Monday, December 31, 2012

10 Ways to Generate Buzz and Market Your Business | Writer's Living

I wrote a post the other day about the best way to market your book, writing career, or business. I said the best way to market your work is the way you will actually use. The thing you will actually do. It doesn?t matter if others give you a ton of other ideas for things you won?t do. All that matters is what you will do.

But I now want to give you specific ideas for marketing your book, writing, or business. I am sharing these ideas just in case you are scratching your head looking for a list of ideas for getting the word out about what you do. Having been a published book author and business owner for more than ten years, I?ve seen lots of marketing ideas. I?ve seen ideas that have worked for author friends or others I know in business. And those ideas that fell flat. I?ve tried ideas that didn?t work, and implemented ideas that worked beautifully.

What I?ve come to know is that two people (or businesses) can implement the same strategy or idea and can have vastly different results. That is because a lot of the success has to do with the level of commitment to the idea, how hard you are willing to work to make it happen, and how keen you are on evaluating the idea and tweaking it to along the way to get it just right.

I share more ideas in my ebook Turn Your Book into a Business, but this list gets you started on great, creative ways to market whatever it is you are selling.

So play around with these marketing ideas and see which ones really help you stand out.

No matter what marketing idea you choose, know that it won?t be a one-shot deal. Marketing a book, writing career, or business is tough work and requires commitment over a period of time. Even if your marketing idea is focused on a one-time event, it will still take commitment over the time leading up to the event to make sure it is successful.

Are you ready to market your way to success?

You can?t say you don?t have the ideas, because I?m giving you ten here.

So here you go.

Ten ideas to market your book, writing, or business

Offline marketing ideas

1. Hold a signature event. We spent a lot of time talking about online promotion, but coming offline to do something really great is an excellent way to stand out and promote your book, writing career, or business. Hold a workshop, retreat, conference, or other event focused on your topic or your unique view of that topic. For instance, if you wrote a book called No More Tears, about healing the hurt of your past relationships, then hold a No More Tears retreat where you help attendees really focus on letting go of that hurt and seeing a brighter, tear-free day.

2. Start an organization. Is there a hole in your industry for a new association or organization? If you?ve written a book on a certain topic or you run a business related to solving a certain problem, then there is a good chance you have a certain amount of knowledge and expertise in that area. Maybe you need to bring people together to discuss the topic in more detail or to do more extensive work in this area. Your organization can be the place for this important work to happen.

3. Create a meetup. There are many online tools that can help you publicize your event and take it offline. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Meetup.com all offer ways to gather like-minded people around you.? This idea is listed under offline marketing ideas because while it uses online tools, the aim is to hold an offline meetup event.

4. Speak on your topic. I?ve written on this blog about using speaking to grow your business, but it bears mentioning again. Speaking allows you to have a captive audience to hear your message, and if you are speaking to the right group ? people who are interested in your topic ?, then you have? a good chance of coming out of that speaking engagement with book sales or a lead on some new business, as somebody is bound to ask for your card, invite you to speak elsewhere, want to do business with you, etc.

5. Hold a launch party or grand opening. If you are publishing a book, don?t miss the opportunity to have a launch party. This is a great way to create buzz around your book, gather your staunchest supporters, and get your book off to a strong start. The same works for a business. Even if you have been in business a while, you can still use this approach: Hold a party or event to mark a significant milestone.

Online marketing ideas

6. Run a blog. Run a blog related to your book, business, or whatever it is you want to promote or share with a wider audience. Your blog allows you to share helpful information, promote a cause, and bring people to your way of thinking. It?s not necessary that you blog every day, but you do want to blog often enough to ensure you regularly post new content.

7. Start an online group. You can use the same online tools I suggested for organizing an offline meetup to create an online group. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, and others allow you to create and maintain groups around a topic, organization, or common theme. So if you don?t feel like the work of organizing offline events, then an online group can be the thing to help you build authority in your area and work with like-minded people who are interested in what you are promoting or selling.

8. Team up with others. Reach out to others online in your niche, area, or industry. Get to know them and start promoting each others? blogs, websites, tweets, events, etc. Let this multiply your influence and impact.

9. Post to your social networks. Every marketing post I do most likely has a suggestion for using social media. That is because social media is just that important. If you are going to use the Internet to market your books, writing career, or business, you?ve got to include social media. Post to your social networks about important developments in your business, your latest book or project, as well as useful information, news, etc., about the industry. Invite your social media contacts to join your mailing list.

10. Join online groups related to your topic. Even if you don?t want to create an online group, you can be a part of one. Join a few groups that are related to your industry, book?s topic, etc. But don?t start spamming the group with sales messages or constantly posting about what you do. Instead, get to know the culture of the group. Post helpful, meaningful comments or feedback. If you regularly post helpful and useful information, you become known for being a useful and helpful resource.

Now you have ten great ways to market your book, writing career, or business. You can have a successful freelance business or a good book writing career, if you do good work and market it so others know how to find it.

Which idea will you implement?

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Source: http://writersliving.com/marketing/how-to-market-your-book-or-business

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