Up to this point, a lot of what we’ve discussed has been broad strokes, a concept approach, if you will. It’s essential to lay the groundwork before you can start really applying the work itself into a viable marketing plan that have executable steps attached. So now it comes to it, creating a marketing plan for your author brand and most importantly, sell what you’re offering.
The first step in a marketing plan is to go to the last step of your consumer. What end goals do you have for your marketing? If you’re aiming to get published, but have no products to sell yet, a short-term end goal could be raising awareness of your online presence. No matter what, if you’re a writer, the primary end goal should always be to sell your writing. However, you may find that you have secondary goals that will help support the primary goal. Secondary goals may be to increase Twitter followers, or to get X amount of short stories published before submitting your full-length novel.
If you’ve decided self-publishing is your desired route, then it may be that you want to have X amount of dedicated blog subscribers to increase the odds of more fan loyalists and dedicated readers to ensure initial sales are higher than blind publishing.
Let’s say you’re ready to pull the trigger, well then, what goals will your website to help sell? Are you planning print/digital/audio versions?
This is where you have to make actual, strategic decisions based on where you are in your writing, representation (if that’s even a part of your strategy).
So the first series of questions to answer in creating a marketing plan are below:
- What is the primary goal in marketing my writing career?
- What are secondary marketing goals that will help me achieve my primary goal?
- What are some hurdles that must be overcome to reach this primary goal?
- What short-term marketing goals will help me overcome these hurdles?
Answer these four questions, and then you’ll be able to tackle next week’s topic on strategy to accomplish your goals.
What else would you like to see in a marketing plan? Chime in with the comments section. The conversation’s always live on Twitter @ThomasAFowler, use the hash-tag #WritersConquest. As always, keep checking my official website for the latest updates. Thanks so much for taking on the Writer’s Conquest.
THE WRITER'S CONQUEST 
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