Niche Marketing your book

by Chris Day

Niche Marketing is the process whereby you identify what your target reader, or readers have in common and use that information to focus your marketing activity to where they can be found and where your efforts will be will the most effective.

Authors often ask ‘which social media platform should I focus on?’ The answer is that this will vary from author to author depending on where their ‘perfect reader’ tends to hang out. So the first thing to do is to paint a word picture about the person you are writing for.  The more you know about them, the easier it will be for them to find you (not the other way round!)

It may well be that there are a number of types of reader that your book will appeal to.  For this process to work, you need to go through for each of them. It doesn’t work if you try to lump them all together.

You need to be seen – and heard – in the places they frequent. Know your Niche, and your marketing activity will be No-Cost and Low-Cost. If you try to reach a wide audience of the general public, that it when it becomes expensive. It may well be that your book provides answers to a problem or a situation that people from a number of different backgrounds or circumstances would find of value. If this is the case, think of them as a series of separate niches, rather than as one big one, you will still be able to apply No-Cost and Low-Cost techniques to reach them.

So, with only one of your ‘perfect readers’ in mind, ask yourself these questions.

• What age are they?
• Does this appear to men or women – or both?
• Is your perfect reader likely to be in business or at leisure / retired
• Are they clustered into a particular part of the country?
• Is there an international following for this subject
• Are they likely to belong to a particular club?
• Might they all have a particular qualification?
• Could they all be in membership of a professional body?
• What publications are they likely to read?
• Is there a web radio channel or cable station that covers this topic
• What celebrities are interested in this topic
• What websites might they visit?
• Do that attend any exhibitions, or conferences?
• Is there a particular season that is important to them?
• What keys words might they be searching for to find out more information
• Which social media platform are they most likely to use
• What is it they are in the market for, after they have read your book?
• What topic are they most likely to be looking for information on?

Once you know where you perfect reader can be found, you know where you need to be seen. You also know where he is least likely to be found so you don’t waste time and effort ‘fishing in the wrong pond.’  For example, people in business are more likely to be found on LinkedIn rather than Facebook, although this is a generalisation.

To get the best insight into how to structure your digital marketing activity, get a copy of Warren Knight’s new book “Think #Digital First’ – second edition (Filament Publishing) ISBN 978-1-912256-28-0