Have you been using content marketing effectively? Here’s why you should try doing content marketing for authors.
So, one of the top questions I get from self-publishers is, "Why are my books not selling?" And the answer is, it's probably because you're not doing any marketing on the book. Now, usually, we try to optimize the book itself. We work through that with my clients closely to make sure the book is set up to sell.
But then, once the book gets onto the market, how are people supposed to find this book? The answer is content marketing, and that is what we are going to discuss. So, in today's topic, what we're going to do is look at the role of content marketing.
Content marketing is incredibly powerful. It's the cheapest, most powerful way to build an audience. That means you are creating content, building up content on YouTube, like podcasts, blogs, and emails, and you have content on one of these platforms.
Then, we're using it across the other platforms. Once we have that blog, we're able to push this content straight out to social media to drive additional traffic. Then, we let the search engines simply crank on this content as we continue to produce it.
As our audience starts to get onto our email list, we're able to sell more books and bring in traffic that way. This is by far the absolute most powerful way of building an audience, even more powerful than just selling books. Because if you sell a book, how are you supposed to contact that person? It makes it difficult.
That's one of the reasons why getting people onto your email list is the most powerful way of actually just getting in contact regularly and letting them know about the products and services or in this case your book
That's the reason I set up the Content Marketing Made Easy course. If you're not able to find new readers, and you're simply not selling books, the thing is, it's not your fault. Your book may be high quality; it's just that you're not marketing it, and the people who might buy your books—why should they? They don't know, like, and trust you.
That is what content marketing is all about; fixing this huge problem you have. And that's the thing, the solution is rather simple. We just need to create content in the right way—videos, podcasts, and blogs—that make it easier for people to find us and find our book.
Within the course, what you're going to find is there are 15 lesson plans with over 80 minutes of training. It shows the exact tools that I use; virtually all of them are free. Almost every single one of the tools is free. You'll find understanding explanations of the different content marketing options to see which ones are right for you.
This is a self-paced course that makes it easy for you to go through and figure it out. Now, if you also happen to be in my Group Coaching, we'll go back and forth, and I will show you personally how to implement this thing, in my 1-On-1 Program where we can meet monthly and take a look at how things are going.
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The ability to measure that as well as customer support. If you have any questions about the course, I'll be able to address them. The thing is, you'll get direct help from me with questions regarding the course itself.
Building Audience
If you're in the group coaching, I'll be able to jump right into what you're currently doing and see how that's going. You're also, of course, going to get access to the checklist and other resources as you're moving through this.
So, the thing is, I was there originally, and I simply had no clue how to build that audience. That was the reason why I started jumping into this game in the first place, published my books, and was simply not managing to get the traffic that I wanted.
But let me show you a little bit of what the course looks like. Here we are, we have some different courses here, right? And we're jumping into the Content Marketing course. We'll just continue it here, and I want to show you—here, you see—you have.
The different lessons we're going through include content ideas, creating content from core questions, or using thumbnail creation. Setting up a Canva account, we're going to go into using slides from YouTube videos, and creating YouTube thumbnails—there are all sorts of tricks that I'm going to show you how to do, including the podcast.
How do you use your YouTube video and rip the audio out of it? With your book, you're going to be talking about the book and building an audience this way. I'll even tell you things like building shorts and using TikTok and some of the most modern tech to pull in as big of an audience as possible.
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The cool part is you don't have to create all this stuff originally. You can start with the blog or start with a video, and we can work in the other direction. I like the video first. Then, we'll show you how to get the podcast up and going on Anchor or Spotify and start driving an audience that way.
And the thing is, we just keep on putting out content. We're going to have a blog, thumbnails, and extract the transcript so that we can use YouTube's transcript to even make it easier as we're creating it, and then creating emails from all of this.
Then, sharing your content back, and then finishing up with a little conclusion where I pull it all together. So, it's very straightforward. Again, I'm not hitting you with 80 hours; it's 80 minutes. You're able to self-pace. As you can see, you just click on these, it takes you right on in there, and you let me know if there are any challenges.
And I can explain everything you're going to need to know. Now, some of the common questions that I receive are: Do you need a good computer to do this course? And the answer is not really. Even just an iPad will be sufficient, even your phone. Another one is: Do I need my face to be on YouTube? No, you can just simply read the blog.
It's so easy; you can't even imagine. Or just show your slides if you'd like to use a slide presentation. In other words, is it possible to get the course just for getting my blog going? And yes, of course. It's going to tell you everything you need to get your blog up and going and give you content ideas that will match what your audience is looking for.
Whether you're doing fiction or non-fiction, it's effective under both, and most of the traffic you're getting is coming from free traffic from Google. So, how long does it take to build an audience with content marketing? This can take six months to a year.
Going Through the Course
As we start to see that traffic growing, the key is to produce content on a regular schedule, a content production schedule, and that gives us the ability to maximize the opportunities that we're getting for this content as we go. The cool part, like with YouTube, is you can monetize.
And then at that point, you're getting paid for people who are watching your YouTube. Another question, can I get a refund if I change my mind? Of course, you can get a refund. You have a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, I'm so confident that the course is going to be working great for you that I'm willing just to give your money back.
And I do this regularly. And one of the ways, by the way, just so you know, is when you look at any video on YouTube, if the comments are turned off, that's a bad sign. But if the comments are on, that gives people the ability.
So, anybody's getting scammed or anything like that, that's a way to tell, especially these newcomers who jump on and start talking about making millions off of Amazon or something. This is just a very powerful way to make sure you're not getting scammed.
The other question is, is this for fiction or non-fiction? The answer is, it works for both. It's not a problem. It's most effective for non-fiction, but for your fiction, it's also going to be effective. So, you're going to do that.
And then, when will I be sent my login information? You're going to get your login information immediately upon completion. That's the thing that's nice about using this modern tech; it's all combined, so you're able to get access to that course fast. It just creates the login on the site.
And then, you're able to log right on in there with those credentials, and so it just simplifies the entire process. And the thing is, I'm going to be holding your hand as you're going along through this course. You're just simply going to go through it.
You're going to implement the things as you learn them. If there are any questions about the course content, then you can simply send me a question. You'll have my email address; you'll be able to make contact with me, and we can go back and forth.
And at the same time, if you want to go deeper and you want me to look at actually what you're producing and give you feedback, well then you have the Group Coaching and the 1-On-1 Program where we're able to take a deeper dive into what you're trying to achieve and the steps necessary to keep moving forward as you go through the process.
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So, I hope that was clear. Also, just so you know, you can get an idea of a little bit of the basics in my Self-Publishing Made Easy Secrets Checklist. Check out my other blogs and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.