The Write Conversation: Marketing Tools Writers Should Make the Most Of

You’ll get the most out of any promotional tool by using it, reusing it, modifying it, and applying the tool in different ways. Making the most of marketing means being pray-pared, prepared, and practiced.

Promote Always

The Apostle Paul used every opportunity to promote. Consider how he turned surviving a poisonous snake bite into a great conversation about the gospel. Even seeing a statue to an unknown god became a promo op.

Be ready to share about your writing. Have a book with you for photo ops. I’m always surprised at conferences that many people take photos, but few hold up a book they wrote. Be sure to show your book with your smile. Remember that photo ops are promo ops.

Be ready to share about your book and the real message behind it that glorifies God. Use that elevator speech for anyone who wants to know what you write and show your passion.

Memes

Memes and other tools take time to create, so get the most mileage out of them Add the same meme to multiple social media sites as well as to blog posts and use the most popular ones on flyers when you’ll be speaking.

When a meme appears to be a hit due to the number of shares and comments garnered, repost it every month or two. People forget, new followers come on your site, and not every follower sees all you post each day, so it’s worth reposting the best. If there’s humor in a meme then people who read it before will often chuckle again. Modify posts by changing the words used or the picture.

Be sure the words are clear and easy to read on a mobile phone. Avoid the fancy scripts and stick to simple fonts. Consider using a good meme for an ad. $5 ads repeated a few times have reached 75,000 people with more than 7000 post engagements on my friend’s FB pages. One of my four-day ads added more than 100 new followers to my page.

Bookmarks

Take time to design a bookmark. Be sure to include links to your website, newsletter, and where to buy the book(s). Make it a useful tool with great tips or information readers will want to keep. You might even have a great meme to put on the bookmark. My bookmarks rank among my most shared pins on Pinterest. You can also add a call to action to the bookmark.

Let the bookmarks be conversation starters at conferences, book tables, and even meetups. Pass them out as a little gift and let the recipient ask questions or comment. Add them to mailings, especially with greeting cards. Tuck in an extra one to be shared.

Keep bookmarks and business cards with you to pass out when you share about your book. Use the bookmark on your blog posts too. The information makes a great blog prompt.

Freemiums

Downloadable one sheets of tips, games, backstory information, and fascinating facts make easy give-aways for readers. They are also easy to print for events and book signings to draw people to your table. With your name and link to your website and social media included, they make great marketing tools.

The individual tips in a freemium also make good individual social media tips to spread out over a week or month.

Links to Repost

Links from interviews, popular blog posts, and articles are also great tools that took time to generate. You had to pitch ideas and then wait for the interview or article to post. Use those links. Add them to newsletters to let readers share in what you did lately, especially if you can share how about the content as a gift to the reader.

Also use links of what you create. Links to the freemiums on your website and videos on You tube or FB can be posted many times, especially the most popular ones. These are easy to create and can even be a series of short videos. I did a bread baking series that became the basis of a home-economics course for homeschoolers. Making a very short video is easy on VideoAsk or in FB business suite.

Post the links in your online press kit, newsletter, and add one to each freemium printout if you have ones that match the topic of the handout.

More Tools to Use

Look around at any words or pictures you spent time creating as other multiuse tools. Your book description for the proposal, publisher’s catalogs, and the back of the book can be used as posts too, or as the start of a blog post. Sidebars and quotes used in your books may be great fodder for blog posts or to excerpt for social media.

Even your bios provide material. Use parts of it in posts, make sure to send the bio to meeting planners and media when you pitch to be a speaker or guest. Simply consider what took time to craft and then brainstorm more ways to use the materials.

We manage time more wisely when we recycle materials already created and find new ways to reuse them. Above all, pray for wisdom to create meaningful materials that glorify God and share the heart of the message God gave you to write.

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Marketing Tools Writers Should Make the Most of - @KarenHWhiting on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Making the most of marketing means being pray-pared, prepared, and practiced - @KarenHWhiting on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Karen Whiting (WWW.KARENWHITING.COM) is an international speaker, former television host of Puppets on Parade, certified writing and marketing coach, and award-winning author of twenty-seven books for women, children, and families. Her newest book, The Gift of Bread: Recipes for the Heart and the Table reflects her passion for bread and growing up helping at her grandparent’s restaurant. Check out her newest book Growing a Mother’s Heart: Devotions of Faith, Hope, and Love from Mothers Past, Present, and Future. It's full of heartwarming and teary eyed stories of moms.

Karen has a heart to grow tomorrow’s wholesome families today. She has written more than eight hundred articles for more than sixty publications and loves to let creativity splash over the pages of what she writes. She writes for Crosswalk. Connect with Karen on Twitter @KarenHWhiting Pinterest KarenWhiting FB KarenHWhiting