Steps to a great book launch
Internet marketers have fine-tuned the idea of a product launch and have made tons of money at it. Authors have picked up the idea and re-cast it as a book launch. So, how does it work? And how can it be most effective?
The basic idea is to choose a date when the item will be available. Orchestrate buyer interest around that date, so that buyers are lined up waiting for it on that day, ready to click the “buy” button.
As I look around the book publishing world, I don’t see great book launches going on, though people are trying. Let me describe a great product launch for you, from the Internet marketer’s standpoint. This formula isn’t tailored for fiction books, but we are going to take a good look at it because it works.
Choose your launch date, ideally several months away or more.
Set up a newsletter emailing account, for instance at MailChimp or Constant Contact.
Set an ad budget.
Set up your website so it will capture email addresses for your emailing campaign. To do this you need to offer a freebie that is attractive to people who would buy your product.
Advertise to get people to click over to that website, download the freebie, and be put on your mailing list. Those can be Google ads, Facebook ads, and so on, carefully crafted ads that pique the interest of people who like your keywords. Also talk about it on social media as much as you can. You need the ads to reach the people who are outside your circles of influence.
While the ad campaign is going on, talk to the people who sign up for the newsletter. Send out mailings occasionally and whet their appetites for the product you will be launching. Say how it is unique and how others are loving the ideas in it. Encourage them to tell their friends. Keep an eye on all your statistics and tweak your ads as well as your landing page, the one that sells people on signing up for the newsletter.
Start preparing the launch day package. This will include substantial freebies and possibly discounts for someone who buys your book on the target day or days. Those who wait face diminishing freebies and discounts. As launch day approaches, increase frequency of your mailings. Be discreet; don’t annoy anyone.
When the launch is over, after five days or so, the item goes back to its original price. Hopefully you’ve made a bundle, because you don’t expect to sell a lot more post-launch.
This formula works well when selling something new and interesting ideas to people who want to make money off selling things on the Internet. To see an example, sign up for newsletters from Steve and Kerry Beck, homeschoolers and Internet marketers at http://familyebiz.com/ , and see how they do it.
The next question for us: how can we tweak this formula to maximize a fiction book launch?
Here are two possible tools: targeted Facebook ads and manipulating the price of ebook downloads on Amazon.
Personally, I haven’t actually done a fiction book launch, though I can gather info on the topic. Is there anyone out there who would like to share what they would do again, and what they thought was a waste of time or money?