Build Your
Marketing Plan
There are two things to consider when you are creating a strategy and plan for marketing your book.
Are you Building an Audience or Building Income?
If you need to Build an Audience your messaging and content will be completely different than if you are trying to Build Income.
Audience comes first. Having loyal readers will lead to the building income piece. That’s where we will start.
Marketing is a connection between you and the readers who buy your books. That is all.
The difficult part is finding a strategy that is comfortable for you AND will be successful in building your Brand Identity. Readers want to know you and understand how you think and write. Know, Like, Trust. (we will discuss this when we start working together.) This is key to building a following of loyal readers. I invite you to work with me so we can accomplish this goal.
A well thought out marketing strategy is multi-layer and is a the “Why” behind marketing your book.
Strategy Comes Before a Plan.
Once you have a strategy in place then you can implement actionable items that are measurable and executed within a specific time frame.
KISST – Keeping it Simple, Sustainable and True
(KISST, Get it – a little play on romance? Words are so AWESOME!)
Building Your Marketing Strategy One Phase at a Time – “KISST”
This is a great fit for you if you….
Aren’t comfortable with promoting yourself or your books.
Need to understand or develop your unique marketing message and brand to reach your Ideal Readers.
Are overwhelmed trying to do “all the things” and nothing seems to work.
Want an understanding of how to market that is practical and structured in a step method that makes sense.
You want to finally get a plan into place that fits your writing schedule and life.
Coaching the “KISST” Keeping it Simple, Sustainable, True Plan is done in Phases. Each Phase includes worksheets, exercises, and information that when combined, will become your own, unique Marketing Plan Handbook. It belongs to you and will be your resource for marketing ideas, information and strategy. You will always have the information at your fingertips to help in your marketing efforts.
Working in phases will allow you to work at your comfort level and develop actionable steps to build your plan.
Everyone enrolled is required to complete PHASE I – this is the foundation of your plan, and it will determine how you proceed.
You decide how many phases you complete. I am happy to work with you until you no longer need me – that’s the goal!
I am invested in your success.
PHASE I: (Completion Required before Moving to additional Phases)
Developing your Author Brand (Your Why and Who)
Identifying and Locating your Ideal Reader
This is a foundation of your plan that will get you started and be the basis for your future marketing. At the end of these two steps, you will have a workable plan in place with all the components compiled in one spreadsheet - “KISST Plan Worksheet”. This gives you a solid foundation for the future that can be refined and changed as you move forward.
PHASE I includes:
Two 60-minute Zoom calls per month with exercises to complete before the next call. Written follow-up will be provided from our call. Next steps will be included with a timeline for completion.
Step 1: Review of Current Marketing Efforts
I will audit your existing efforts – If you have previously completed the “Current Marketing Activity Analysis” then you will receive an additional (complimentary) 60-minute Coaching call.
Complete the “Marketing Awareness” spreadsheet.
Complete the Q & A worksheet.
I will provide comments and suggestions on your current efforts. We will look at strengths and weaknesses and determine what is a good fit for your personality and skills. This spreadsheet will serve as the basis for your strategy and will be a tool to help meet your goals and stay on track. Going forward this spreadsheet will become your “KISST” Plan Worksheet.
First 60 Minute Coaching Call
Step 2: Complete “Me & My Reader” Workbook
Workbook includes:
“Me” Q & A Sheet
One-Page Author Brand Summary (using answers from the “Me Sheet”)
“My Ideal Reader” Q & A Sheet
My Ideal Reader Summary Page (using answers from the Ideal Reader Q&A Sheet)
You will also receive the following Bonus Sheets:
Genre Convention Guidelines
Finding Comparable Authors and Titles – Exercise Sheet
Return of your completed work for my review and comments. This will be the basis of the our next Coaching Call.
Second 60 Minute Coaching Call
At the completion of PHASE I you will have a basic plan to work with and an understanding of your goals and how to reach them.
I invite you to invest in yourself and work with me. You are worth it.
Investment: $450/month
PHASE II: Expanding and Refining Your “ KISST” Plan
This Phase is structured to build on the foundational “KISST” plan developed in PHASE I. We will continue to add workbook pages to what has already been completed. You will develop your own “”KISST” Marketing Handbook that will become your journal for information, planning and tracking your marketing.
PHASE II Includes:
Two 60-Minute Coaching Calls per Month. Two 60-minute Zoom calls per month with exercises to complete before the next call. Written follow-up will be provided from each call. Next steps will be included with a timeline for completion.
PHASE II Focus Topics -
Your Author Brand and Messaging – Content and how it is presented.
Adding monthly “Your Truth” journal sheets to your workbook. One per month that records what is working and what is not, mindset, Celebrations, great ideas, etc. We will discuss these briefly on our monthly Coaching Calls.
Analytics – Importance of tracking your campaign. Learn how to track results and determine the success of your current efforts. What do you need to analyze and track your plan? Software options
Using one piece of content in different ways and on different channels.
Creating templates that represent your brand and content type that are re-usable and time saving.
Tactics to lessen the time you spend on marketing efforts – refining your efforts into a weekly schedule that is sustainable. Techniques to hold yourself accountable.
Creative ways to reach your readers and stand out. Study successful authors in your genre over a specific length of time. Track how they engage their readers. You will receive a work sheet to fill out and compare your chosen writers.
Planning six months to a year ahead (this will depend on your comfort level) and using events during the calendar year to piggyback your marketing efforts. This is where your understanding of your specific brand and book subject will be especially useful.
The time this Phase takes will depend entirely on you and your comfort level. Ideally, three months would be a good starting point for completion.
Look how far you have come! Let’s keep going! You are worth it.
Investment: $450/month
PHASE III: Stretching Your Marketing Muscles - Committing and Growing your Plan.
Phase III Includes:
Two 60-minute Zoom calls per month with exercises to complete before the next call. Written follow-up will be provided from our call. Next steps will be included with a timeline for completion.
PHASE III Focus Topics -
Planning a Marketing Budget – determining what you can spend and where. This will be gauged using your analytics from your current plan. This is the next step in really looking at where you are and what you can reasonably do.
Long Term Goals and Plans. Looking at long term plans and committing to them.
Determine a schedule for completion of your book. “Planning” Worksheet that will help you plan “backwards”.
This is a commitment sheet that is intended to keep you focused on goals and plans for your book and to ensure that your writing and marketing are working together. Yes, these writing plans are on-going and flexible (you do have a life, after all). That is the beauty of scheduling and being able to see where you may need to update, change, or delete something.
Learning to work outside of your comfort zone. This is baby steps and plans to increase your skills and add tactics to your plan that are beyond what you are doing now. Confidence Review and planning work sheet to work on the areas that still might be giving you issues. Moving forward and putting more layers into your strategy.
Ready to go to the next level? You can do this!
Investment: $450/month