Writing a book marketing plan isn’t always the easiest thing to do; you get distracted, you head off in an unnecessary direction and you forget where you are. This is why, when you are trying to build up an online following, you need to have a set plan in place, so you don’t get lost. The difficulty is, no two plans are identical; your book is different to the next one and is going to need its own plan and, to draw it up, you need to answer three key questions:

Who Is My Book Aimed At?

Simple question, right? You want everyone to enjoy it, but you cannot be that vague when you write your plan. You need to work the biggest part of your audience and target them for advertising purposes, preferably where they will see your advertising.

Start broad and, after you’ve done your research, you can pare the list down. Start with your book genre. Then look at the theme of your book. If it’s a romantic thriller, you don’t want to aim it at teenagers but, on the other hand, if it’s a coming of age story, you do.

Think about who the typical reader is going to be and then find where they hide out online. List the social media sites and websites where they might be and then jot down a few ideas of how you are going to mention your book in those places.

Is There Anything Unique About My Story?

Next, you need to determine what is going to attract your target audience. People tend to prefer a story that they can easily relate to so think about something in your book that readers might identify with and use it to hook them.

This allows you to focus your marketing efforts where they need to be. Think about how to use that hook in a book trailer, a podcast, a guest post on a blog site or even an interview on a popular website. Knowing your hook means more chance of engaging with your potential audience.

What’s Next?

Once you have your plan moving, you could just sit back and wait; eventually, you’ll hit the big time, won't you? Probably not. Your marketing plan needs to be adaptable and you should be constantly looking for ways to make it better. If a series of ads on a website isn’t working, you need to know when and how to change that to something that does work. Maybe your book attracts a different audience to what you thought; your plan needs to adapt to that audience. Review, review and review again.

Everyone has a different approach to marketing and what works for one may not work for another. Look for better techniques to market your books and make sure you follow through on all parts of your plan. Loads of great books have tanked because the author has lost heart and hasn’t had the foresight to adapt their plan to fit the circumstances.

Keep plugging away, try everything you can think of and something will work.