That powerful tool
Word of Mouth (WOM) is indeed a really powerful marketing tool. Of course you have to have a great product. Then you show it to a few people. They tell their friends and hopefully these friends will buy too. And they will tell their friend and so on it goes. Leaving a review on Amazon or Good reads is one way of doing this.
But a more direct approach is even more powerful. That can only happen if you have a great product.
What we actually do
What we tend to do, however, is shout on social media, pay for ads, or send out details to lists. The latter is always the most effective and those lists are based partly on word of mouth.
How do we build lists
An easy example of how this works is your Author Central page on Amazon. If people like a book you’re written, they can opt to follow you as an author. Amazon will then email them every time you have new book out. You don’t need to.
There are various mailing list facilitators around: e.g. Mail Chimp, Mailer Lite These will help you to manage the lists of people you want to email.
But these lists are made up of your “word of mouth” community.
Friends , family, fans, followers and readers
Friends and family are a good place to start. They’ll probably want to support you but you may find that after the first book their interest wanes. Don’t push it. You still want them to be your friends.
Some of your friends and family will become your fans. They may like your work. How can you capitalize on this? You can hope they press the Amazon follow button. You can invite them on to your email list. Give them an incentive. Maybe a free book or an extract from a work in progress.
Find your tribe
For every book launch and for every review request campaign make a list of fifty people who might be interested in the book, regardless of whether they are already on your mailing list. Send them a personal invitation to attend the launch or review the book before you send to your list, announce the book on social media or pay for an ad.
People are more likely to respond to a personal approach.
Who are the people?
- Ones who have an interest in the themes and topics in the book
- Writing friends
- Other people who write similar woks
- People who’ve helped you with the book
- Friends and family you’ve not approached before
- Friends and family you’ve not approached for a while
- Local businesses and media who may be interested
Some examples
I’ve used this successfully in the last couple of weeks to get some nice reviews. I’ve approached :
- Individual members of my National Women’s Register group
- A friend who is interested in the area I’m wiring about
Members of my creative wring group have attended several events I’ve organised.
Finally
Make sur you have a way of capturing the interest of your fans by inviting them on to your mailing list.
