Marketing Tips for Authors - AIDA Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 of this series of articles I discussed the benefits of adopting AIDA as part of a marketing approach. Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. With the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter, it is virtually impossible to successfully incorporate all of this in one tweet. In fact, to try and do it is actually, in my opinion, an incorrect use of Twitter. I believe, from an author’s point of view, and it is this angle I am writing from, Twitter should be used for two things. Developing relationships and creating awareness. In this regard only Attention and Interest are applicable to Twitter.

I have seen so many tweets where people are trying to encourage people to buy their book there and then. 'Download my novel from Amazon today for 99 cents'. That's fine so long as other messages are included within tweets, and the pricing message is related to a special offer or price. Use of reviews to promote your books work well. Buyers are more likely to be encouraged by other readers, than a 'buy now' message. Messages like this are from people who don't understand the buying process. We all have a set of scales in our head - one side says 'Costs' and the other says 'Benefits'. It is only when the costs outweigh the benefits, are we likely to buy something. Consider for a moment some of the genres you personally don't like. Even if a book in that genre was offered FREE, as a Kindle download, the chances are you wouldn't download it. The 'cost' now becomes the precious space it would take up on your Kindle, and the time to download it. There is no benefit to be gained, and because the cost now outweighs the benefit, a purchase isn't made. So why would anyone consider buying an unknown book from Amazon, just because it is only 99 cents?

On the opposite side of the coin, if one of my favourite authors, let's take Michael Cordy, as an example, tweeted me to say he has just published a new book and he provided the link, I'd go straight to Amazon and order it. As an author he provides a 'product/brand' which I have a loyalty to, in the same way we all have loyalties to brands, products, authors etc. However, if you hadn't heard of Michael Cordy, and you received the same tweet, the chances are you'd ignore it. So apart from direct contact with a known customer, Twitter should only be used for grabbing attention and creating interest. The 'Desire' and 'Action' needs to be created via your website, because here you are not limited to a word/character count. Use Twitter to get people to your site and create the desire to read your book within the site. Have your link to Amazon (and all the other online shops) next to your book details, together with any special offers you may have for your book(s). I was once told many years ago by a very successful marketing guru - 'If you want to get into my pocket, first you must get into my mind.' In later posts I'll share some tips about websites which I've used in marketing training programmes, and I'll also look at the benefits of using Google Analytics. In the meantime, why not think of some tweets you could use to encourage people to look at your book on your website.