How to use influencer marketing to promote your book

Here’s the deck you can look at over on Slideshare:

Search Engine Marketing, Inc, by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt

Here’s the content from the presentation. For context, I am using six books I have promoted over the last couple years on behalf of their authors: Glock and Law of the Jungle by Paul M. Barrett; Search Engine Marketing, Inc., by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt; Mindful Work by David Gelles; and The Creator’s Code by Amy Wilkinson.

The most important part of the premise of this entire presentation is that I have never been retained by a publisher, only by authors who have taken it upon themselves to span the marketing gap that their publishing house was unable to offer to them. They all took responsibility for the success of their books online with online influencers.

Remember, publishing isn’t the same animal it was even twenty years ago:

The publishing industry has changed in the last decade
With eBooks, self-publishing, and a decrease in traditional book reading, the margins on all but the top-sellers is paper thin
First-time and niche authors have much less support and resources towards book-promotion
Marketing budgets have been slashed or preserved for top sellers and top earners (that’s assuming you can even get a book deal these days)
Unlike advertising or a book tour, there is no barrier to entry to social media
Social media enables both intimate one-to-one relationships with online influencers
Social also enables access to one-to-many and many-to-many social media shares
Influencer marketing allows authors to identify and then engage topically-relevant online influencers and bloggers
Time, talent, and treasure are all you need to support your online “shadow” book launch and book tour
You can do it on the cheap using just your time and talent or you can subscribe to a dedicated blogger outreach platform like GroupHigh with a little bit of treasure
Or, you can open your wallet and either collaborate with an expert or hire a publicist to do the outreach on your behalf (I’m always happy to help)

While social media marketing lacks formal protocol, there are three essentials:

Treat everyone as if they’re a Kardashian: be excited and grateful and don’t take anyone for granted – no matter how little clout (or Klout) — and be willing to lavish time & attention on everyone
Be responsive and follow up more than once: “no reply” doesn’t mean “no”
Provide an exceptional gift: bloggers love bound galleys, they love hardcover copies drop-shipped. They’ll take paperbacks, some prefer Amazon-compatible downloads – but nobody at all loves a PDF attachment

In each of the preceding books, each author was willing to lavish as many books, at much attention, and as much time was as required to make a connection and honor each influencer:

Paul M. Barrett was willing to brave the gun message boards for Glock
Amy Wilkinson hosted a reddit IAmA question and answer session
Mike Moran & Bill Hunt never met an interview they weren’t willing to take
David Gelles took podcast interviews as readily as NPR interviews

Why You Should Reach Further Than the A-List

Top newspapers, journals, celebrity sites, and high-status A-level blogs are highly competitive
Don’t forsake the crème de la crème but don’t only rely on them to fuel your book’s promotion – everyone’s fighting to go to prom with the prom King and prom Queen
If you don’t already have a brand, it’s entirely possible to build a powerful brand from the bottom up: blog by blog, influencer by influencer
Social media goes beyond blogs, Facebook, and Twitter – don’t ignore message boards and specialty sites

Rule #34b – If it exists there IS Blog of it (because of Internet rule #34 – If it exists there IS porn of it)

There’s So Much More than Mommy Bloggers

Paul M. Barrett made best mates with both the pro-gun and anti-gun online – I helped him connect with shooting sport hobbyists on both general sports shooting and Glock-specific message boards for his book Glock
I found David Gelles hundreds of influencers connected with the mindfulness movement, both spiritual and secular
I helped Amy Wilkinson connect with both entrepreneurs and women with the goal of connecting with women entrepreneurs
Mike Moran tapped me to help him and Bill Hunt track down everyone outside of their personal SEO/SEM database of contacts

You Can Run Your Campaign as Cheaply or as Easily as You Want to Do It

For years, I did all of my blogger outreach campaigns using Excel spreadsheets and then Google Sheets
I discovered bloggers using keywords on Google and blog search engines and tracked engagements on those blasted spreadsheets
You can do it cheap and hard or spend a little money to make it easier
I currently use a combination of Google, SDL SM2, InkyBee, and GroupHigh to do my blog and blogger research
I use GroupHigh to manage my outreach campaigns, including contacts & follow-ups

Never forget that every single profile, website, blog, and email address represents a person, a soul, an ego, and a heart. Never lose sight of the fact that you’re reaching out to people and not just reviews, ratings, blog posts, or earned media mentions.