marketing

Monday marketing. 3 Quick tips.

/ lizziechantree / 2 Comments

I hope you’ve all had a relaxing weekend? Today’s tips are about generating marketing for yourself without having to pay out to a marketing budget. I’ve been running networking hours for years and have taught myself quite a few ways to market my work, but when I started out, I literally had no clue where to start. Today, there are many ways for you to simply promote your product, book or social media page, with images and text.

  1. Check out the Canva app. You can get this for free on your computer or phone. It is a graphics editing site. It has pre-made templates for all of the social media sites, like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more. Simply select the template you want to use, then upload your own photos from the tab on the left hand side and drag the photo you want to use into the template. You can then click and highlight the text and change it’s colour, font, size and the actual text. It takes a while to play around with and familiarise yourself with it’s function, but it’s a great app to use for free marketing. You can purchase photos for around $1 if you want different picture, but sites like Pixabay have free photos that you can download to your computer and then upload onto Canva for free.
  2. IMGFlip.com is another meme or image and text generator. Simply type in the theme you are looking for, for example, travel, and then choose a picture from the selection shown. Change the text in the two text boxes on the right hand side and then save your image.
  3. The third way, which is more time consuming and will only work if you have the correct programmes on your computer, is to Google the correct image sizes for the social media site you want to use and then set up an image on Photoshop. You can then easily add text and swap the images around once you have set up your own template. Once you have your own template, the possibilities are endless.

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This is a Canva design template I added my book cover and text to.

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This is an IMGFlip template with my words on it.

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This is a Photoshop template that I made myself.

 

Monday Marketing. 3 Quick tips.

/ lizziechantree / 12 Comments

Hello everyone. Happy new week. I have my first author talk in a library this week and have been researching the best way to schedule the talk. They have booked me in for two hours, but my chat needs to be about 20 minutes and then an author Q&A and tea and coffee. I’ll let you know how I get on as I’m extremely nervous and two hours seems a very long time!

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Tips for planning an author talk:

  1. Have seven points of interest and explain them to your audience, so that they understand the structure of the talk. For example: Point 1. My working life before I became and author. Point 2. Fun facts about my career. Point 3. Why I changed career path. Point 4. Self-publishing. Do I think it’s a good idea? Point 5. Publishing contracts. What it’s like being offered one. Point 6. How some books become bestsellers. Point 7. Life after you’ve published a novel.
  2. Plan questions you might be asked and write your answers, so that you aren’t caught off guard.
  3. Hold a Q&A session, so that visitors can ask any questions you haven’t already answered.

Good luck if you have your own author talks planned. If you have any top tips to share, feel welcome to leave them in the comments section below. Much appreciated! From Lizzie:)

 

Monday marketing. 3 quick tips.

/ lizziechantree / 9 Comments

Happy new week everyone. Here are 3 quick tips about scheduling social media posts or tidying up your Twitter feeds. Marketing can eat into your day, so I am sharing some great tools to help you schedule in some of the posts to save time. I don’t agree with all posts being scheduled, as the idea of social media, is to be social! Interaction is the main way to keep and grow your Twitter/ Facebook accounts etc.

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  1. SocialOomph: This a is a scheduling app. It has free and paid options. You can run a free trial to see if it is the app for you. You can schedule tweets, Facebook posts and blog posts, add images and links.
  2. Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a bit clunky for me, but it is a great place to start when you are looking for content to retweet on Twitter or you have your own information to schedule. Because this app updates so often with new news items, it can be slow. The upside is that there is a wealth of information to choose from and it is very easy to use.
  3. Manageflitter: This is a good app for unfollowing anyone who doesn’t follow you back. There have been recent changes, so unless you pay for the basic service, you can only have about 30 unfollows a day. For their basic package, you can unfollow as many as you like.

 

Monday Marketing. 3 quick tips.

/ lizziechantree / 3 Comments

Happy new week everyone. Today’s 3 quick marketing tips are about pinned tweets. I have written about this before, but it’s easy to forget how important they are. It might look good for your Twitter account to have hundreds of retweets of it’s pinned tweet, but if someone has already retweeted it, they can’t do it again. This means they have to search through your Twitter feed to RT your work.

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  1. Update your pinned tweet often. Even if you do it once a week, or every few days, it gives visitors something new to RT without searching your timeline.
  2. If you are using a daily hashtag, for example, #tuesnews or #MondayMotivation pin it to your profile for that day only. Check out the daily trending hashtags and add one to your pinned tweet that day. I regularly look at trending hashtags and make a tweet with it in. It’s great for networking and helps spread the word about your business or product.
  3. Regularly check out the pinned tweets of your followers and RT them. In return, some will do the same in support of your work. Having a pinned tweet shows the most current information about you. If it is years old, it is confusing to visitors and the information might be out of date.

Check out my Twitter timeline here to see my latest pinned tweet to get some idea of how it works.

Mailing lists

/ lizziechantree / 2 Comments

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I’ve read a lot about the importance of mailing lists and with new legislation coming in with regard to privacy, it’s been pretty hectic for everyone who has a subscriber list, not only trying to work out what it means, but also to make sure we comply if we can.

I have been working with my publisher and have a book out this year, another in July and am writing a third. In between this and marketing my books, I have found it difficult to keep up with sending out newsletters or building that all important mailing list. My apologies to everyone. I use MailChimp for my newsletters, have still sent out a newsletter offering my subscribers the option to unsubscribe or to stay and have a privacy page on my blog now.

This has actually given me the drive to begin proper newsletter and to keep up with sending out news of my writing. I’m not going to send it more than once a month, but it will have more content and things that aren’t on my blog. It won’t be a sales letter, but it will be topical news about my writing journey and some marketing tips that aren’t on my blog, which are just for subscribers.

 

Wishing you all a fun filled and creative weekend.

 

From Lizzie

 

🙂

 

Happy Marketing.

/ lizziechantree / 9 Comments

 

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Happy new week everyone. Today’s Monday marketing and 3 Quick Tips is about sprinkling kindness around like confetti. I recently read a magazine article where it said that having a positive mental attitude, treating others fairly and reaching out to assist people, also helps to boost your  mood, triggers good endorphins and raises productivity during your own day. It’s not hard to share a social media post for someone else, add their product links to your emails, or to use word of mouth to recommend someone else’s products or services. It could take you a moment, but have positive effects on someone else’s day or business for days or weeks to come.

  1. Take a moment to share a post on social media that you think will help someone else’s products or business.
  2. When you are talking to friends, recommend someone. Word of mouth is a very powerful form of advertising that can be overlooked when everyone is so busy and doesn’t have a lot of time to catch up with friends or colleagues. Share a business card from someone you know, or spread the word about their websites or blogs.
  3. If you meet someone who might help a friend or colleague’s business, take a business card or jot down the details and then introduce them via social media or in person. Email them the details and spread the word about both businesses. They in turn will remember you for being kind and connecting them.

Monday Marketing.

/ lizziechantree / 1 Comment

Hi everyone. Today’s Monday Marketing and 3 quick tips are about Giveaways. I am currently holding my first #giveaway on Twitter and Facebook for my book Ninja School Mum. The giveaways have only been running for a day or so and I will keep you updated on the progress, but here is what I’ve learnt so far. My book jumped up higher in the bestseller’s lists than it had been for the previous few days. What has also happened is that people downloaded Ninja School Mum when they found out about it after being tagged into the giveaway by friends, as they didn’t want to wait to read it, which is incredible and something I am very thankful for. To view the details of my giveaways click here for Twitter and here for Facebook. Below is the image I used for my Twitter giveaway.

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  1. Pin your giveaway to the top of your Twitter page as your pinned Tweet for the duration of the giveaway.
  2. Ask people to tag their friends in the comments section under the giveaway post. To do this they simply type in their friend’s Twitter/Facebook name, for example, @Lizzie_Chantree/ Lizzie Chantree as a comment. This expands the giveaway reach and is a great way for book lovers to share a read they like the look of, with their friends.
  3. Don’t forget to add a universal link to your book or product at the bottom of the Twitter or Facebook post as well as a clear image. You can create a universal link at places like BookLinker. A universal link is a link that works for all Amazon stores and takes the viewer to the correct site for the country they live in.

 

Also bought on Amazon.

/ lizziechantree / 2 Comments

Hi everyone. Today’s post is about also bought on Amazon. It is the section that offers similar products to people who have purchased something on Amazon. It is important because it works on Amazon’s algorithm and sends your book or product to customers who might also like to buy it, as they have purchased something similar before. For example, someone who has bought a romance book, might enjoy a romantic suspense novel. Someone who has bought a bikini, might also like suntan lotion.

The full article here explains that although selling to your friends and family first is wonderful, it also adds them to your products ‘fans’ and then your books/products would be sent out as an also bought. If you have other customers who buy your products first, then they will be the ones seen as ‘fans’ and they will be sent your new products as something they might also like. Friends and family buying your book first, may be detrimental to your future sales as the promotions would be sent to them, when it is likely they would know about them already.

Read the full article here. I posted this in my Facebook book group Lizzie’s Book Group a couple of weeks ago, so some of you may have read it there. Feel free to join the group if you aren’t there already.

Understanding also bought on Amazon, click here.

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Pinterest for writers.

/ lizziechantree / 14 Comments

 

Lizzie Chantree biz quotes 1

I’ve just read an article that was so interesting that I read it twice! It was about an author who used Pinterest for marketing his books. I had never thought about Pinterest other than a fun way to connect with people who enjoy design ideas, like I do. I am now beginning to see things a bit differently.

The article stated that Twitter posts have a 24 minute viewing time lifespan, Facebook posts 90 minutes and Pinterest post, 3.5 months! This is because people often go back to their favourite pins and re-pin them, share them, or just admire them and show them to friends. The most viewed pins have some sort of useful message or meme on them. Women make up 80% of users on Pinterest. On average pins are re-pinned 11 times.

Some tips for a great pin.

  1. Design your pin to be tall and thin like a bookmark. This takes up less Pinterest real estate on each page and makes it more likely to be repined. Size 300 x 800 px.
  2. Give tips or pointers. People love to read short tips, like this list!
  3. Give the edges colour, so that they stand out.
  4. Add links to your pins, so that when they are shared so is your URL.
  5. Add descriptions to your pins. Don’t leave those spaces blank. Use the opportunity to tell people about yourself or your product.

 

Marketing. That scary word!

/ lizziechantree / 2 Comments

Happy weekend everyone! Thank you to fellow author Natalie Ducey for her amazing support. Today I have been invited onto her blog to talk about drinking too much tea and  how much the word marketing used to terrify me!

You can check out the whole blog post here: Natalie’s Post.

Meet my writing partner, Pepper. Tea photo via Booklovers photos on Pinterest.