Today’s article is from Sarah Young, my co-pilot and marketing manager. I asked her to roll back the curtain and share how she is helping me launch and promote Brand New Name. Let us know what you think!
When I began working with Jeremy in early 2019, I had no idea what writing and promoting a book entailed. After a week, my mission was clear: build Jeremy’s brand as an author to sell a lot of books!
Jeremy was deep into writing his new book, but we needed to bring it down to reality — we needed a plan. I began developing a marketing strategy for Brand New Name based on the launch campaign for Sticky Branding (the book). Jeremy had one bestseller under his belt, and we knew we could do it again.
A core element of my strategy: Jeremy’s author-brand. I had a gut feeling that all authors need an in-depth sales and marketing plan; revolving around marketing and promoting their book(s). To fully build an all-inclusive marketing strategy, I had to first understand and work with Jeremy to build his author-brand to set him apart from the pack.
The Importance of Creating an Author-Brand
The easiest place to start a branding project is with the person or company. For the author, I started with Jeremy’s biography, personality, interests, skills, accomplishments, published books, and other content.
It was clear that his brand identity helps him build trust in his work, attracts new readers, builds his fan base, and ultimately leads people to buy his books (and speaking and services).
Note: Your brand identity is a major part of what makes your buyers (in this case, readers) have trust in your work and your books.
When people get to know your name and have an interest in who you are, they’ll be much more likely to take an interest in what you do and what you say. Perhaps, even enough interest to make them want to buy your book!
My advice to elevate Jeremy’s brand was simple:
- Be yourself. His persona and voice needed to remain true to who he is — a funny, driven, and determined “master of branding.”
- Be present. Be consistent. Be prolific. The important thing for Jeremy was to consistently maintain his brand identity across all of his social channels and external communications. (If you aren’t following him, you need to! @StickyBranding)
- Engage your connections often. I assessed where he had built his largest audience. Sticky Branding has the largest branding group on LinkedIn with over 50k members, and over 20k followers on Twitter. So I focused in on those two channels specifically, and built a strategy to grow his audience on Instagram.
How Do You Get Started Building Your Author-Brand?
1. Find your brand voice.
Determine how you want to be known and what sets you apart. You achieve this in what people see, experience, and read.
Make your brand visually appealing: color scheme; style; logo or imprint; professional headshot. And be consistent! Use the same voice and visuals for your website, business cards, book covers, communications, and other marketing materials.
2. Build your author website or web pages.
Your website is the base of your platform. Include your bio, simple clarity (describe your brand in 10 words or less), blog posts and videos, links for readers to buy your book, and contact information.
3. Build your author-platform on social media.
Your public presence across all social media sites is your platform. The best author-platforms aren’t spread across every site. Spend your time steering your audience to your most effective social media sites. Use your social channels to establish relationships with your readers.
4. Create a media kit.
Make it really easy for influencers, readers, and the media to get to know you. A media kit contains a concise asset list of downloadable images and PDFs about you and your work.
Be sure to include your bio, headshot, contact information, books, blurbs, endorsements, reviews, book trailers, and any other pertinent details.
5. Create great content.
Build up your content bank by updating your blog, growing an email newsletter, and filming personalized videos — and always remember Google is watching. Keep SEO front and center as you create content.
Build a content funnel that starts with your social media presence. Reach across your author-platform and other appropriate social media sites to engage your readers and the readers of other relevant authors and thought leaders.
6. Maintain your online presence.
Keep up your relationships with all kinds of “book people,” including your publisher, readers, other writers, influencers, industry professionals, and media gurus. You can do this by publishing quality content on your blog, reaching out via your social channels, linking to content across your platform, and simply being available. Be concise and consistent, and keep it up!
The Bottom Line: Your Author-Brand Sell Books!
Jeremy’s brand is core to our book launch. I hope that by sharing my strategies, we can build our relationship on trust and you’ll want to buy out his new book, Brand New Name, out October 8th!
Get engaged in our launch activities:
- Launch Event: Our launch event is at Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto on October 15 at 5:00. Sign-up today. Jeremy will deliver a 1 hour keynote. I hope to see you there!
Books for Talks: Have Jeremy speak at your next event, for FREE. What a deal! Check out the details or give us a call: 416.479.4403.
