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So you’ve written your book, and you’ve set up all the suitable systems for your book funnel.
Now comes one of the most crucial aspects – driving your target audience through your book funnel.
Without traffic, there’s no point. You will not be able to test your offers and optimize them further.
But where will they come from? Once you’ve identified your target audience, you must indulge in a mix of inbound and outbound marketing activities for people to notice you.
Here are 4 significant ways through which you can get people to buy your book and turn them into leads for your business:
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Podcast
SMM (Social Media Marketing)
Social media websites are probably the channels with the most amount of daily active users on the internet.
The top sites include:
- YouTube
- TikTok
Organic Traffic:
Organic social media refers to activities that every user has access to for free. It includes posting written, graphical and audio-visual content on the platforms and engaging with other users.
Organic traffic takes time to build, but it is the most valuable. The people who find and follow you organically are the most authentic and genuine engagers of your content.
Social media best practices for organic traffic involve creating your content strategy and being an active member of the community you hope to serve. Ensuring that your content distribution is targeted towards a niche community will help people find you more easily.
You must diversify your content medium and be present on different platforms where you will most likely tap into potential consumers/customers.
Remember, all social media platforms want only one thing – For users to spend more time on their platform. If your content can get and hold someone’s attention, the social media algorithms will push your content and promote it organically to other users.
Your content creation strategy should ideally match the best practices of the platform. But as long as you craft relevant and valuable content, it doesn’t matter that much.
Here are some social media best practices according to the respective platforms that will help you drive traffic to your book funnel:
1. Facebook
Many people say that Facebook is dead and that it has become over-saturated with noise and irrelevant content.
Well… all we have to say is ‘You’re what you eat.’ A Facebook author page can help you reach a massive audience. Facebook will show users more of what they already consume to keep them hooked.
And granted that the organic reach has decreased, the platform isn’t dead. It’s good to maintain an active profile, have a regular posting schedule, and the most important of all – Participate in Facebook groups related to your business niche. These networking groups are a gold mine for collaborations and finding new customers.
Facebook Live is also a great way to engage with your audience to create awareness and drive traffic to your book funnel.
When it comes to medium, video works best, followed by pictures and then written content.
2. Instagram
The primary medium on Instagram is pictures and videos. Depending on your audience and community, you could also utilize the captions for your pictures/videos as mini blog articles to give people quick valuable bites of information in written format.
Best practices:
- Use relevant hashtags in your niche and according to what you’re posting.
- Consistency over anything! It means a regular posting and interaction schedule. Remember, ‘not daily,’ but ‘regular.’
- Use as many new features as provided by the platform—reels, story stickers, etc. The platform wants to push new features, push those who use them, and show them to more people, thus increasing your organic reach.
- Use location tagging on posts and stories.
- Interact with other people’s content.
The more you utilize a platform, the better the chances of people discovering you, your book, and your business.
3. YouTube
YouTube is one of the biggest social media platforms and the second most used search engine globally after Google.
This platform is all about video content. The method you want to use on this platform is to create a series of content related to your book and business. When people search regarding a particular problem that your book and business can solve, they might come across a video created by you that talks about a solution for them.
While people consume your content, make sure to include consistent CTAs in your video to drive them into your book funnel.
4. TikTok
This platform is meant for short-form video media. It is what Instagram Reels was designed after. It is a platform with an abundance of daily active users.
Develop an influencer strategy to build your brand on TikTok.
Example – Gary Vee.
Hop on trends + create original content = emotional connect with the audience.
This way, more people will discover you, meaning more chance of getting traffic.
5. Twitter
Twitter for authors is the game of the written word and wit! It is a great platform for connecting with like-minded individuals and building yourself as a thought leader on a particular niche subject (i.e., what your book is about and your business).
6. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is for those who know that their target book readers fall under a very professional niche. It is the go-to platform for B2B businesses. LinkedIn’s organic reach is currently more remarkable than any other platform because of its unique algorithm.
Your content gets shown to people who are not even connected to you if someone from your network even likes one of your posts. It allows a speedy discovery chain leading you to new business opportunities.
Like previous platforms, it is essential to set up your profile professionally, post regularly, and interact with other users.
7. Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual platform where users create boards of ‘pins’ they like that fall under specific categories.
A ‘pin’ is simply an image post on Pinterest. Other people can see them and add them to their boards that other people can also see.
How does this help your book? You can post snippets/ small excerpts from your book that are valuable, motivational, or inspirational. People can use your posts to create boards under those categories.
The more people do that, the more the chances are of a user going, “Oh! I wonder what book that is from?”
And of course, then they see your original post where you’ve added the link to your book funnel, and voila! You get traffic!
Paid Traffic:
Paid traffic on social media is a great way to get the ball rolling. And if you have the funds, you should invest some in advertising.
Each advertising platform works a bit differently, and it is good to do some research before diving into it. LinkedIn ads are pretty expensive. So if you have a limited budget, consider spending it on other platforms.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
When it comes to search engines, Google is the name of the game. There’s no denying it. The search engine handles an average of 3.8 million searches per minute.
With so much incoming traffic, being found organically or through paid advertising on search engines should no doubt be on your to-do list.
Organic Traffic:
Organic traffic on search engines is all about you creating relevant content for your niche. Blogs, articles, and other media on your website or landing page that are search engine optimized.
There are many SEO tools out there like AHREFS, Semrush, and Ubersuggest that allow for a deep in-depth understanding of search queries, keyword research, and all the things you’ll need to optimize your content to rank on search engine result pages.
Here are some SEO best practices:
- Understand a searcher’s ‘intent’ of searching for something. Write content that solves that particular problem.
- Exciting titles and meta descriptions.
- Optimize your media files and page so that they load quickly.
- Use internal linking and backlinks to credible sources.
- Pay attention to the user experience on your funnel/website. Is it easy for a person to navigate? Please test it out with your peers. See what they have to say.
- Include your target keywords in the URL.
- The more valuable your content is, the better the chances are getting backlinks from other websites.
Pro Tip: Write for humans, optimize for search engines.
Paid Traffic:
Google ads are an intent-based marketing activity that means fewer margins for error than social media paid marketing.
Google ad network will help you target people searching for a particular search term in a specific location. It can either help you narrow down on your TG or spread out wide to reach new audiences.
You can also target visitors to particular websites that are related to you through retargeting ads.
The possibilities are quite vast.
Email Marketing
Whoever said that email marketing is dead probably has never done it or never done it correctly.
Emails to this date are one of the most non-invasive yet very personal forms of reaching people.
When done right, emails can give massive ROI to your business. Technology and creative minds have enabled us to access software tools that help create email sequences and automated drip email campaigns that do the work for us even when we’re sleeping.
Have opt-in popups/forms for people who visit your website/book funnel to join your newsletter. If they choose to join, you will know that they are interested candidates but are not ready to buy your book just yet.
So? Time to nurture them with emails! Utilize the channel to show your expertise in the market, give them information about you, your book, your business, what you do, how you do it, why you choose to do it, and so forth. Show your human side and build a relationship with people.
Getting that emotional connection is the key to unlocking the possibility of further engagement.
A persistent effort with email marketing will drive traffic to your funnel like no other.
Podcasting
Audio content is on the rise! And podcasts are just what we’re talking about. They are a form of the on-demand radio.
The reason why podcasting consumption is on the rise is because of its easy-to-consume nature. Unlike written or video content, you can listen to podcasts while driving, doing chores, jogging, and more. It allows people to save time and attention spent on written and video content and gain value simultaneously.
Creating your podcast and being a guest speaker on other people’s podcasts is an excellent strategy to drive traffic towards your book funnel.
