Chapter 7

Your Online Marketing Plan

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in any

Direction you choose.

You’re on your own.

And you know what you know.

And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go …

Dr. Seuss

In my experience, making a tangible plan allows you to start strong and maintain your enthusiasm for the extra work of marketing both your book and yourself. In this chapter we’ll assess where you are and what you’ll need to make a successful plan.

You’ll have to make some important decisions to make sure your plan is sustainable and scalable. Here’s another exercise to help you move forward with a plan.

Assess your current situation

Maybe you are just starting out and you don’t have a website up yet. Or maybe you have a website and a few social media platforms in place, but you haven’t devoted time to managing your social media pages yet. Take some time to assess your situation. This first step is perhaps the most important. Before you can commit to doing more digital branding, you need to assess where you are today and know what’s working and what’s not. Take a snapshot of where you stand by asking yourself the following questions. If the answer is no or if you know you need to do more work in the area, add it to your to-do list provided at the end of the chapter.

It’s okay to start from scratch—or to ramp up what you’ve already got in place. There are no wrong answers here; it’s just an exercise to gauge where you are in the process and determine what steps to take next.

Tip for #BusyAuthors

Answering these questions will help you identify your current online marketing status and decide where to focus and begin.

Website

Do you have a website?    Yes    No

If you don’t have a website, skip the next few questions. And add getting a website to your to-do list.

How well is your website working for your goals?

If you pay attention to traffic on your site, write down your answers to the best of your knowledge. If not, we will cover it in the website chapter.

How many people come to your site? ___________________

Which pages do they visit? ____________________________

How do they find you?: ______________________________

How long do they stay? ______________________________

If people aren’t staying on your website for more than a few seconds, then something needs to change.

Mailing list

Do you have email addresses of your readers?    Yes    No

Do you have a method for collecting emails in one place?    Yes    No

(MailChimp or Constant Contact are popular list hosting sites.)

Having a mailing list is an important part of your strategy, so if you are not actively collecting and using names, add that to your to-do list.

If you have a list, how often do you communicate with them?

If your schedule is less than ideal, add “communicate more often with subscribers” to your to-do list.

Blog

Blogging is the foundation for content on your website, so it is important to figure out a schedule and a content strategy. We’ll talk more about that later, but for now just put down where you stand today.

Are you currently writing a blog?    Yes    No

Which blog topics are most popular?

What are the three topics you want to write about?

Social Media

Are you directing followers to your website from social media?    Yes    No

Content

Do you have the resources in place to develop content and keep your online conversation going? The resources here can be time or help from a family member or an intern or an assistant.

How much time, knowledge, technology, or money do you have to devote to your digital branding effort?

For your digital strategy to be effective, you also need to be a storyteller, marketer, and brand evangelist. It’s important for you to decide how much time you can dedicate to crafting your story and message, writing blogs, and reaching out to your target audience. If you don’t have the time (an hour or two a day) to devote to these efforts, you may need to figure out how to get some help. Make a plan to set aside several hours a week. I know: You’re busy, but being organized will help you make the most out of that time.

How much time can you commit to your online marketing?

Without setting realistic goals and timelines you will not know when you are making progress, achieving success, or missing the mark. Depending on your answers to these questions, some realistic goals could include some of the following possibilities.

Use this to-do list to get organized about the things you need to do next. Check all that apply to you:

Website

Create a website.

Improve your website.

Figure out how much traffic you are attracting to your website.

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

Mailing list

Build a mailing list.

Sign up for email software.

Add a way for people to sign up on your mailing list.

Communicate more often with subscribers.

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

Blog

Write blogs a couple of times a month or more.

Decide on the content.

Make a list of sites where you can guest blog (hint: where your readers hang out).

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

Social networking

Figure out a content plan.

Post daily or several times a week.

Learn to design graphics and/or record video.

Sign up for two or three social networks.

Make sure the social network profiles are filled out as completely as possible.

Reach out to your network and start linking with people.

Start helping others.

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

Many of these tools may be new to you, and it can take a while to learn them. You may consider taking an online or offline class. We use lynda.com at our office for online video courses and to keep our skills current. Or you can get help from the library or a friend or family member. It’s a good idea to make an ongoing investment in your online education and set aside a couple of hours a week (at least) to read blogs and take classes.

Online marketing changes all the time so it’s important that you keep an open mind and experiment. If you succeed in creating engagement, learn from it and try it again. If you fail, just smile. Take a deep breath, and try something else.

The best part about online marketing is that it is an innovative field and you can try different things in different combinations. You just have to find the right combination for you and your readers. In the next chapters, we’ll take each element of successful online branding and discuss it in more detail.

Tip for #BusyAuthors

There is no one-size-fits-all marketing plan for every author. Each author needs a customized online marketing plan.