Unfortunately, we all know the hard truth.
It’s difficult for self-published authors to compete with traditional publishing houses who have access to expensive marketing teams and solid connections in the industry that many independent authors lack.
Fortunately, that does not mean you have to hire an expensive book marketer or pay for costly ads.
You can turn to content marketing instead.
You see, traditional ads can sometimes have limitations. Some forms, like digital ads, may only be visible for a short period of time unless reinvested in. However, through content marketing, you can achieve long-lasting visibility, so potential buyers and readers can find you for months or perhaps even years to come!
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the strategy of creating content that is valuable and relevant to your target audience, which can be offered for free or as part of a paid subscription model. It’s a way to bring attention to your author brand and books.
How is it different from traditional advertising you ask? Well, for starters, you can start for free and audiences are likely to find it more enjoyable than traditional ads. Paid advertisement can often seem pushy and lacking in genuineness, whereas content marketing comes from a place of wanting to help and a focus on adding value.
With content marketing, you’re giving your audience something rather than just asking them to give you their money or time.
Why Does Content Marketing Matter to Self-Published Authors?
Content marketing can help you get sales without the disadvantages of advertising as people tend to perceive it as helpful content rather than something intended to sell something. They want to engage with it rather than avoid it (like they might with an ad).
(Let’s be real, how many of us can’t wait to press the skip button whenever an ad pops up?)
With content marketing, you can make sure that people remember you and your work for the long haul. It can help you achieve book sales over the long term, without having to constantly pay for advertising and promotion. You can build a sense of trust and loyalty with your audience.
In other words, content marketing is a way to create fans.
Now, make no mistake. This is a long-term strategy. You’ll invest real time into this. In return, however, you can establish your authority and create a strong author brand.
Establishing contact and credibility with your audience in advance helps to build a connection, so that when your book becomes available, they’ll be more likely to buy it. That’s why content marketing is an important part of cultivating an audience of readers. Marketing experts often cite the “Rule of 7,” which suggests that consumers are more likely to make a purchase after they have encountered your marketing message at least seven times.
Even if you’ve already published one book and have readers (which is amazing!), you shouldn’t assume that they’ll all want your new book. The repeated exposure that social media posts, newsletters, and blog posts create for your brand, however, will make your audience more likely to remember you and purchase your new book.
You essentially have to make sure they remember you exist.
A strong content marketing strategy means you won’t have to do as much paid advertising. Make sure that you include evergreen content in your plan. Examples may include YouTube videos, blog posts, and email newsletters. Social media posts, on the other hand, are usually only effective for hours.
While it’s certainly hard work, the time you invest in content marketing will continue to pay off for potentially years to come.
What Kinds of Content Should Authors Use in their Marketing Strategy?
Now that we know what content marketing is and why it’s so important for self-published atuhors, let’s explore the different types of content that you can use in your strategy.
1. Blog Posts
Undoubtedly one of the most effective methods. You can write about your books, your writing process, and/or your life as an author.
Here’s why blog posts can help with your book marketing efforts:
- Improves Discoverability: When you write on topics that you’re potential readers might be interested in, you’re more likely to get discovered by people willing to buy and read your book.
- Develops Authority: You can show your authority—and knowledge—on a subject in your blog, which encourages readers to remember and read you.
- No Algorithms: With social media, algorithms often prevent potential readers from seeing your content. Blogs aren’t subject to these kinds of limitations.
- Evergreen Content: Blog content has an advantage over social media—it’s often evergreen. This means that people might still discover your content months and years after it’s been originally posted.
Now you might be thinking: what do I even write about? It’s crucial to create content that’ll appeal to your readers. Spend some time thinking about the demographics and psychographics of those who are likely to read your books and gear your content towards them.
This might include, for example:
- Genre Insights: You can write posts about the elements, themes, and tropes of your genre. Are you a romance writer? Write about your favorite enemies to lovers books!
- How To Guides: Think there are aspiring writers in your potential audience? Then why not write some long how-to guides? For example, “How to Write a Book Description that Gets Attention”.
- Behind-the-Scenes: For example, give your readers some insight into how you write, do research, and develop characters.
2. Email Newsletters
Email newsletters are another great way to content market.
What is an email newsletter?
It’s an email you regularly send your subscribers. It may provide exclusive content, like insights or updates. One great upside is that with email newsletters, you can directly access the inboxes of your audience. This way, they don’t miss out on your content.
Let’s go over the perks:
- Create a Loyal Audience: Email newsletters can be especially powerful for creating an audience that stays loyal for the long haul. When a reader subscribes to your newsletter, they’re much more likely to purchase your books—they’re also more likely to review and talk about you to their friends.
- Boosts Book Sales: By timing the sending out of your emails effectively, you can meaningfully increase your book sales while sharing news about sales, discounts, and events.
- Develop a Relationship with Readers: One major advantage of email is that it feels personal—which can help with engagement.
- More Control: Having access to your audience’s emails means you can contact them directly without using social media or other third party platforms.
Are you hesitating because you don’t know what to say? We’ve all been there! The most important thing to remember is the balance between value and interpersonal connection: your newsletter should feel like a letter to someone you know rather than a sales pitch.
What are some content ideas you can use? Try:
- Engagement Questions: Get your readers engaged by asking their opinions. For example, you could ask their favorite books or what they’d like to see you write.
- Special Offers: Give your readers early access to signed copies of your books, giveaways, and discounts or sales.
- Behind the Scenes: Share insights into your researching and writing processes like what your writing life is like.
- Updates: Share updates on the status of your books—this can be effective in boosting sales.
3. Social Media
Don’t overwork yourself here. Most authors find it’s best to devote their efforts to one (or two) platforms for social media strategy.
Let’s talk platforms:
Instagram is primarily visual and image-based in focus. It’s a great choice if you want to post book teasers and behind-the-scenes content, showing your writing process and life.
Facebook is a popular choice for authors because it lets you build a community for your readers. You can create author pages and groups and even do live Q&A sessions. Many authors also find Facebook ads are great for promoting their books.
Pinterest is perfect for posting images of your book covers. You can also post pins that link to blog posts with writing advice and information about your books. One advantage of Pinterest is how evergreen its content tends to be.
Twitter or BlueSky are great if you want to network with other authors. They’re also good platforms to be on if you want to get involved in discussions or share your writing progress.
TikTok is great for creating short-form videos that showcase your books. It’s book side—aptly called BookTok—is a good place to connect with readers and fellow authors alike.
LinkedIn is popular for non-fiction authors wanting to boost credibility in their topic or authors more broadly wanting to network in the publishing industry.
Tumblr, Medium, and Substack are all blogging platforms with slightly different use cases. Tumblr is ideal for short-form or visual content, Medium accommodates both short and long-form articles, and Substack specializes in newsletter formats that allow for monetization through subscriptions.
Remember—don’t spread yourself too thin. It’s better to choose one or two platforms to focus on. Think about which ones are most likely to attract your ideal readers and then use them to your advantage!
4. Podcasts
Podcasts are audio series divided into episodes. Each episode will usually be focused on a theme or topic. Many are posted on platforms such as Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. This comes in handy if your audience enjoys listening to podcasts while they’re doing other things, like household tasks, commuting, or exercising.
Making a podcast might be a useful way to create an audience that extends beyond the traditional written formats. Audio content lets you connect with readers in a more personal way—it helps them feel like they’re truly getting to know the real you!
Additionally, some people who listen to podcasts might not be active on blogs and social media. That is why creating a podcast could mean reaching people who wouldn’t find you in those ways.
Some other ways that a podcast might help you take off include:
- Opportunities for Collaboration: You can interview book reviewers, industry experts, and other publishing professionals.
- Shows Expertise: You can demonstrate your knowledge by sharing insights on books, publishing, and your book’s themes.
- Allows Multi-Tasking: When someone listens to a podcast, they can do other things at the same time. This makes you more discoverable to people who don’t have a lot of extra time.
- Greater Discoverability: You can make your podcasts searchable, helping to bring in more listeners. This, in turn, can garner you more readers.
- Stronger Connection: Hearing your voice in a podcast can help potential readers feel a more personal connection to you. It might even encourage a stronger investment in you and your books.
How Can Self-Published Authors Use Podcasts?
Now for the part that probably interests you the most—how can you effectively use your podcast?
- Cater to Your Audience: You can create your own podcast focusing on specific book-related topics, like your genre, book marketing, and/or advice on writing.
- Re-Use Blog Posts: You can convert the blog posts you’ve already written into audio format, for your podcast. This will help you reach a new audience with the same content.
- Share Behind-the-Scenes Insights: You could share bonus behind-the-scenes content as well as talk about character development. You could also read sections of your book aloud.
- Do Guest Appearances: You can do guest appearances on other podcasts. This can be a useful way to reach audiences that may be unaware of you. Look for popular podcasts in your niche or genre.
Using podcasts is often a highly effective way to reach larger and more engaged audiences. It can also improve your brand authority and help you grow awareness of your books in a way that feels personal and natural.
5. Collaborations and Guest Posts
A guest post is an article that will appear on someone else’s publication, blog, or website. These are useful because you work will appear on a platform with an already established audience. Yay! More exposure.
A collaboration is partnering with a brand, influencer, or fellow author and cross promoting your books and products. It’s a win-win for everyone! This can be done by writing blog posts, doing interviews or social media promotions.
How does this help you?
- Build Credibility: Gain authority for your name and brand by being featured on well-established book-related blogs and sites.
- New Audience: People who may have never heard of you otherwise could become familiar with your author brand and books.
- Create a Stronger Support Network: Make connections with other bloggers, podcasters, and authors.
- Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO): When you’re linked back from high-ranking websites, your SEO improves meaning higher visibility on Google search.
- More Traffic: On our guest posts, include a bio that links to your website, book, or newsletter. This can attract more people to your pages.
How Can You Write Guest Posts for Blogs?
You can start by identifying blogs in your niche. Then send pitches for guest posts to them.
You can also participate in online groups—on Facebook, Reddit, or Goodreads—to meet other indie authors to cross promote with.
Putting the effort into writing a guest post is worth it, because it’s likely to bring you more traffic while growing your authority. It might sound crazy, but the right guest post might even be more beneficial than weeks of social media.
Conclusion
The most important part of content marketing is remembering to be strategic (while avoiding common mistakes). You can’t be everywhere doing everything, so make sure that the tactics you choose are the best ones for your specific genre and audience.
Repurpose your content when you can and stay consistent throughout. This will help you attract the right readers: ones who’ll enjoy your work, buy your books, and stay with you for the long haul.