Marketing Systems and Automations to Grow Your Self-Publishing Career

DIY MFA Team — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 12:30:00 +0000

As an independent author, you’re more than the person who writes words in a novel. Once you choose to go the self-publishing route, you inadvertently choose to also become a self-employed entrepreneur. As such, you now wear every hat for all the departments of your business.

This includes wearing the marketing and sales hats.

This may seem terrifying, but it’s not as daunting as you may think. While marketing your books and bookish products for your career may be laborious, it doesn’t have to be painstaking. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my journey as a career, independent author, it’s this:

Systems and automations will get you far.

Believe it or not, some of your favorite 6, and 7, figure-earning authors have no team. No staff. Just independent contractors and vendors they use every now and again to get certain projects done. Aside from that, they’re able to get almost everything in their business done themselves.

How?

Through tight, and highly efficient, systems, and automations.

Being an author doesn’t have to overwhelm you. Especially not the publishing and marketing bits. In this article, I’m thrilled to share some of the systems and automations I have in place that help me automate the majority of my business so I can easily market, focus on writing more books, and serve my readers, all while growing my publishing career.

Canva: Content and Product Creation

Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. Use it to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more.

I’m not afraid to admit, I swear by Canva. Truly. I use this tool for just about everything in my author business. From creating social media graphics I use on Instagram, to videos I create for book trailers, to branding materials like logos for my business, and even printed materials like character art and stickers.

It’s a great all-in-one media design tool. Canva will help you create the posts for the social platform of your choice, and even help you create what you need for more personal touches when fulfilling orders for your readers.

Also… did I mention it’s free? I can’t recommend Canva enough. Give it a try and see how it helps do wonders for your author business.

Preview: Social Media Scheduling

Preview is an Instagram Planner that helps you easily plan your posts, Reels, IGTVs, and Instagram Stories. Find the best hashtags, caption ideas, presets, analytics, and more.

Once upon a time, it was said that content is king. Well. I think we could all agree, in today’s online climate, the new king is automation. I personally focus strictly on Instagram to grow my author business socially, so Preview is my go-to tool to schedule all of the content I create.

It’s great because you get a high-level view of your feed so you can see what your Instagram page will look like when your posts go Live. Preview also allows you to do this magical thing called, “auto-post”. This makes content 100% easier. You add the content in, you schedule it to post, and you don’t have to worry about it anymore.

Whether you schedule content for next week, next month, or even next year, once it’s there, you can forget about it, and use up that mental space on greater priorities in your business.

Lintr.ee: Social Media Conversions

Linktree is a tool that allows you to create a personalized and customizable page that houses all the important links that you want to share with your audience.

Never let the internet fool you into thinking that clicks are more important than conversions. What I mean by this is, if you have 10,000 followers, but only get 10 people who buy your books, then your business is only as powerful as the 10 buyers.

This is why conversions are incredibly important, and the easiest way to increase them is to remove distractions. Linktree helps do just that. It provides a link readers can click on and see all the different ways they can connect with you.

My favorite way to use Linktree is when promoting my current upcoming release, pushing readers to my newsletter, and making it easy to get to my website. Some authors share many links to their books, promotions, and more. As for me, I typically have no more than five links. Again, because conversions matter. The less there is to click, the easier it becomes for a reader to reach checkout.

Omnisend: Email and Text Marketing

Omnisend is an omnichannel marketing automation platform for growth-focused eCommerce businesses. Omnisend allows you to add several channels to the same automation workflow for seamless communication via email, SMS, web push notifications, and more.

If you don’t have an email list, you’re playing a highly dangerous game in business. At the end of the day, followers we have on any kind of platform, whether it be a social one like Instagram, or a search engine one like Pinterest, are not followers we own. If we lose access to those platforms, we thereby also lose access to those audiences we’ve built up.

This is why it’s incredibly important to build an email list. And these days, you also need a text list, too. We are increasingly on our phones for business, and everyday life. Reaching your readers where they are is directly tied to the backbone of your business. Omnisend makes growing both your email, and your text list, easy.

You get access to important data, have the ability to see what’s actually working, what’s converting, and what’s bottlenecking your business. It is one of the best tools I could recommend for you to invest in immediately for your author career.

Notion: Planning and Scheduling

Notion is a project management and note-taking software platform designed to help members of companies or organizations coordinate deadlines, objectives, and assignments for greater efficiency and productivity.

You’ve heard it said, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. There are many tools online for you to use when it comes to fleshing out your publishing schedule, writing out your marketing campaigns for email and social media, and also writing out tasks so you meet your goals and deadlines.

Recently, the tool that has made planning and scheduling easy for me is Notion. From tables, to checklists, to options for importing images, videos, spreadsheets, and more, it has taken my author business to the next level.

Sometimes all your career needs is one right decision that will take you in the direction success lies. Notion is a project management tool, and for authors, it’s invaluable. I highly recommend giving it a go to propel your authorial career.

Now that we’ve discussed some phenomenal tools to assist you in your self-publishing career, tell me: Which of these do you plan to use?

Stephanie BwaBwa is the Jesus-centered, YA Fantasy Author and Entrepreneur, creator of fantasy world Elledelle, and Co-Host of the Indie Author Lifestyle Show, who’s enjoying building a legacy through the lens of story. You can usually catch her going for a walk through a park, or simply binging Disney+ with too many snacks. Get in contact with Stephanie directly at stephaniebwabwa.com or follow her on Instagram or Goodreads.