Getting a book noticed in 2023: Tips from a digital marketer

A white illustrated line drawing of a stack of books, with a megaphone next to it

If a book is published and no one is around to read it, does it actually exist? 

Okay, perhaps that’s in poor taste. But you get my point. Millions of books are published globally each year. 

Millions. 

Think about how many of those books slip through the cracks (aka flop), failing to get the recognition they deserve. It doesn’t matter how good the writing is, or how compelling the story. The simple fact is, if people don’t know about something, they can’t buy it. They can’t read it. They can’t even add it to their wishlist. 

Book marketing, like all marketing, is about getting your book noticed. There are numerous ways to do this, but here are my top four book marketing tips:

1. Know your audience (and go where they already are)

Yes, books have a wide appeal, and many readers will buy books from a variety of genres. But taking the time to properly define your target audience will enable you to market your book much more effectively.  

The easiest way to do this is to put yourself in your reader’s shoes. For example, if you’re working on a crime fiction book, take the time to find the various different crime fiction reader communities that exist (spoiler alert: there’s a lot). 

Almost every social media channel will have groups and/or a selection of dedicated hashtags relating to crime fiction. A quick search for #crimefiction is all you need to get started (or more generally, #BookTok, #Bookstagram and #BookTwt). On Facebook, filter your search by “Groups” to find a whole host of book community and book club groups.  

Join these communities and follow those hashtags to find out what the community is talking about; what are they sharing? What content formats do they prefer? What type of language do they use? 

The insights you glean will be invaluable for understanding who your target audience really is and how best to market to them. Using a social listening tool can help to make this more manageable. Most social scheduling tools (such as Hootsuite) include this service or offer it as an add-on. 

At BookMachine Creative Agency, we like to develop Audience Personas to help us define our target audiences. These are fictional profiles that represent a group of similar people, backed up by our own research and data.

Example Audience Persona

Example Audience Persona. Sally Smith, 28, Sales Manager. Favourite book genres: Crime, Thriller, Historical Fiction. Buying methods: Online, In-store, swaps books from friends. Books read per year:20. Favourite format: Paperback. Social Media: Instagram, Twitter, TikTok
  • Name: Sally Smith
  • Age: 28
  • Job: Sales Manager
  • Favourite Book Genres: Crime, Thriller, Historical Fiction
  • Books read per year: 20
  • Buying methods: Online (Waterstones, Amazon), In-store (Waterstones, local bookshop, charity shops). Also swaps/borrows books from friends.
  • Favourite Format: Paperback
  • Social Media: Instagram, Twitter, TikTok

This step is key, because marketing is not about putting your book in front of lots of people. It’s about putting your book in front of people who will actually buy it

Once you have your audience personas, it will be much easier for you to create marketing campaigns that will resonate and appeal to your specific target audience(s). 

2. Stand out from the crowd

When it comes to marketing, we often keep a close eye on our competitors, and strive to out-bid, out-pitch and out-perform them. 

But when you are marketing on social media, you’re not just competing against other books and publishers. You’re also competing against a whole host of other brands and businesses. 

Look at the various ads that appear in your own social media feeds – you might see ads for fashion products, beauty brands, pet products, etc. They are not directly competing with each other in terms of what they are selling, but they are all competing against each other for your attention.

And if that isn’t enough, you’re also competing against family and friend updates (the foundation of social media), celebrities, international news, and much more.

Your post or ad has only a fleeting moment to catch someone’s attention as they are scrolling through their feed. But how can you make sure you stand out? 

Start by thinking about the last piece of brand/business content that caught your attention in your own leisure time. Then use your Audience Personas to think about what will stand out against everything else in their feed

How to stand out

Standing out is more than just bright colours, catchy headlines and stunning visuals (although these all help). It’s about breaking the mould and thinking outside the box. 

  • Think about all the typical book posts you see – what can you do differently? Can you adopt a different format? A different tone of voice? A different visual? This is the time to be creative!
  • Take inspiration from brands and businesses outside of the book or publishing industry who are targeting a similar audience to you. What’s working for them?
  • Understand how the social media algorithms work – and work with them; not against them. Knowing which formats are preferred and how the algorithm prioritises content in their feeds will help to give you an edge over those who churn out content hoping it will stick.

3. Work smarter, not harder

Unless you have a dedicated team and budget, it’s unrealistic to do everything at once (even if you would like to). So you have to prioritise. 

It’s common to see brands and businesses with accounts on every major social media platform, no doubt in an attempt to reach as many people as possible. But let me reiterate my point above: marketing is about putting your book in front of people who will actually buy it.

It’s about reaching the right people

Go back to your audience personas, and focus your efforts on the channels that make the most sense. I’m going to hazard a guess that crime fiction fan readers are going to be more abundant on TikTok and Instagram than on LinkedIn (don’t take this as fact: do the research!). 

If this was true, then crafting content for LinkedIn is going to be much less effective. So why bother? Instead, focus your efforts on TikTok and Instagram.

A side note on Instagram

#Bookstagram walked so #BookTok could run. It was the O.G. for bookish communities, bloggers and influencers. 

But a lot has changed, and not for the better (at least, for marketers). In 2022, Instagram announced big changes to its algorithm, focusing more on video and recommended content. This was met with a fierce backlash from users (including the Kardashians), causing Instagram to backtrack and pause its planned updates. 

Despite this, the introduction of Reels (Instagram’s attempt to copy TikTok) has resulted in a major decline in the reach and engagement levels of standard grid posts. 

Instagram marketing is now much harder than it used to be. It’s not impossible, but Reels are now essential for any growth strategy (as explained in this hilarious, but spot on article). 

Influencer Marketing

There is no denying the power of influencer marketing, when done right. It’s not just good marketing, it’s smart marketing. It takes time to grow a large and engaged audience, but by partnering with influencers who have already achieved this, you’re saving yourself a lot of time. 

The trickiest part is finding the right influencers to work with. It’s not just about follower counts. It’s about their levels of engagement with their followers, the type of content they share and create, and their overall vibe. (It’s a hard-to-measure but equally important metric. Just trust me.)

It’s important to treat influencers as partners and offer them something that makes sense for them and their followers. Once you’ve found the right partners, you can make magic. 
Our TikTok influencer campaign for Thames & Hudson helped the book to reach #1 in the bestseller charts. And, by combining influencer marketing with advertising, we recently achieved huge ROI for Little, Brown.

4. Co-ordinate your efforts

The “Rule of Seven” is an old marketing concept from the 1930s. It says that a person needs to see or hear something at least 7 times before they are likely to take any action. 

In 2023, with shorter attention spans and an overwhelming barrage of constant marketing and media, it’s even more important to make sure your book is seen and shared multiple times. 

By coordinating your marketing efforts, you can help to create that craved ‘buzz’ for your book. To get your book “trending”, you need everyone to be posting and talking about your book, at the same time. Because there’s nothing quite like seeing all your favourite book bloggers posting about the same book, to give you serious FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

This is not a contradiction to what I said earlier. This is not about marketing to everyone. You should still focus on the right audience and the right channels, but by coordinating your campaigns you are more likely to make the biggest impact by increasing the likelihood that your target audience will see your book multiple times within a period of time.

In summary, making your book stand out in 2023 (and beyond) requires a strategic approach to your digital marketing efforts. But the key step is to fully research and understand who your target audience is, and use this information to determine how best to reach them, working smarter (not harder). To make the biggest impact, coordinate your marketing efforts to increase the visibility of your book over as many relevant channels and touchpoints as possible. 

Can BookMachine can help your business?
If you’re looking for support with your own book marketing, find out more about our Creative Agency solutions, or get in touch for a chat.

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