Presents: Website Design and Social Marketing for Authors. Setting yourself up for success in the digital world

Presents: Website Design and Social Marketing for Authors Setting yourself up for success in the digital world

What to decide before building your website: 1. What kind of site do you need? Your target market and your goals will decide which site is the best fit for your needs.

What to decide before building your website: 1. What kind of site do you need? 2. What is your budget? You ll need a budget even if you elect to build the site yourself, especially if you want your own domain and hosting.

What to decide before building your website: 1. What kind of site do you need? 2. What is your budget? 3. Are you going to blog? The answer to this question determines what type of site you ll need and how you ll manage it when it s built. Most authors maintain blog sites it just makes sense.

What to decide before building your website: 1. What kind of site do you need? 2. What is your budget? 3. Are you going to blog? 4. Are you going to sell things from the site? Most authors want to sell their books and services through their websites. E-commerce is huge, and there are lots of decisions to be made before jumping in!

What to decide before building your website: 1. What kind of site do you need? 2. What is your budget? 3. Are you going to blog? 4. Are you going to sell things from the site? 5. MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Who is your audience? Who are your readers? Sometimes the answer to these questions are different from each other. The more you know about the people you want to reach, the better.

What should the design be? Who is your audience? You always want to make sure you re designing for THEM, not you. It really is worth spending time answering questions about your audience: 1. What are their wants, needs, fears? 2. What problem can you solve for them?

Type of Websites: Brochure type: Largely informational and static Blog type: Dynamic, active, engaging Sales type: can be a combination of both (recommended) Membership: Private virtual community

Some Author Website Examples

George R. R. Martin WordPress site, hybrid sales/static Positive: 1. Designed for his audience 2. Nice Layout

George R. R. Martin Negative: 1. Not responsive/mobile friendly 2. His blog (which he calls not a Blog ) is directed to LiveJournal, completely losing the design of his Site.

George R. R. Martin

Mary Higgins Clark

Mary Higgins Clark WordPress site, hybrid sales/static Positive: 1. Responsive/Mobile Friendly 2. Excellent CTAs (Call to Action) 3. Simple and elegant

Mary Higgins Clark

Mary Higgins Clark Negative: None

Laurie Halls Anderson

Laurie Halls Anderson WordPress site, Sales/Blog/Static Positive: 1. Nice Styling

Laurie Halls Anderson Negative: 1. Old Style 2. Non-responsive/not mobile friendly

Laurie Halls Anderson

Nelson DeMille

Nelson DeMille WordPress site, hybrid sales/static Positive: 1. Responsive/Mobile Friendly 2. Designed with audience in mind 3. Fits his genre and style 4. Newsletter instead of blog

Nelson DeMille Negative: None

Dax Varley

Dax Varley Weebly site, sales/static/blog Positive: 1. The style fits her genre Negative: 1. Non-Responsive 2. Very little styling 3. Weebly branding

Dax Varley

Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer WordPress site, sales/blog/static Positive: 1. Design 2. Responsive Negative 1. The design doesn t seem to fit her genre

Stephenie Meyer

Okay it s built now what? Build it and they will come!.um, no. This is a common misconception (although people are getting a bit more savvy now). I met one guy a few years ago who actually believed that if he listed his book for sale on the internet he d get flooded with orders. This is not going to happen. Traffic Getting traffic to your website is an extremely important part of your marketing, and getting them to stay there makes Google very happy.

Okay it s built now what? Make sure your site is optimized for search (called SEO: Search Engine Optimization), and stays optimized.

Okay it s built now what? Make sure your site is optimized for search (called SEO: Search Engine Optimization), and stays optimized. Monitor your site for results: Google Analytics, A/B testing, etc.

Author Website overview Make your website about your audience, not you Make your website stand out from the crowd Have clear goals for what you want your website to accomplish Blog regularly Integrate social media into your site Focus on giving great value through content

Social Media for Authors

Rising Above the Noise World populations: How Big is Social? 1. Facebook 6. Google+ 2. China 7. LinkedIn 3. India 8. U. S. 4. TenCent 9. Instagram 5. What sapp 10. Twitter

Rising Above the Noise How Big is Social? Ashton Kutcher & Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of: 1. Sweden 4. Ireland 2. Isreal 5. Norway 3. Switzerland 6. Panama

Rising Above the Noise How Big is Social? Ashton Kutcher & Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of: 1. Sweden 4. Ireland 2. Isreal 5. Norway 3. Switzerland 6. Panama YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.

Rising Above the Noise How Big is Social? There are over 200 million blogs

Rising Above the Noise How Big is Social? There are over 200 million blogs 60 million status updates happen on Facebook daily

Rising Above the Noise How Big is Social? There are over 200 million blogs 60 million status updates happen on Facebook daily 96% of millennials have joined a social network

Rising Above the Noise How Big is Social? There are over 200 million blogs 60 million status updates happen on Facebook daily 96% of millennials have joined a social network The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year old females

Biggest mistakes brands make on social No Strategy. It s almost guaranteed that if you don t have a marketing plan in place before starting, you ll fail.

Biggest mistakes brands make on social No Strategy It s almost guaranteed that if you don t have a marketing plan in place before starting, you ll fail. No content goals Each post should serve a purpose, whether it s to further your brand or give value to your audience.

Biggest mistakes brands make on social No analytics Without measuring what each post is doing, how will you know whether you re reaching your goals?

Biggest mistakes brands make on social No analytics Without measuring what each post is doing, how will you know whether you re reaching your goals? No Testing Split testing (aka A/B testing) is a powerful tool to refine your efforts and increase your effectiveness

Biggest mistakes brands make on social Ignoring their audience Monitoring and responding is extremely important. Not only will you know when someone is being critical (and be able to respond professionally and positively), but you ll make people feel like they matter to you when you acknowledge them. I see this mistake on a daily basis on Facebook. Nothing screams I don t care about you louder than not paying attention.

More things to keep in mind Social media is a marathon, not a race. Social is about building relationships and trust. It s not about selling to them, although they will often buy from you if they feel you re giving them value. Don t try to get on every social site. You only need to focus on the sites where your audience hangs out.

Creating a Social Strategy Learn as much as you can about your target audience. Hint: It s NOT everyone! The key to your success lies in how well you know your market. This step takes a lot of thought, but is well worth the time and effort. The clearer you are about your market, the easier it is to create content for them.

Creating a Social Strategy Use a good content planning guide. You will likely be posting to several social networks at the same time, and you will be posting many different types of content. You ll want a way to keep everything organized so your quality remains high, you re consistent, and you know what s getting results and what isn t.

Creating a Social Strategy Fill out your social profiles completely. People won t trust an anonymous silhouette on Facebook or an egg on Twitter. It s perfectly fine to keep your private life separate from your professional life, but let people know your brand persona. Trust is one of the most important things in social.

Creating a Social Strategy Brand yourself offline and online. Make sure your website and social assets are on all of your literature, and make sure your online friends know when you re speaking or doing a book signing.

Content There are about 55 different types of blog posts. Here are some of them: 1. List post: Five Ways to 3 People to Watch This Year etc. 2. How-To: You can combine this with the list post, or take one subject and explore it more thoroughly 3. FAQ Post: If your audience has frequently asked questions, write a post! 4. Problem/Solution

Content 5. Interview post: Interview another author. Crosspromotion often brings a larger audience to both parties 6. Quote post: Always good for authors! One thing to keep in mind: most of these can be done in other media (image, audio, video), and in fact it s best to create all types of content for your audience.