Content Marketing Strategies for Non-Fiction Authors

Content marketing is an effective way to advertise and promote your books. Using content such as newsletters, e-letters, blogs, vlogs, e-books, white papers, infographics, checklists, and how-to guides can help you attract readers before your book is even released. Strategically delivering content through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, your website, and Pinterest can help you consistently give value to potential readers. Content marketing works well because it helps you tell your story, build trust, and grow your audience. Here are several ways you can use content marketing to connect with readers and sell more books.

Types of Content Marketing

Webinars

Webinars allow you to build trust with your audience immediately. In a webinar you can deliver valuable information that can help your audience solve a problem. One way to create a webinar is to record your content while speaking over PowerPoint or Keynote slides. You can also host a live webinar from your home office with you simply speaking into the camera. In a webinar you can answer questions, include tips on how to do something or tell readers how to manage a process. A good way to find an audience for your webinars is to attach them to a Facebook ad. Advertising your webinar using Facebook ads will help you drive traffic from the ad to your webinar. The end result is a captivated audience that you can grow.

Blogs

Blogging once per week or monthly gives you an opportunity to deliver information to your audiences on a regular basis. Driving traffic to your blog using Pinterest allows you to get people to your blog and your website more easily. Without traffic, no one will know your blog exists. When you give your readers content that can be applied to their daily lives, they can more easily see how buying your book and other services can benefit them.

Vlogs and Live Video

Recording vlogs or going live allows you to invite your reader into your personal space. You can create a YouTube channel and post vlogs to your channel or go live on Facebook, Instagram or Instagram Stories. You can tell your readers a personal story or share an experience that helps readers relate to you. Your audience is also able to see things from your perspective, through your lens. When people see you on screen sharing your heart, your pain, your joy, and your life, readers will become more comfortable with you. Readers buy books from people they like and can relate to.

E-letters/Newsletters

E-letters and newsletters are perfect for authors that don’t want to go live or film all the time on Facebook or Instagram. Create an opportunity for readers to subscribe to your newsletter by offering a free resource like a checklist, webinar, e-book or guide in exchange for an e-mail address. Building an e-mail list gives you a way to deliver your newsletters and e-letters to people that have already expressed interest in you. It also allows you to build your audience over time. Keep in mind that readers actually like to connect with people through reading. Many people have never seen their favorite authors on video like, but their books still sell in spite of this. Don’t underestimate the sheer power of good content.

Readers often buy books from people they have never seen on social media; they have come to know about them in other ways. This is what makes newsletters an effective way to keep in touch with your readers and share words of encouragement, free offers, and links to resources that will help them. Sending a newsletter at least once per month directly to your subscribers helps you grow your audience over time.

Bonus Content

There are many cases where you may have extra content that doesn’t end up in the final version of your book. Instead of setting it aside, you can share this content with readers and offer your unreleased content as an exclusive. People enjoy getting a special invite to content that is not accessed by everyone.

A content marketing strategy that includes implementing webinars, blogs, live video or vlogs, and free resources such as e-books, white papers, infographics, checklists, and how-to-guides helps authors build an audience and stay connected to them.