Good Morning everyone! As we start heading into the fall season I’ve been concentrating heavily on improving the visibility of my brand and my books and I thought it might be helpful to share some of the steps that I’ve been taking in case anyone else is looking for some ideas.
I’ve had my website and blog for several years now, ever since I published my first book at the end of 2013. I try to keep up with posting on my blog every week and have been kicking around the idea of increasing to 2 blog posts a week (still considering that so we’ll see if I can start this fall. But there were a few hiccups on my website that I just couldn’t fix myself after several tries so I decided to utilize my favorite site Fiverr.com and have someone fix them. Now, my contact form is working great, I’m linked to Google Webmaster Tools and Pinterest and have a Follow Me button for Pinterest and one of my more popular boards on my website. I also fixed my Mailchimp plugin in preparation of the start of my email newsletter.
The next step was to have a custom marketing plan created for my business. This was a great help and encouragement – I was already doing several of the suggested things and I received some great ideas of how to increase my exposure and market my business even better. I then had my SEO fixed for my website and blog posts so that I could make sure I’m getting my posts out there and getting noticed more and start competing my with competitors.
Next, I decided to use Fiverr.com to have a business logo created as well as a book trailer video and I’m using both of these things all the time to promote myself – one of the best decisions I’ve made! I LOVE how the logo turned out and I use it on everything to make my business stand out and be memorable. And the book trailer video looks fabulous – I’ve added it to my Amazon Author page and share it everywhere I can: on my website, in my newsletter, on YouTube, and in all of my social media sites. I’m even planning to try to have it playing at my future vendor booths using a tablet so that it’ll bring more people to my table to see what’s playing and get the interested in Laurel Hill: New Beginnings!
The next step I took was to bite the bullet and start my monthly email newsletter. I knew I needed to have one since I started my business, but I really struggled with this. I mean, there are weeks that I don’t feel like I even have time to write a blog post, how was I going to add MORE to my busy schedule? The nice thing that I learned is that the email newsletter isn’t as intensive as a blog post. I take at least a few hours on my blog posts researching and making them as informative as possible. But the email newsletter is more like a teaser that should be personable and fun – a hook to get people interested in finding out more about you and your business. It might take me 30 minutes to create my next month’s newsletter and I really enjoy keeping it fun and letting my personality shine through in it! So if you are hesitant to start a newsletter, I’d suggest you take the next step and jump on in – you’ll be happy you did!
The final piece I’ve been concentrating on lately is to try to get myself noticed with publishers and agents so I can try to transition to writing full-time in the future. This has been a “dream goal” of mine for several years now, but it’s tough to know how to break in and be noticed. I’ve been very blessed to connect with a woman who is helping me create a professional pitch letter and packet for my manuscripts and I love the direction that she is going with it! I’ll update you all as I continue on this journey and let you know what happens – the good and the bad of course.
I hope this has given you some ideas of steps you can take to try to get noticed and promote your brand and your business. I’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions for what you have tried and what has worked for you, so please add your comments so we can all benefit from your suggestions too! Have a wonderful week, and Happy Writing!!
