How to Brainstorm a Marketing Plan

It feels like old home week here at the blog with another debut author interviewee returning to guest post. Today we hear from Kathy Nickerson about developing a marketing plan.

How to Brainstorm a Marketing Plan
by Kathy Nickerson

When a potential publisher told me, “We’d like to offer you a contract for your novel, Thirty Days to Glory,” I did the Happy Dance all around my kitchen. Then I read the second sentence: “But first we need to see your marketing plan.”

Right. Let’s see. Where did I put that file? Oh, yeah. Nowhere! Because I don’t have a marketing plan.

Fortunately, what I did have were connections. I prefer to call them friends. One was my close friend, Anna Swartzentruber, of www.ScribblesandScribes.com. Anna and I have worked together for years, and she does all the advertising and outreach for the intentional community where we live. I knew I could count on Anna for lists of media outlets.

I also had a tool chest from a previous mentoring conference with Heart of America Christian Writers Network. During that conference, I learned from veteran magazine editor Eric Reed about how to brainstorm a marketing plan. It went something like this:

My Posse

These are people I actually know and see on a regular basis. They have some ability to help spread the word about my book. They include my family and local friends, people from work, my dentist, my doctor, my banker, or my mechanic. You will have a similar posse. Scribbles & Scribes designed business cards about my book for these folks to post in their businesses or hand to their friends.

My Peeps

This group probably includes my posse, but also people with whom I have mostly a cyber-connection. For me, that is Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers. But you could add Instagram, or Pinterest or any number of other social media connections. I created specific posts and status updates every few days that tied back to my book in some way. I worked hard to give something of value in those posts, not just do a hard sell. (check out www.facebook.com/kathynick for examples)

My Profession

This group includes other bloggers, writers, editors, and artists I either know personally or have worked with in the past. But it went beyond that. At my publisher’s suggestion, I surfed the web and created a list of bloggers who review Christian books. My publisher then put together a pitch asking those bloggers to host me for one day during a specific two-week blog tour before the release of my book. Some bloggers, like the generous Debra L. Butterfield, joined the tour even before they were asked! (Thank you for the compliment, Kathy! I enjoy helping others reach their dreams.)

My Perhaps

This is the list provided by my good friend Anna. If you don’t have an Anna in your life, you will have to do some web-searching and some library-digging to come up with your own. My list includes every radio station, television station, newspaper, and magazine within about a sixty-mile radius of my home. These are people who might be interested in a feature story about a local author with a new book. My publisher wrote and sent a general press release to each one. We tailored some of the press releases to specific audiences, such as my hometown newspaper and the newspapers in which I write community news. (If you don’t have a publisher, you can easily write your own release.)

My Platform

People are not planks, and I never want to stand on someone’s back to sell a book. But I do love to talk to people, especially in large groups with the aid of a microphone. I contacted our local Christian college and asked if they would like to host an evening workshop for beginning writers. It was great fun! Then I signed on to speak at a monthly meeting of our regional writer’s group. When a local church asked if I could help a few writers in their congregation, I suggested we expand it to include other churches in their circle of friends. Once again, Scribbles and Scribes designed a small brochure I can hand to church groups, civic organizations, schools, and others who are looking for someone to speak.

And that brings me full circle, back to you. If you are working on a marketing plan right now, (and I hope you are, even before your book is finished) I’d be glad to help. If you go to my website, www.kathynick.com, and sign up for my free newsletter, then email me through the contact form on the website, I will send you my list of bloggers who review Christian books. Sites like that change all the time, so you’ll need to research each one, but the hyper-links will get you started.

Happy writing!

Kathy Nickerson © 2013

Kathy’s books can be found on Amazon. Start with Thirty Days to Glory.