How to Leverage Local Marketing for Book Promotion
Here’s how you can market your book locally — no matter where you are
Authors want to spend their time writing. But today, the job comes with promotion efforts if you hope to engage your audience and sell your book. Bestsellers don’t happen on their own anymore. They’re created through targeted book marketing.
If you’re learning how to market your novel, you’re probably thinking about finding where your readers hang out. Meeting your audience where they are will produce better results than blasting your book all over the internet.
Okay, but how? Three words: targeted local marketing.
Local marketing strategies involve getting your product in front of people near you. You can use it as a book marketing tactic to get your novel in front of your audience. These marketing tips allow you to engage with new, potential readers in your area and convert them into diehard fans.
In this article, I’ll show you the best local marketing strategies you can use both in-person and online. Use these tips to grow your audience and sell more books.
The best local marketing strategies to use in-person
If you have the opportunity to get in front of your readers in a physical space, go with in-person marketing. It allows you to get your face in front of a local market and interact with people on a truly personal level.
Sign up for speaking engagements
You may be surprised at how many speaking engagement opportunities you can find nearby. Many authors do book readings, talk about writing in the genre, or discuss a bigger (but related) issue.
Speak about your book or a related topic at libraries, book stores, or your local chamber of commerce. Check for book or writing clubs, or find meet-up groups on your book’s topic. Local bookstores are also likely to host a book release party for you.
Other possible venues for speaking engagements include:
- Book fairs
- Coffee shops
- Cooperative workspaces
- Community centers
- Conferences
- Churches
- Daycares
- Festivals
- Hospitals
- Rehab centers
- Retirement homes
- Senior centers
- Specialty stores
- Trade shows
Reach out to local newspapers and news sources
The media is an influential force in local marketing. Contacting traditional press sources near you could help you increase the amount of attention surrounding your book.
Call or email local newspapers, radio shows, and other news sources to see if they’re interested in interviewing you. This is a powerful strategy if your book takes place in the setting.
If you want to take this strategy to the next step, try using the media to help promote a book launch event or speaking engagement. The follows you gain using this method often participate more.
You could also write articles for magazines in your genre or submit guest posts to related websites online.
Sponsor a team or event
Chances are your area has sports teams or events looking for sponsors. Partnering up with a local source is an excellent way to forge personal connections.
Like speaking engagements, you can host an event to talk about your brand, book, or genre. Events can take place in person or online. In fact, webinars are a popular way to host an event in the comfort of your home.
Libraries are also highly beneficial for authors who want to showcase their books. You can visit or email local librarians to see if they’re interested in hosting an event within their branch.
Sponsoring sports teams are a less common approach for writers. You may want to try this strategy if your book relates to sports. However, it’s a great way to give back to your community and gain recognition locally.
Educate aspiring writers at schools near you
Writers are typically enthusiastic readers. They can be influential fans, buyers, or become followers of your work — especially if you interact with them.
Give back to other aspiring writers by sharing some of the information you’ve learned over the years. You could teach a short writing class/workshop, give tips on publishing, or talk about an issue that your book addresses, such as climate change or racism.
Possible venues include:
- Elementary, middle, or high schools
- Community colleges
- Universities
Get involved with non-profit activities
If your book goes hand-in-hand with your activism efforts, participate in rallies or social welfare organizations.
Fantastic examples of this strategy in action include Hanna Lee’s The Ones Who Misbehave or Alicia Garza’a The Purpose of Power. Both women are highly involved in raising awareness about racism. Their books and social media channels touch on their activism and experiences.
You can also partner with organizations or clubs related to the cause your book addresses. Find ways to volunteer and become a part of the community.
For a bonus, donate a percentage of your profits to help support your cause.
How to use local online marketing strategies
The pandemic has changed the way many people interact. The book world has especially moved to an online platform for the time being, but I think local online marketing strategies are here to stay.
Localize your website
A website is one of the best tools for book promotion, but did you know you can take steps to localize your site?
Website localization is all about adapting your site to a specific audience. Your audience may not always live near you, so you would adjust your content to reach consumers in their language and preferences for this technique.
Create an author website if you have not done so yet. Write your content using simple terms. Next, consider the regions and languages your audience commonly uses.
You can use this information to create localized SEO campaigns, personalizing your site to a new location. Find where your audience lives and complete keyword research to target them based on the area. Think about the translation differences here. And if you only know English, consider using a translation service.
Then, you can use unique URLs for each localized portion of your site to boost your rankings and reach new locations without altering your current home page.
Get involved with company or influencer newsletters
Does your story or message relate to current events? Email newsletters are a profitable way for your readers to connect with your book. There’s a reason they say “the money is in the list.”
Reach out to companies or influencers with a similar message to see if they’ll promote your book in their newsletter. Ask big names in the industry for book endorsements or a feature. Many businesses will at least have advertising opportunities to promote your book.
And if you don’t already have a newsletter of your own, sign up for a free service like Mailchimp and start collecting emails. Building your list takes considerable time, but it’s the easiest marketing method.
Advertise your book online
Run ads for your book online. Use free or paid advertising opportunities to get more recognition. The more people see your book, the more fans you gain.
Submit your author website or ad to third-party websites, directories, review sites, genre-specific blogs, or related organizations. Look for large sites with book recommendations, like Goodreads.
And try to promote your paperbacks on other websites, like local bookstores, rather than sending readers straight to your Amazon ebook. Ebooks are popular in recent years. However, you can offer a free PDF for buyers to start reading while they wait for the physical copy to arrive.
Use social media location tags
Social media is excellent for promoting your book to potential readers and followers alike. These channels allow you to engage your audience, and participation can be highly valuable.
Select two social media sites where your content does well. Focus your attention on these sites and use location tags whenever possible. Posting your content with location tags allows people near you to find your book or event.
For example, adding location tags is simple with Instagram. Tag your location in your posts, or use the location sticker option in your Stories.
And don’t forget to change the location tag based on where you are. If you go on a book tour, you could tag the location of each stop. The same goes for any speaking engagements. You can also change the location to an area your book is based on.
Join local virtual events to network
Reach your audience by going where they hang out. Attending local events is a tactic you could do in-person or online. But after COVID-19, many writing or publishing events are held online.
You can sign up for these events to network with readers and other people in the industry. Use it as an opportunity to distribute information about your book or hand out business cards (if you attend in person).
Look for online book tours, book publishing events, and writer’s conferences. Most importantly, look for virtual events from your local bookstores. For example, Poor Richard’s is a bookstore near my home in Colorado Springs with regular author events.
Many of these sources will also be open to speaking engagements.
Supporting local authors
Readers and many businesses want to support local authors. Using any of the above book marketing techniques can help you build relationships and partnerships locally — but the benefits extend way beyond sales! You can form a long-term rapport with like-minded people.
So what are you waiting for? Propose win-win, local opportunities to partner up with others today.
