Marketing is simply defined as putting the right product (-either a book or books) in the right place, at the right price, at the right time. Though this sounds easy, a lot of hard work and research is needed for marketing to work.
The use of a marketing mix is a great way to help ensure that putting the right product in the right place will happen. The marketing mix is a crucial tool to help understand what the product can offer and how to plan for a successful product offering. The marketing mix is most commonly executed through the 4 P’s of marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place.
Product – the product alone should be enough to market itself. Does your book have the qualities/features the consumer is looking for? Are there benefits the reader is going to get from the book? Is it for entertainment purposes? Education? How-to-Manual.
Price- Knowing what price to set is a sensitive issue and you must understand your market in order to do so. You need to produce enough books to cover the cost of production and still record a profit. The unit sale price should not be too high or too low. High prices could be associated with class and prestige and this attracts or rules out a class of readership. Low prices could be attractive to certain buyers, but they also rule out those who associate low prices with poor quality. So think about what the best price is for your readership?
Place – What is the best place to sell your book? Brick-and-Mortar bookshops? Online Bookshops? At home? Where can you afford to sell your book?
Other places you could consider marketing your book include;
• Print media (posters, flyers, newspaper ads)
• Social media (e-flyers, videos, trailers, on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, WhatsApp, podcasts, etc.)
• Events (book launches, speaker engagements, book fairs/festivals)
• Bloggers, book reviewers
• TV, radio ads
• Win a book award
Promotion – This is about choosing the right strategy for your target audience. The product should be able to market itself first. This is in the cover design, the quality of the story and the quality of the design, etc.)
