Were you surprised to find out where you readers lurk? Now that you’ve made it through the first three weeks, you should have a pretty good idea who you’re speaking to and where to find them. The really good stuff is coming up next — exactly how to convince those readers to check out what you have to offer and keep them coming back for more!
Homework
- Use at least 1 exercise in lesson 5 to produce a list of locations to find readers. For each location, make notes of ideas or content you can use to add to the discussion!
- Use the scoresheet from lesson 6 to narrow down the list of hangouts to the top 5 locations. If you end up with multiple locations in a tie, choose the ones that you enjoy the most!
- From the list of top 5 hangouts above, choose two locations and commit to focusing on them for the next two months. Write them on a post-it and stick it on your monitor — promise yourself not to give into other marketing distractions for the next two months, but put all of your marketing effort in there. Underneath the two locations, write an objective — and I don’t mean a certain number of books sold, necessarily. Your objective could be:
- Add email subscribers to your list
- Earn followers on Twitter or Facebook
- Receive personal emails from fans
- Increase blog comments
- Sell books (or preorders)
This gives those new readers a job, so the marketing efforts we come up with next week are laser-focused on that objective. This way, even if your book isn’t out yet, you can still build your fanbase! You’ll need results of the homework above for next week, so be sure it is done before then.
Checklist
Download Weekly Checklist (PDF)
What’s Next
So far we’ve:
- Learned why this reader-centered marketing stuff rocks.
- Discussed the seven principles that rule all reader-centered marketing activities.
- Realized we should find a target market, but go one step further to give our marketing a focus.
- Started thinking like our readers when we’re surfing the web, watching TV and taking in other forms of media.
- Figured out where we can find our readers on and off the internet.
- Narrowed down our reader hangouts to the best locations.
- Create a strategy to drive those readers to you
- Turn those new readers into dedicated fans
- Keep those fans on your side for life!
Survey
At this point in the course, it’s critical for us to know (1) if you’re still hanging in there and (2) how we’re doing. Take a few moments to fill out the survey below, then shoot me an email ([email protected]). Include the #1 location for finding your readers and I’ll send you (totally free) my top 3 tips for earning readers there!
