Book Marketing 101: Outreach

All these posts have been to help you set up Tim Grahl’s Connection System. So how do we connect with readers? Through outreach.
Outreach is how you drive traffic to your newly optimized site and get new subscribers to your list and new readers to your books.
The best way to grow your audience and find your tribe is to ask other people for an introduction to theirs. Take advantage of the other authors in your genre as well as podcasts and book blogs. Be sure to share your interviews and guest post with your audience so the influencer you’re connecting with also sees a bump in their growth. Sharing is caring after all.

Outreach is really important for your platform.
It’s how you’re going to sell books and grow your email list. But it’s also the hardest part. Before you start, you need to think back to Tim’s definition of Marketing: Making long-lasting connections with people and being ridiculously helpful. Podcasts need guests to keep running, you’re helping by asking to be a guest. Make sure you tell the host why you’re a good fit for their audience. The same with blogs. Bloggers need to come up with content often to keep their site moving.  

Here’s what you need to do:

• Make a list of everything you feel comfortable talking about (it doesn’t just have to be about your book. Regardless of the topic, there will be some people listening who will want to read your writing too and some are better than none)
• Do your research, and find a win/win for you and the influencer: When you’re trying to figure out who to talk to or even where to start, ask yourself how you find new books. Start there. What genre do you write? Search podcasts in iTunes on that subject and then check the related section. 
• Keep track of who you’re emailing and when
• Ask for referrals. Whether you get a yes or a no, always as for a referral. 
• Always thank the influencer for their time. Be polite ok? These are real humans on the other end of the interwebs. Just be nice.

If you don’t have a book out yet
you still need to begin your outreach. In a perfect world, authors would start building relationships with influencers (podcasts, bloggers, bookstagramers, and other authors) long before they have something to sell. The easiest way to be relentlessly helpful is to not need anything in return. 

Outreach Don'ts

• Don’t keep a list of people you did favors for to collect on. That’s not being helpful, that’s being selfish
• Don’t send someone thirty emails in a week and expect a good response. (one email, wait a week then send one more. After that let it go.
• Don’t get offended if someone says no or ignores you. Assume everyone else is really busy and move on.
• Don't get discouraged! It's slow and sometimes painful, but if you stick with it, it will also help launch your career. When I first started, I'd go and go and go and then get discouraged and stop and about three months later, I'd see sales! And reviews and whatever else from all my hard work. But I stopped, so the sales and things would stop, and I'd have to start over again. So, stick with it. Don't make my mistakes.