Influencers in today’s time are the perfect example of social catalysts. If someone wants his product or work to get attention then getting an influencer that too a celebrity one, can bring a huge difference in the reach and presence of the work and for the creator of the work too. Nowadays it’s a common practice that you see so many celebrities endorsing different types of products from books, educational apps, learning apps, beauty products, health products, etc.
But specifically talking in the field of book promotion then influencers play a vital role in luring the audience for the book and for the author too. But one thing which an author or a publishing house has to ask themselves is “how to get an influencer to promote your book?” Well, this process like others needs some research and prep before heading to use it. These are as follows:
1. Identify the Correct Influencer:
The first and foremost thing when you want an influencer to promote your book, then choosing the correct influencer is the most important part of the process. As every influencer will not fit your work like if an author who has written a book on social and political issues then hiring an influencer from movies and music will not be an apt choice, in such case an influencer who is associated with social work or political platform will be an apt choice.
Similarly, if an author is looking to promote a health book then in such cases celebrity influencers from the beauty and health industry are the first preference. Also, the target audience also plays a central role in choosing the influencer. Although the popularity and followers on social media are also important key factors in deciding the influencer but the most important is the fact whether the influencer and author’s target audience are overlapping each other or not.
2. Establish Goals:
After choosing the correct influencer and asking an influencer to promote your book, the author should know clearly how he will use the social presence of the celebrity influencer and for that the goal of the author should be clear. He should know exactly what message he wants to propagate via his influencer. Like if an author’s work speaks about the child behavior then the influencer should be able to understand the issue. So, if the influencer is a parent then it’s easier to communicate with the audience too as the connection will be real in such cases.
3. Create exclusive content:
The idea behind hiring an influencer to promote your book is to create an exclusive presence of your work. This exclusivity is the biggest player to grab the audience and ring in the sales. There are many ways that exclusivity can be created and shown like by creating special messages, videos, events, chat shows, book reading sessions, contests, etc. These will bring the attention of the followers of the influencer towards the book and the author. This way the presence of the book is increased multiple times via different platforms that influencers use.
4. Reach of the influencer; social media presence:
As we all are aware of the magnanimity of social media in today’s time. So tapping social media via influencers is very important and this has proved to be very productive also. That is why we see so many influencers having followers in millions and billions. This number of followers is one of the keys to choose the influencer also.
5. Track the work and success of the influencer:
Well as we say in the showbiz one day you are God and the other day you are out of the race. So that is why the past associations and work by the influencer also matters a lot. This gives an idea about the versatility and market value of the influencer. The more successful an influencer is then chances of your work to get a great platform is inevitable.
Once the author or the publishing house has zeroed down the influencer; now comes the part “how to approach the influencer?” Well for that there are few tips, these are:
a. Support their work which they have done in the past, keep a track of their work choices, genre they like, platforms they use to promote books as influencers.
b. Also understand the connections they have with other influencers from the book world especially in marketing and promotional arenas. As influencers, their role is maximum in these departments.
c. Always approach them with a clear vision and a short overview of your work.
Influencer Marketing For Books
An Influencer is a person who has an upteem fan base for the kind of work he/she has done in any respective field and has achieved success over the time with their connection with the audience. Now if the author wants to cater to this audience who likes and listens to the influencer as Followers on social media, then hiring the influencer is the first step. But it is not that easy too as marketing via celebrity influencers is an expensive route too.
But newcomers and fresher influencers like bloggers, authors, campaigners, etc are a good choice to cut the cost of the celebrity influencer and these are very active on social media as they are young and know the mindset of today’s generation who are addicted to the social media. Even influencers have to understand the author’s vision before they ask and reach their fans and followers to buy the book which is being marketed by them.
There are various kind of Influencers present around us, such as:
1. Book Bloggers: They are usually authors or readers who review books and other literary work on their social media handles or accounts, this way they promote the book and the author as influencers. They are more specific with their genres of book marketing and promotion as influencers.
2. Bookstagram: these are book influencers on Instagram as #Bookstragram, they enjoy a wide fan base and such influencer marketers for books keep posting new updates as pics, and videos about the book, this helps in creating buzz and excitement among the followers and eventually helps in sales.
Also Read – 5 Common Book Promotion Challenges
3. Youtubers: Youtube platform is undoubtedly the biggest platform for influencer marketing for books and also for hundreds of products. Every day thousands of Vlogs, Videos are released on Youtube. As it’s a visual medium so its reach is far more high then other platforms.
4. PodCasters: They are influencers on the audio medium, as we are seeing the book marketing is very much expanding on the audio medium, eventually for influencers marketing of books on podcasts is becoming essential too. It’s a cheaper option to tap for the audience who are avid listeners.
5. Other Influencers: They include influencers who usually belong to the literary work like teachers, professors, book publishers, editors, etc. As they have a better grasp of the target audience and also help in reaching specific messages for the specific issue and audience.
In the end, influencer marketing is becoming bigger day by day as its reach is spreading. This kind of influencer marketing is more viable as it includes the connection of the fans and followers with the influencer. The marketing strategies also help the influencers growth too when he/she is promoting and marketing a book. Both book and influencer benefit from each other as both are dependent on each other. But what matters the most is the fact whether the author has chosen the correct influencer and the influencer has chosen the right book to promote and market. Because if any one of them fails then both suffer the loss.
