Are you familiar with audiobooks? I’m sure you are as they are becoming increasingly popular in our mobile world.
Once your book is narrated, perfected, and published, you have to get it out there to listeners. Just like your digital and print versions, there are specific tactics you can use to generate traffic, reach new listeners, and maximize your profits.
If you want to maximize exposure and boost sales of your audiobook, you need to make sure you are creating relationships with others in the business.
Partnerships with authors, bloggers, marketers, and anyone looking to promote their work and help you do the same, can be vital to your success. Almost every business out there uses partnership programs to promote their product.
Audiobook promotion is no different.
One of the purest forms of marketing, though, is partner promotion.
Begin the process by getting to know people in the business. Listen to other author’s books, review them, take part in social media discussions, and make your name recognizable. Be authentic and genuine when talking to someone about partnership promotions.
Creating a partnership promotion can work in several ways.
You can even incorporate multiple lines of promotion for a better reach to new listeners.
These are some of the ways you can use partnership promotion:
By keeping a healthy and open line of communication with your chosen partnerships, the sky is the limit.
Working through a partnership can not only be lucrative for both parties but can be fun as well.
Always remember, just because a promotion hasn’t been tried, doesn’t mean it won’t work.
The publishing world is a lot different than other business ventures out there. When you release your work to the public, you are opening your life to them. By doing this, you are making a connection with your readers.
This connection is vital to a successful book promotion.
When we get caught up in the daily drone of marketing process, promotions, and numbers, it’s easy to forget about human connection.
Your fans, they are not just fans of your writing, but of you as well. With so many books out there to read, it’s easy for listeners to forget about a book or author once they’re done listening to your audiobook.
By creating an authentic atmosphere around your persona through social interaction, personal connection, and willingness to open up to readers were making them feel like more than just a customer. You are bringing them further into your book.
When you create this personal relationship with listeners, it will attract others to join in as well. You want to continually entice new listeners to download your audiobook.
By creating personal relationships, you are offering more than just a book to listen to, but also an experience a connection as well.
These are some of the ways you can create an authentic relationship with your readers:
Being authentic in no way means you have to share everything about yourself with the world.
What it does mean is that you should be true to who you are, let your personality shine, and allow your listeners to be part of that.
By creating a family atmosphere centred around your books and brand, you are encouraging listeners to promote your books, download future audiobooks, and give you genuine and honest feedback.
This will also encourage listeners to leave their feedback for your audiobook. This influx of reviews will help to bring in more authentic listeners from the audiobook platform that you use.
Remember, unless your book is specifically tailored to politics or religion, try not to steer conversations in those directions. You don’t want to alienate listeners.
If you want to know more about audiobook marketing, check out the featured resource below, for a free report, Audiobook Marketing Tricks; download, read it and take action 🙂
Podcasting is the relay of information through audio. Rather than read an article or watch a video, your target audience will listen to your pre-recorded “internet radio show” as you provide content on topics of interest to them.
Podcasts are available via a service known as RSS (Real Simple Syndication). When they subscribe to your podcast, they will receive the latest files right in their RSS feed reader. Other websites in your niche can also embed your feed into their site so their audience can listen to it too.
It is important to understand key podcast terms if you wish to create a podcast of your own.
* Podcast – A series of recording audio programs, usually published on a regular schedule, such as once a week.
* Podcatcher – Software which detects each new podcast you publish and delivers it to your subscribers.
* RSS (Real Simple Syndication)– A way to share files with your target audience, or allow others to publish your content, or syndicate it, at their site.
* Aggregator – An aggregator, or RSS aggregator, collects RSS feeds. It will deliver podcasts and other contents you subscribe to. Feedly and Feedbin would be two good examples of RSS aggregators.
* Channel – A series of podcasts. Think of it as a radio station that can be listened to any time by people who subscribe to your channel.
* Enclosure – The file for the podcast. It is enclosed in a reader in order to be listened to.
* Metadata – The most important information about the podcast, so it can be discovered by readers and search engines. It will usually include title, recording artist, file format and so on.
* ID3 – ID3 is a metadata specification that allows information to be added to MP3 files. Commonly, items like track title, artist, album and track number are placed within ID3 “tags” that identify the type of data. It helps your podcast get discovered in locations like iTunes.
* iPod – The popular digital audio player from Apple. The word “podcast” comes from the combination of the words “iPod” and “broadcast”.
* Juice – Juice is a free program that automatically downloads new shows when they become available and synchronizes them with your iPod or other digital audio player. Formerly known as “iPodder”.
* Item – A single show in your podcasting channel. It should be metatagged, preferably with ID3 tags.
* iTunes – iTunes is Apple’s multimedia store and software, which will allow you to buy, or access or subscribe for free, a range of content such as music, videos, TV shows and podcasts. It links to a directory of podcasts and acts as a podcatcher by allowing users to subscribe to podcasts and delivering them to their iPod or other player.
* MP3 – MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) is the standard format for podcast files. The format compresses the data into a very small file while still maintaining sound quality.
Now that we’ve covered the basics about podcasting, it might be time to think about adding a podcast to your marketing mix. So let’s now look at how you can grow your audience after you have started your podcast.
Once you have decided to launch a podcast, the next main concern for most people is how to grow an audience for it. Your growth and marketing plan should actually be built right into the podcast.
It needs to appeal to your niche and be searchable on sites and aggregators.
Every podcast should have a keyworded name, not just numbers, to tell people what to expect and to make it more discoverable.
Make sure the description of your podcast channel, and each podcast you create, is keyworded and sounds exciting enough for your audience to want to listen.
Set a schedule of regular podcasts so people know what to expect. It’s a big commitment, but it’s the only way to keep an audience coming back for more and telling others about it.
If you have email marketing lists, send an email to invite them to subscribe to the podcast, send in topic suggestions and guest suggestions, or even get involved by being interviewed online.
Tell everyone in your social media account about your new podcast channel. Each time you create a new podcast, post about it on your social media pages. Encourage people to share the post with anyone they know who might also be interested in it.
Post information on your podcast on niche-related areas on the internet where your target audience will congregate.
Embed your podcast feed into your site. Also, give a page to each podcast you create. Add a transcript to attract the search engines. Include a call to action or subscribe button.
Guest blog: that is, give free content to one or more blogs related to your niche. Use the link back they should give you to point to you podcast subscription page.
Grow your audience by being a guest on high-profile niche blogs. In this way, you will get a chance to point your URL to the listeners who like what you have to say. Offer a guest spot in exchange and ask the guest to share the URL once the podcast has been created. Or offer them a copy they can use as is on their podcast feed once you have finished editing it.
The HARO website allows you to list yourself as an expert in your niche. Your biography can list your podcast. You can also mention it if you are interviewed and used as a resource for a journalist’s story.
Tell the world you have a new podcast with the help of a press release. Chances are that journalists interested in your niche or looking for interesting information to pass along to your readers, will be happy to pick up your story and share it. There are free and paid press release distribution services which can help you spread the word.
Blogger outreach is similar to issuing press releases, only it targets top bloggers in top niches. They might be interested in the podcast, the transcript, or having you on as a guest blogger.
Are you going to add podcasting to your business? It’s definitely something worth considering.
Of course, a podcast is only a small part of any online business; the primary concern is to get visitors to your business and then to convert them from visitors into buyers.
If you want to know more about converting visitors into buyers, check out the featured resource below for a free Conversion Boost report; download, read it and take action 😊
