Becky Robinson's Blog, page 38

Why Authors at Any Stage Should Join Hometown Reads

With nearly two years under our belt, the Hometown Reads team has definitely learned a thing or two about how to serve local authors in a prolific and meaningful way. In case you aren’t familiar with Hometown Reads, it was founded by Weaving Influence CEO, Becky Robinson, and it’s a community dedicated to serving local authors across the country by helping them connect with readers in their hometown, through what we call the Read Local movement. We currently showcase over 4,500 books in nearly 100 locations on our virtual bookshelf!

With our sights on the future and ambitious goals always on the horizon, there is one goal that is a constant in our day-to-day work — growing and nurturing our authors’ connections. We believe that Hometown Reads is more than just a place to list books, it’s an active community where authors can build their networks, learn about local marketing, and create lasting partnerships in their hometown.

Here are 3 reasons why authors any stage should consider joining Hometown Reads.

Community-Based Collaboration

Hometown Reads spreads its influence not only to authors, but into the doors of local organizations who share our same vision of supporting local authors. We are building a community of local bookstores, libraries, publishers, writers groups, and more, who will partner will us to raise awareness of reading local. We call these organizations our Read Local Champions.

These relationships are key to our success in every community. With their support, we can make each author’s book stand out among the noise of a flooded book market. We have Hometown Reads branded shelf-talkers for these organizations, which we hope will result in local author shelves across the country.

By becoming an author on Hometown Reads, you are joining an extensive movement and a community atmosphere. We believe that each author has a special role in our community!

In-Person Partnerships

Although our author community is created online, our desire is to foster in-person gatherings so authors can develop true connection with one another and with readers. We’ve been encouraged and amazed by numerous locations that have coordinated events under the umbrella of Hometown Reads. These group gatherings are a combination of efforts by our team and each location’s Ambassador volunteers.

It’s amazing what can happen when authors meet up — that’s where the magic happens. Together, authors can open up crucial conversations, share marketing successes and failures, combine marketing efforts, and much more. At Hometown Reads, these in-person partnerships are what make our community unique and valuable to authors at any stage in their journey. 

Range of Resources

Our website features authors from all walks of life. We have first-time authors, traditionally published authors, and even ones with their own coaching/consulting firms. We have authors who are Twitter experts, while others are struggling to grow their Twitter influence. Some are outgoing and active at writer’s groups, while others prefer to keep a low profile.

Well, in this diversity, there lies the opportunity to learn new ways of expanding your book’s reach. Each has skills and talents that should be shared between one another, especially in the realm of today’s local marketing where an author IS also their own marketer. At Hometown Reads, you can connect with authors, share ideas, and learn what strategies can help market you book more effectively.

The Hometown Reads team encourages the idea of generosity among our author base. Drawing reference from author and global speaker, Jennifer Kahnweiler, it’s a myth to view authors in your same genre as you competitors. She recently shared her experience with collaborating with an author in her field that yielded fantastic results! If authors can share resources and embrace the idea of collaboration, together they can accomplish great success.

Have you joined Hometown Reads yet?

If you’re interested in joining Hometown Reads as an author, you can join here.

If you have questions about our other programs, please contact us.

Getting the Most Out of Amazon Author Pages

If you’re an author with a book for sale on Amazon, you may be overlooking a prime (pun intended) spot for advertising yourself with no cost to you. If you’ve heard of Author Pages but aren’t sure where to start, or if you set up a page years ago and think it might need an update, then keep reading! We’re going to show you some simple ways to optimize your account in order to get the most out of this free online real estate.

Author Central

If you haven’t already done so, go sign up for an Amazon Author Central Account. Step-by-step instructions for how to do that can be found by visiting: http://amzn.to/2mPUbGU.

Once you have your Author Central Account set up and confirmed, it’s time to start optimizing your page. There are six main areas that you will be able to personalize, and I’ve included links to detailed instructions on Amazon with each one to make it easy for you.

Current, professional headshot, and up to 7 additional images to share (http://amzn.to/2BfJnXC)
Current biography (helpful tips from Amazon: http://amzn.to/2Dxcc74)
Blog feed URL (more info on how to get that: http://amzn.to/2Bfohc9)
Original video file (not hosted on YouTube) about you or your book (guidelines: http://amzn.to/2BftXml)
Links/information about any upcoming live events (http://amzn.to/2FXdKWG)
Personalized URL for sending people to your Author Page (http://amzn.to/1nNN94B)

After you’ve got your page set up, make a note on your calendar to check in on the page once or twice a year to ensure that it remains current. If you’ve got a new book coming out, that’s a great time to revise your bio. If you just had a new headshot taken, remember to include your Author Page on the list of places online to switch it out.

International Sites

Something that is often overlooked is the fact that creating an Author Page on the Amazon.com site does not automatically give you an author page on their international sites. As of this writing, Amazon has 15 localized storefronts/URLs worldwide, but only four of those offer authors the opportunity to grab their Author Pages. In order to do so, you will need to check each of these sites and claim each Amazon Author Page in order to control what your author presence looks like internationally.

UK – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk
Germany – https://authorcentral.amazon.de/
France – https://authorcentral.amazon.fr/
Japan – https://authorcentral.amazon.co.jp/

Even though most people who are searching Amazon in Germany, France, and Japan are not native English speakers, English is the third most spoken language in the world (after Chinese and Spanish); so by broadening your reach to include an international audience, you have a good chance of reaching a new category of book buyers.

Over the years, we’ve worked with a number of clients who wanted to know what the benefit was to creating one more online space to keep up. If you’re still asking the same thing, I’ll tell you what I told them:

Having a perfectly optimized Amazon Author Page will NOT turn your book into a best-seller or be the game-changer you’ve been missing; but WITHOUT an optimized Amazon Author Page, you will not be able to ensure that the information shared about you is accurate, or receive free exposure to a much wider audience for you, your books, website, and brand.

The choice is yours.

 

How to Make Meetings Dynamic, Productive… and Fun

Ugh—meetings. They’re where productivity goes to die, right? There has to be a better way. According to leading consultants Dick and Emily Axelrod, there is. This week we’re celebrating the re-launch of their book Let’s Stop Meeting Like This, an invaluable tool for shifting meetings from time-wasters and frustration-builders to thriving, productive, even enjoyable moments.

The Axelrods take a unique approach to improving meetings by focusing, not on how to be a better leader, participant, or facilitator — but on how each of those roles has a part to play in the Meeting Canoe, their blueprint for conducting effective meetings that works in organizations and offices of any size.

Let’s Stop Meeting Like This

Complaints about meetings abound. Plenty of people have tried to offer solutions, but authors Dick and Emily Axelrod have created and field-tested a six-step system for meetings where productivity thrives rather than dies.

This system goes far beyond typical attempts to improve meetings with agendas and Band-Aid solutions. Using the same principles that make video games so engaging and that transformed the numbing assembly line into the dynamic shop floor, the Axelrods outline a flexible and adaptable system used to run truly productive meetings in all kinds of organizations — meetings where people create concrete plans, accomplish tasks, build connections, and move projects forward. They show how to design every aspect of a meeting — from the way you greet people at the beginning to how you sum up at the end — so that real work actually gets done. Those who have adopted this system will never go back. Neither will you.

Meet the Authors

Emily and Dick Axelrod have a combined 60+ years working with businesses and non-profits. They are pioneers in creating employee involvement programs to effect large-scale organization change. They co-founded the Axelrod Group in 1981, and are frequent keynote speakers and co-authors.

Dick is also an executive coach, lecturer in University of Chicago’s Masters in Threat and Response Management Program, and faculty member in American University’s Masters in Organization Development program. He created the Conference Model®, an internationally recognized high involvement change methodology. Dick is the recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Chicago. He remains a long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan, which explains his optimistic spirit.

Emily believes in stretching organizations so they can unleash their creativity and knowledge. She uses visioning, work redesign, team development, and good old common sense to build sustainable, fun, and collaborative enterprises. Emily is a guest lecturer in organizational change at Benedictine University, contributing author to multiple publications, board member of the Organization Design Forum, and coaches participants in University of Chicago’s Leadership Arts Program. Emily brings her southern spirit and wit to everything she does.

Praise for the Book

“As the world becomes more interdependent, meetings will become more frequent and a more necessary part of the work of organizations. Rather than waste time in and get mad at meetings, read this book and learn how to make them more productive.” 

—Edgar H. Schein, Professor Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management, Author of Humble Inquiry

“Reading this book is invaluable time well spent. It’s the most practical and instantly applicable resource available for not only revolutionizing meetings but providing effective and tangible ways people can work together productively and creatively.”

—Angeles Arrien, PhD, President, Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research

“With this book you can create meetings that are engaging, productive, and intentional. Whether you are an OD practitioner, leader, or frequent meeting participant, the tools and approaches shared by Dick and Emily Axelrod can be quickly put into practice to achieve dramatic results.”

—Kim Gallagher Johnson, Director of Organizational Effectiveness, Allstate Insurance

“With just the right balance of people and process, this book provides a great way to turn a negative into a double-positive—more productive meetings and increased levels of employee engagement.” 

—Kevin Limbach, Vice President, US Operations, TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company

Learn More

Buy a copy the book, or share your review of it, on Amazon.
Visit The Axelrod Group to learn more about the authors and the book, discover the Meeting Canoe, explore recent press, and read the first chapter for free.

4 Things You Can Do for Your Book Marketing Right Now

Recently, Weaving Influence hosted our first #12MinuteBookLaunch challenge. For one week, we sent daily 12-minute prompts to authors of all types and saw some truly amazing results. The power of a challenge is that it engages a group of people for a set amount of time — participants are generally more motivated when they know they will see results right away, and that they won’t need to put in endless amounts of work to succeed.

For all of you who did not participate in the challenge, or even for those who did (these are all scalable!), I’d like to recap four of the most powerful prompts that you can execute right now to see immediate results.

Identify Your Networks

Your already existing networks are your greatest asset in book marketing. Your book marketing efforts will succeed (or not) based on your follow-through in reaching and mobilizing your networks.

Download this spreadsheet (or use a Word document or simple notebook). Brainstorm all of the various networks that you’re connected to. If you’re using the spreadsheet, list the networks in the left-hand column called “Networks.” Here are some places to start:

Think about hobbies you have: are you in any book clubs? sailing club? rock climbing? dog grooming? It doesn’t need to relate to your book subject — just write it down for now!
Where did you go to school? Are you a member of any alumni associations?
Do you belong to a church or other religious community?
Are you part of any online communities?
What about your local neighborhood? Are you in any local groups?
Write down any other key individuals in your life — clients, coaches, colleagues.
Think about the people you invited to your wedding, if you are married. These are significant relationships. Are these people reflected in your list?

Spend some time (no longer than 20 minutes) writing down every network you can think of that you are connected to — you will come up with a far bigger list than you ever expected!

Surprised by your results? Most people are! It’s often only when we really sit down and make a list do we realize how many people can potentially help with our book marketing.

Plan Your Asks

Go into your spreadsheet and write out three asks in the “Areas for Help (Asks)” column — or simply make a section in your notebook titled “Asks” — and come up with three different requests you can make. They can be all in one network category or can be for separate networks.

There are an unlimited amount of asks you can make. You can call a friend to ask them to leave an Amazon review; you can email a co-worker asking them to post about your book on their blog; you can email a favorite influencer and ask if they’d be willing to review an advance copy of your book. No matter what your ask, be specific and personal. People are far more likely to respond to a personal, specific request than a generalized, mass message.

Send a Request

Go ahead and make an ask! Reach out to at least one person you identified in your brainstorming exercise and ask them for help. You’ll be amazed how eager people are to get involved when you make the request.

Create a Share Graphic

Create a book graphic that you can post on social media, send in marketing emails, and share with your launch team. 440 x 220 is a good size for a graphic, but any landscape-style graphic should work on most platforms. Here are a few examples.

This graphic was created by a professional designer and utilizes a testimonial about the book.

This graphic was created by the author and features a quote from his book. Notice how he also included his website url and Twitter handle — this is a great way to “brand” your graphic if you are less known as an author.

The fun part is . . . you don’t need any graphic design skills to create a share graphic! If you do have design skills, feel free to use whatever program you want to create your graphic. If not, visit www.canva.com (a free graphic design program) and create your image there.

You could do one of these four things per day for four days — or do them all at once! You will be amazed at the results you can achieve in such a short amount of time when you have the right system in place.

Interested in more practical and in-depth tools to use in your book marketing? Check out the Book Marketing Action Guide, our signature course for authors looking to market their books successfully, and hop on over to our free Book Marketing Facebook community !

How Do You Tap Into Your Courage?

This week we’re celebrating the launch of The Courage Way, written by Shelly L. Francis on behalf of The Center for Courage & Renewal. It also happens to be our 100th book launch, which is a pretty exciting milestone!

We’ve enjoyed working with Shelly and catching her vision for living and leading with courage and integrity. We all have situations where we feel the urge to do the right thing, no matter how hard it is. The challenge is knowing how to tap into our courage in those moments when we need it most. How do we persevere, taking small steps day in and day out to create and sustain organizations where trust, integrity, and authenticity can flourish?

If we are to make this world a better place, we need a lot of leaders who are willing and able to walk this way for the long haul. That’s where this book comes in.

The Courage Way

Leadership demands courage. You have to make good decisions while balancing inevitable tensions and knowing when to take risks. You need to keep your values in sight regardless of the pressures around you. At its core, leadership is a daily, ongoing practice, a journey toward becoming your best self and inviting others to do the same.

And that’s where The Courage Way comes in. It’s a guide to leadership that shows how to access and draw upon courage in all that you do. It has its roots in the work of Parker J. Palmer, who in fifty years of teaching, speaking, and writing has explored the human spirit–what he has called “the inner landscape”–and its role in life and leadership.

Shelly L. Francis identifies key ingredients needed to cultivate courage, the most fundamental being trust–in ourselves and in each other. She describes how to build trust through the Center for Courage & Renewal’s Circle of Trust approach, centered around eleven “touchstones,” poetic and practical operating guidelines for holding the meaningful conversations vital to trust building. Each chapter features true stories of how leaders have overcome challenges and strengthened their organizations through touchstones such as “Extend invitation, not demand”; “No fixing, saving, advising, or correcting”; and “When the going gets rough, turn to wonder.”

This graceful and inspiring book is a guide to courageous leadership and a journey of self-discovery. As Francis writes:

Courage is not only in you—it is you. In your moments of courage, you meet your true self.

Meet the Author

Shelly L. Francis is the marketing and communications director at the Center for Courage & Renewal, a nonprofit organization that works to create a more just, compassionate, and healthy world by nurturing personal and professional integrity and the courage to act on it. Founded in 1997 by author, activist, and educator Parker J. Palmer, the Center’s approach was initially created to renew and sustain educators, and today brings the Circle of Trust® approach to individuals, organizations, and communities across a range of professions. Through its network of nearly three hundred Courage & Renewal facilitators across the globe, the Center offers online resources and in-person retreats and programs, including facilitator-led retreats, workshops, team coaching, customized consulting, speaking presentations, and program series.

Before coming to the Center in 2012, Shelly directed trade marketing and publicity for multi-media publisher Sounds True, Inc. Her career has spanned international program management, web design, corporate communications, trade journals, and software manuals. The common thread throughout her career has been bringing to light best-kept secrets — technology, services, resources, ideas — while bringing people together to facilitate collective impact and good work.

Praise for the Book

“The Courage Way will nourish that part of you that cares deeply about the world. A soulful approach for helping you harness your inner strength to become the kind of leader the world needs now—in every dimension of your life.” 

—Jono Fisher, founder of WakeUpProject.com

“This is the book that won’t claim to change your life, which is exactly why you can trust that it probably will. What you will find in these pages is no less than the technology to tune into your true self—your real intuitions and outrage and intelligence—and a sense of how to show up in community with that revitalized understanding of your own power.”

—Courtney E. Martin, author of The New Better Off

“The Courage Way gives us a much-needed social technology for self-expression and authentic relationships. With intimate leadership stories, it shows how integrating purpose and cultivating community can be a powerful catalyst for change.”

—Aaron Hurst, author of The Purpose Economy and Fast Company’s Purposeful CEO series

“Everyone should read this book. The Courage Way is a powerful tonic for our challenging times. Keep it close at hand so you can savor its life-giving music again and again.”

—Dr. Gloria J. Burgess, author of Dare to Wear Your Soul on the Outside, Pass It On!, and Flawless Leadership

Learn More

Visit CourageWay.org to learn more and download a sample chapter.
Buy your copy the book, or share a review of it, on Amazon.
Watch the webinar to learn more about accessing courage in every aspect of life.

P.S. If your book is among the 100 books we’ve launched over the past six years, THANK YOU for the privilege of partnering with you! If you haven’t launched a book with us but would like to, send us an email and we’ll be in touch!

Are You Getting the Most Out of Goodreads?

You probably know of Goodreads as a great place to find books or track your reading, but did you know it also has a host of other benefits for authors and book editors? It’s a great place to build your brand, connect with thousands of other readers and authors, and increase the number of readers and reviews.

Joining the Author Program is free; the rest takes a small investment of time — but the payoff is exponential. Here are three specific ways Goodreads can help you as an author.

Build Your Platform

First things first: create an author profile with your headshot and bio. Make it personal — but also be sure to include any previous literary awards or accomplishments, as well as your published book titles. You can (and should) also add your personal website or blog, your Twitter handle, the top 3 genres that you write about, videos (book trailers, behind-the-scenes, etc), your own bookshelves and reading challenge updates, and of course, every book you have published or edited (including ebooks).

This information will not only help maintain continuity for your brand across platforms, but more importantly, it also gives readers the chance to know more about you personally. Anyone who’s ever looked at the back cover (or inside flap) for biographical information about the author will appreciate being able to connect with you directly on Goodreads!

Build Your Community

When your friends and fans choose to follow your author profile, they’ll receive updates whenever you add something new. That’s not just referring to a newly published book! Goodreads lets you add a plethora of personalized content to help build an active community of readers, not just around your individual book titles, but around you as an author.

You can . . .

share your own book reviews and recommendations with your community,
sync your blog to automatically share new posts to your author profile,
join groups and start discussions about your book’s message,
share quotes and answer questions about your book and related topics,
add trivia questions or quizzes for those interested in your books and related topics,
and publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements.

Build Your Book Buzz

Building community is important, but sometimes all we want is a little more exposure for our books . . . right? Good news: this is the one of the best places to increase awareness and build buzz around your book!

While no longer free, the Goodreads Giveaways program is one of the best ways to find readers and reviewers. They can be done for either Kindle ebooks (fulfilled directly by Goodreads) or print books (you must supply and mail them yourself), at any stage of pre- or post-publication. Goodreads promotes your giveaway and helps drives entries by notifying anyone who’s followed you or added one your books to their shelves; others who have added similar books will see the giveaway in their news feed. Readers can enter to win by adding your book to their To Read shelf. Once the contest ends, Goodreads randomly selects the winners, and your book gets on its way to excited readers.

But the benefits of a giveaway don’t stop at getting your book into readers’ hands: after a few weeks, you can connect with the winners to find out what they thought of your book — and request a public review. You can also ask for reviews from others who have marked your book as Currently Reading or added it to their Read shelf (Goodreads makes that information available on your author profile.) As a bonus, Goodreads reviews are automatically exported to other websites like Google Books — so getting your followers to add even a short, positive review will provide exponential benefit.

Are you a Goodreads author? If so, share a link to your profile (or book) in the comments!

Which Social Channels Will Deliver the Biggest Boost for Your Book?

Social media is a powerful tool to create excitement and interest in your book, but authors are often confused about which social platforms will deliver the best results. Many social marketers recommend maintaining a presence on all social channels. That may work for large corporate brands, but for an individual thought leader it’s not always feasible, nor is it necessary. A targeted, strategic approach to social media can deliver strong results without becoming a full-time job.

First, it’s important to identify the target audience for your book. Different people prefer different social outlets. If you have a children’s book, but you’re doing most of your content sharing on LinkedIn, you’re likely not reaching your potential readers. It’s crucial to share content with your audience, not just to share content — which means showing up where your potential readers are in the social landscape.

Second, identify the social platforms that energize you. You’ll be much more effective on social media if you enjoy what you are doing. Sharing content is about marketing your book, but it’s also about creating connection and community. If interacting with people on Twitter feels uncomfortable for you, odds are you’ll tweet less frequently, fail to connect with potential followers, and end up wasting your time.

We recommend getting started with at least two social platforms and dedicating time and energy to learning best practices, creating high-quality content, and engaging with fans/followers to build energy and excitement around your work.

Still struggling to decide where to start?

4 Platforms We Recommend

Facebook has the largest number of users worldwide, and is constantly rolling out new functionality. While it’s difficult to grow a Page on Facebook without advertising or boosting, it is an important platform for authors. Nearly any audience you want to reach uses Facebook at some point, plus you can do some very granular audience targeting via Facebook ads. Additionally, creating a Facebook group around your topic can be a powerful way to build community and support.

LinkedIn is a terrific platform for business and leadership authors and experts. The audience here is primarily professional and interested in growth, learning, and development. If that’s your area of expertise, sharing content and regularly posting blogs here will help grow awareness and interest in your brand.

Twitter is a place where an author can build a sizable audience with some speed, but it is sometimes less effective than Facebook and LinkedIn for book promotion. That being said, Twitter resonates with certain audiences and can be a powerful place for interaction. Creating conversation around an engaging subject, with a hashtag, can help quickly widen awareness and buzz around your work. Humor works on all platforms, but can really take off on Twitter.

Instagram is where you can often reach younger audiences, but it can be a challenge for someone who is, at heart, a writer. This is a visual platform. If you have a book with beautiful artwork or if you are comfortable bringing an audience into your personal world, Instagram can be very powerful and a great creative outlet.

Pinterest, SnapChat, and YouTube can also be leveraged to support your book, but we don’t recommend them as primary book promotion outlets.

While it only takes a few minutes to set up a social account, investing the time to really understand where you can be the most successful will ultimately help you minimize your time investment and maximize your results.

Where are you focusing your book marketing efforts?

3 Steps to Reaching Your Audience More Effectively

First off, congratulations! You are most likely reading this post because you have accomplished something worth celebrating. Whether you wrote a book or a blog post, created a meaningful and useful product, or cracked the code to your service experience, you should take a moment to congratulate yourself on a huge accomplishment.

Now, how do you plan to tell people about it?

Your first instinct might be to shout your news from the rooftops (metaphorically speaking—hopefully). But the world we live in tends to ignore those blasts that seem to have no apparent rhyme or reason. Or, like most creators, you have a limited budget that you don’t want to waste on one big megaphone with little impact.

There is power in knowing your audience! 

So while your publication is full of very important information, your product will fix a huge problem, or your service experience is above and beyond, they are all useless if you never reach the people that need them.

Here are three steps to knowing your audience better for your marketing efforts.

Step One: Segment Your Audience

Picture a freshly baked apple pie (you might still be craving one in this post-holiday season). While some might be able to take on the challenge of eating the entire pie in one setting, most people realize the best course of action is to cut the pie into eight slices, so multiple people can choose and enjoy a slice.

Recognizing your audience is very similar. If you write a book about leadership, there are a gazillion different categories and sub-sections that discuss various aspects, styles, and types of leadership. Here is just one example of twelve different segments of leadership.

Step Two: Target Your Audience

Going back to our apple pie example, this is where you would choose the piece (or two) that you think would be perfect for you.

If you wrote a book about servant leadership, and you decided to segment leadership into the twelve types in the aforementioned article, you would probably choose democratic leadership, transformational leadership, and visionary leadership. While you could make the argument to choose a couple more segments, it is always better to focus on the segments that will give you their full attention first.

At this step, it is common to go back and forth between segmenting and targeting to really hone in on your audience. Don’t feel discouraged if you always feel like there are more people you want to reach. You will eventually get to those ears as well—but you must be able to focus on the people that will truly appreciate your product or service, so that they will in turn tell others, creating an eventual snowball effect.

Step Three: Position Yourself to Your Audience

What is the best way to grab your piece of pie from the pie pan? Is it to use a spoon? A fork? Or a pie server? If you have ever served yourself a slice of pie, you know to get the entire piece in one move is to use a pie server.

When you decide to focus on people who practice democratic leadership, transformational leadership, and visionary leadership to share your message about being a servant leader, you have to figure out the best way to get their attention:

What social media platform do these people use?
What kind of networking events do they attend?
What clubs are they a part of?
How do they communicate with one another?

This stage is where you will most likely find yourself conducting the most research, and it is also when you will have the opportunity to start finding and talking to your audience.

The Power of STP

Segmenting, targeting, and positioning can be extremely complex. There are entire university classes built on just those three words. This is because marketers and business-people understand the importance of knowing who you are talking to in order to, receive the largest return on investment.

It will take time and a lot of focus to really know your audience, but once you do, you have unlimited possibilities to interact and share your message.

Join the 12-Minute Book Marketing Challenge

This coming Monday (1/29), we’ll be kicking off our one-week 12-Minute Book Marketing Challenge! We created this challenge for authors of all types who are ready to take their marketing into their own hands — and see their results soar!

After launching over 100 books for our authors, we’ve figured out what works — and what doesn’t — in book marketing. We’ve also come to understand just how strapped for time authors are, and designed this challenge to help authors of all types see tangible results in just 12 minutes a day.

Your already-existing networks are your greatest asset in book marketing. Your book marketing efforts will succeed (or not) based on your follow-through in reaching and mobilizing those networks.

We designed this 12-Minute Book Marketing Challenge to help you reach those networks and get them on board, and are excited to support you! And guess what? Even if you don’t have an email list yet, this challenge will still help you to the gain major support you need.

What you’ll get:

How to easily create a larger, organized email marketing list of engaged readers (even from scratch).
How to get a “Yes” from influencers who are ready to help you promote your book.
How to most effectively feature your book on LinkedIn (the 1-minute tip I’ll be sharing with you works like a charm!).
How to start and engage with conversations about your book on Twitter — and make meaningful connections in the process!
Fun and easy points-tracking and the chance to win a grand prize!

In addition, those who sign up for this challenge will receive personal feedback from Becky Robinson and our team of book marketing experts in the Book Marketing Facebook group. Who should join? Authors, marketers, and publishers who share the common goal of sharing book marketing secrets and success stories . . . in other words, people like you!

It’s a place to connect with other authors and marketers; ask questions about marketing your book; share best tips; bounce ideas off other professionals and other authors; and learn about book marketing products, services, and even free events. Not a member yet? Join here.

What are you waiting for?

You may feel like you’ve already tried the whole book marketing thing . . . and it hasn’t worked. But with our proven system that we have implemented with hundreds of clients, you will see success in just 7 days. I can’t wait to see your results soar!

Sign up here (the challenge starts Monday 1/29).

Here’s to new success in marketing in the new year! 

4 Tips to Optimize Your Email Marketing

It is projected that the average person will receive 97 emails per day in 2018. That’s up from 108 in 2011 — and that number is expected to continue to grow into 2019 and beyond. Many thought that social media would mean the end of email marketing, but that obviously has not happened.

With Facebook’s upcoming algorithm changes, email offers a great opportunity to put your message in front of your clients and customers. Utilizing your email list can help to ensure that your message is seen by the people who are most likely to take action.

But you still need to cut through the clutter of their inboxes. Here are a few ways to make the most of your email marketing.

Target your emails

Chances are, not every email you send will apply to every person in your database. If you’re emailing about a local event, make sure the list only includes people in that geographic area. If you are looking for people to sign up for a course, you’ll want to filter out the people who have already signed up. If you continue to send your contacts emails that don’t apply to them, chances are they will quickly hit unsubscribe.

Be creative with your subject line

In order for your email to be effective, people have to actually open it! The subject line is a hook to draw your audience in to open the email. Good subject lines are often personal or descriptive, and give the recipient a reason to check out your content. It’s important to keep your audience in mind, and test keywords and phrases to see what they prefer. Be creative!

MailChimp says it well: “When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines tell what’s inside, and the worst subject lines sell what’s inside.”

Measure, tweak, and repeat what works

Even the most basic email management system will provide information about open rates and click through rates. Each industry has a different average open rate, but according to Small Business Chronicle, the overall average open rate is 38.6%. Your rate may be lower or slightly higher than that. What’s more important to monitor is overall trends. Did you have a particularly high open rate on one particular email? What might have caused it? Does tweaking the subject line have a positive or negative impact? When you discover something that works, repeat it!

Follow up

With 97 new emails coming in every day, it’s easy for even an important email to quickly get buried in your contact’s inbox. How often do you see an email that you mean to come back to, and then completely forget? That’s why it is important to follow up in the coming days or weeks with more information reinforcing your message. Multiple touch points help ensure that people actually take action.

One caveat . . . emailing too frequently can have the opposite effect. Multiple marketing emails in the same day, or emails every day, can quickly become overwhelming. If you notice your unsubscribe rates climbing, you may be emailing too frequently.

What other email marketing tips have you discovered?