It’s never too late to create your author marketing game plan for 2025. Even though it’s now April, ensure you invest time into your marketing strategy and don’t forget about it.
Today, we will go over new marketing strategies, how to utilize social media, and how to improve your book marketing strategy overall. Let’s make 2025 your best year yet as an author and sell some books!
Are you ready to dive into today’s topic? Let’s do it!
Here’s everything that should be included in your 2025 book marketing strategy.
As always, social media is at the top of this list of tips, tricks, and recommendations because it’s the easiest and most popular way to connect with new ideal readers and interact with your community.
If you’ve struggled to really grow your social media platforms in 2024, I have a few tips for you:
1. Focus on One Platform at a Time
TikTok and Instagram, like last year, will be the most popular platforms to post on and the two I usually recommend to authors (especially fiction authors) to be on. Choosing which one to focus on growing depends on your book. If it’s non-fiction, ask yourself if the topic is trending. That’s a good indicator of whether TikTok will work well for you. Topics that are trending are dating, side hustles, travel, etc. Fiction books, like romance and fantasy, also perform well on TikTok, so I would consider that. However, Instagram has a broader audience and allows you to build long-term connections with ideal readers through comments and DMs.
TikTok can be fun because it provides more opportunities to go viral than Instagram, which has lower organic reach and limited virality due to the inconsistent algorithm. TikTok content has a shorter lifespan than Instagram content, and trends come and go quickly. Still, if you dedicate your social media energy to keeping up with the algorithm and the plethora of trends, you have a good chance of finding some success!
2. Experiment with Different Types of Content
Experimenting with different types of content is essential because you might be holding yourself back from finding success on social media! Don’t just share pictures of your books or selfies; branch out to sharing day-in-the-life vlogs and even participating in funny (but relevant) trends. If you’re not sure what type of content to try creating, here are a couple of ideas to spark your creativity:
- Take a look at your Explore/For You Page…What types of videos are coming up? Is there any way you can recreate them?
- Search for authors who write in the same genre as you and have a generous following…What are they posting? What posts of theirs get the most engagement?
- Visit your own Instagram or TikTok page…What posts reached the most followers and non-followers? What posts got the most engagement? These will be posts you can recreate.
3. Set Realistic Goals and Check In Often
How will you know if your new strategies work if you don’t set goals and check in often? I recommend coming up with the following social media-related goals so you can keep tabs on your progress:
- How many followers do you want to gain after 3 months?
- How many posts do you want to share per week?
- How many link clicks to your website, newsletter signup, etc., do you want to see per month?
4. Build That Email List
Unlike social media, which is constantly changing, an email list is a constant way to connect and communicate with your ideal readers. You can directly communicate when you have a new release or a book sale and build your community more engagingly and intimately. I highly recommend you take time before or at the start of the New Year to pick an email marketing platform (MailChimp and MailerLite are excellent for beginners) and start building your email list. My January mid-month newsletter may dive into author newsletters and what to include, so stay tuned!
5. Plan Your Seasonal Marketing Campaigns Now
Valentine’s Day, Easter, summer, next Christmas…start planning your seasonal marketing now! Whether it’s a book sale or giveaway, take some time to plan how you will utilize certain holidays to promote your book. These holidays are easy excuses to talk about your book, so whether it’s posting on social media or running an ad, don’t miss out on them!
6. Develop a Monthly Marketing/Content Calendar
A monthly marketing/content calendar will help you stay organized and ensure you are keeping up with marketing efforts. These calendars must include social media content, advertisements, book promos, blog posts, etc., so you can keep track of everything you do to promote your books.
7. Engage with Your Readers
Make this the year where you will prioritize engaging with your readers. Spend 10 minutes daily responding to comments, liking and commenting on photos, and growing your community of ideal readers. This is important for increasing your social media presence and turning followers into readers. Don’t overlook this!
8. Push for Book Reviews
Increasing your Amazon and Goodreads reviews for your books should be a top priority this year. The more reviews you have, the easier it will be for new readers to find your book. But how do you get more reviews? Here are a few ways you can do this:
- Join review sites like BookSirens and BookSprout.
- Invest in a review blog tour.
- Reach out to reviewers and influencers.
If you’re ready to take your author marketing game to the next level this year, check out my Social Media Management and Author Coaching services.
Zoe Mathers Creative 