I feel like I need some kind of plan to move my writing career forward but I hardly know where to begin. What would a marketing plan for a serious author look like anyway?
Can you get 3000 likes without advertising? Can you do it within 4 weeks?
The answer should be a resounding YES!
Now you may be thinking, right, like I can do that without advertising the heck out of my fan page. The truth is that anyone can do it as long as you have the right tools in place.
So let’s talk about how to use planning effectively to achieve amazing results.
- Set a goal. According to Yogi Berra, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Nothing is further from the truth when it comes to setting a goal for your social media networks. Our goal at Author’s Success Guild was to have 5000 followers in the first year. Although that sounds small and big at the same time, we also included a goal of not using advertising as we wanted only people that are not just responding to an ad but only those that really wanted to be a part of our page. Less than a year later, we are almost there, only a few more weeks and our goal will be accomplished.
- Plan content a year in advance. This does not mean you have to write or produce the content, it simply means that you want to have everything planned out before you write a word. Use a spreadsheet or tools such as OneNote to create a planning grid. We use theme-based content to organize our work. Once the themes and topics for each theme are in place (we do twelve themes for a year with a minimum of twelve topics for each theme), you can then review your plan and make changes quite easily.
- Plan your action items for your content. What calls to action do you want to use and when? Add a column to your spreadsheet and add these to your plan. If your call to action could be as simple as LIKE my page. You can add others such as Join our Mailing List, or Enter a Contest. The choice is yours. By adding items to your plan, you will be sure to complete the task.
- Plan your hashtags and keywords. Research the keywords you will be using to attract readers. Do it through using the right hashtags and writing content that uses a maximum of three keywords. Know what these are ahead of producing any content. The more you know about your perfect reader, the easier it is to attract them to your page.
- Follow your plan! Although we have not added a lot of the budgeting, operations, or other normal things to the plan, we have a plan for our content to achieve a defined goal. Now is the time to follow that plan.
- Write content that is shareable. Your content needs to spark emotions that inspire the reader to say, “Wow, I have to share this with my followers, and friends.”
- Finally, start by writing at least two months of content to begin the process.
