful, relevant content that helped people do exactly what they wanted—build their faith.
A side note, by the way. From the blogging, we created a new book as a supplement to her original book. And her loyal followers devoured it.
I’ve been writing professionally for over a decade—mostly magazine pieces, marketing copy and other types of business communication. There is one lesson I learned, however. Save everything—even your scraps. This may seem like advice that would lead someone to cameo on the reality TV show Hoarders, but no. Stay with me.
For authors of fiction or non-fiction, this is a lesson not for generating more ideas for new books, although surely scraps can lead to new creations, but these leftovers are great marketing collateral too.
Here’s a True Story
Once, I worked with an author who had written a devotional book. While the book was a great asset for believers to strengthen their faith, it was the stuff that never made the final cut that became the backbone for our content marketing strategy.
My author had researched her topic so well; however, the scraps we transformed into supplementary lessons to complement the devotionals in the book. This did three things for our online marketing strategy:
· By offering up this content as a supplemental material, it drove curiosity for the book, which increased the number of people who viewed the author’s website, particularly the book page.
· Each blog post was a lesson in itself, so people could strengthen their faith with just the blog content, which is the cornerstone of any marketing strategy.
· Through the blog the author was not interrupting what people wanted to consume, but being what they wanted to consume, which built tremendous trust.
From this approach, there were tangible results:
· The author’s community and audience online grew quickly. And those people were loyal, return visitors.
· The people shared the content with their followers, increasing the reach of the author’s content, which strengthened a marketing phenomenon called word of mouth.
· People actually purchased the author’s book. Why? Because her table scraps gave the people reading her blog a taste of the book. It also edified them at the same time.
The Payoff for You
What does this mean for authors like you? Simply, an effective marketing strategy that uses content you’ve already produced can fuel book promotion, build an engaged audience, and persuade them to buy your book. Instead of my author interrupting people with the typical “Buy me! Buy me!” approach, the author built trust first by offering useful, relevant content that helped people do exactly what they wanted—build their faith.
A side note, by the way. From the blogging, we created a new book as a supplement to her original book. And her loyal followers devoured it.