These days, Facebook and other social media is flooded by posts from so-called ‘experts’ that promise to boost your visibility as an author and send your book sales soaring. Many of these experts come from Uganda, Kenya, India, or some such place. These posts often have catch phrases such as:

– Your book is amazing! PM me and I will help you gain market visibility.
– What advice would you give to a new author?
– Authors, time to showcase your amazon book cover.
– What challenges do you face as an author?

There are lots more along this line, but you get the picture.

All of them are designed to start a chat through Messenger to get some background from you. Then comes the punch line! This is an offer to send you a contact of someone who helped them boost their sales, or the person will give you a spiel how you can become famous. Regrettably, many authors fall for these tactics, taken in by images of increased sales and royalties without bothering to check the person’s Facebook or LinkedIn profile as the first step. Their page will undoubtedly have lots of catchwords, prominent among them being MARKETING, which should be an alarm raiser. If those words don’t appear, what may be there is ‘Digital creator’, another reason to be wary.

So, what are these marketing campaigns?

These days the most common one is email marketing. When you don’t see any increase in sales, for a hefty price, you will be offered a follow-up using a Sales Funnel Campaign. After weeks where nothing is happening and you want to hand over hundreds of dollars more, the ‘expert’ will roll out the winning Digital Engagement Strategy that uses ‘scarcity-based messaging, and optimized landing pathways’.

This is how these campaigns are pitched to you:

EMAIL MARKETING

Marketer to you:

Having emails from friends and relatives is a great starting point, but truly effective email marketing goes far beyond that. The key is not just having emails but having the right emails-readers who are actively interested in your genre and eager to discover new books like yours. That’s where I come in. I don’t just send random emails; I build a targeted email list of readers who have already shown an interest in books like yours. This means I go the extra mile, reaching potential readers across different countries-people who are not just casual browsers but dedicated book lovers looking for their next great read.

With my email marketing campaigns, I can help grow your subscriber base to 3,000, 5,000, even 10,000+ engaged readers who are eager to hear from you. These campaigns have been proven to boost book sales consistently, as they allow you to nurture an audience that actually wants to buy your books. Beyond that, I also implement sales funnel marketing campaigns, which take readers through a structured journey-from discovering your book to making a purchase. Instead of relying on costly ads that may or may not work, this method ensures that the readers who find you are the ones most likely to convert into paying customers and long-term fans. This approach isn’t just effective-it’s a sustainable strategy that keeps working for you, helping you sell more books without constantly spending money on ads.

This is how I’ll structure your email marketing campaign for maximum engagement and book sales:

1. Building an Email List (No Opt-in Form Needed)
2. Engaging Email Strategy
3. Sample Promotional Email
4. Email Service & Performance Tracking
5. Sales Funnel Campaign – $250 (fully structured to convert subscribers into buyers).

The basic email promotion will run for one month and two weeks, ensuring strong visibility and engagement. After that, we dedicate an additional two weeks to fine-tuning-monitoring results, optimizing email campaigns, and strategically gathering long-term readers. This extended approach ensures your book doesn’t just get temporary exposure but builds a dedicated audience for sustained success.

Within the first three weeks of effort, monitoring, and targeting the right audience, you’ll start seeing an increase in sales, which will continue consistently until the campaign concludes. I might also do an additional week of optimization to maintain momentum and keep sales growing. The only factors that determine the fastest results are engagement, frequency, and content. The stronger these elements are, the quicker you’ll see results. Engagement ensures your audience interacts with the emails, leading to faster conversions. Frequency keeps your book consistently in front of readers, increasing sales opportunities. Content-with compelling subject lines and strong calls to action-drives immediate interest. I’ll make these elements as strong as possible, so we’ll focus on them to generate the fastest results and get your book out there effectively…

SALES FUNNEL CAMPAIGN

Marketer to you:

I employ a sales funnel to guide potential customers through a series of stages, ultimately leading to a purchase. These stages typically include awareness, interest, evaluation, decision, and action, with a focus on converting leads into loyal customers.

Here’s a breakdown of the key stages:

1 – Awareness: This is the initial stage where potential customers become aware of your product or service. This can be achieved through various marketing efforts like advertising, social media, content marketing, and SEO.
2 – Interest: Once awareness is established, the goal is to generate interest in your offerings. This involves providing valuable information, showcasing benefits, and potentially offering lead magnets or opt-in forms.
3 – Evaluation: Potential customers start evaluating your product or service against competitors. This stage involves providing product demos, case studies, or comparisons to help them make an informed decision.
4 – Decision: This is the point where leads are actively considering making a purchase. Persuasive offers, personalized proposals, and engaging sales conversations can encourage decision-making.
5 – Action: The final step is the purchase or conversion, where leads become paying customers.
6 – Loyalty/Customer Retention: The journey doesn’t end with the purchase. Providing excellent customer experience, nurturing relationships, and potentially offering loyalty programs can turn customers into loyal advocates.

Additional considerations:
– Lead Generation.
– Effective sales funnels focus on capturing leads throughout the customer journey.
– Lead Nurturing
– Customer Relationship Management (CRM):

By understanding and optimizing each stage of the sales funnel, I can increase your chances of converting leads into paying customers and building a loyal customer base.

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

Marketer to you:

It can seem like a daunting and lofty idea, especially if marketing budgets aren’t endless, but I want to assure you that my approach is not about overwhelming you with expensive programs or high-risk investments. Rather, it’s about creating focused, practical solutions that provide immediate returns ones that will give you the visibility you need while staying within your budget.

Here’s how I plan to make this work for you, step-by-step:

1 – Budget-Conscious Marketing That’s Truly Impactful
Rather than using a catchphrase like ‘organic’, I will focus on the real tactics that will drive your marketing forward clear, results-driven actions. Whether it’s targeted social media ads, email campaigns, or customized promotions, we will use specific actions that make a tangible difference and deliver measurable results.

2 – Real Social Media Strategy Without the Overwhelm
When it comes to social media, the key is not just posting blindly, but creating targeted, strategic content that speaks to your ideal readers. This is not about ‘likes’, but about building an engaged community. With a clear strategy, we can ensure that each post, interaction, and ad is strategically aligned with your goals increasing visibility and building momentum for your book.

3 – Clear Communication and Transparent Reporting
You’ll never feel like we’re ‘muddling along’. With each step, we’ll have clear goals, measurable results, and ongoing communication. Each month, you’ll receive a report that outlines the performance of our efforts whether it’s ad conversions, engagement, or traffic to your site. We can adjust the plan as needed, making sure it continues to meet your expectations.

4 – Affordable & Scalable Solutions for Your Growth
I achieve a balance between immediate action and long-term success. That’s why I focus on affordable tactics that can grow with you. As your marketing efforts begin to show results, we can scale the strategies further. No risks, just a steady, measured approach to ensuring your book gets the attention it deserves.

Next Steps:

I suggest we start with a customized plan that includes targeted social media campaigns, email marketing, and engagement-building strategies designed to grow your audience without overwhelming your finances. Once we get some momentum, we can explore expanding the tactics further. But here’s the critical point: interest is only step one. The next phase is to turn that interest into real sales. This includes proven conversion elements like segmented follow-ups, scarcity-based messaging, and optimized landing pathways. This is the stage where results typically rise sharply…but only if we act while the interest is still fresh. If you pause with only email marketing, we lose data and momentum. I wouldn’t be encouraging follow-up steps if I wasn’t confident in the outcome, and it’s because I’ve seen campaigns stall at exactly this point…when they were only one or two steps away from real traction.

Back in the real world:

After reading these impressive marketing campaigns, an unwary author will be dazzled and immediately pay whatever the marketer is asking. Not realizing that an initial payment is only the start of a slow process designed to bleed your pocket without any guarantee whatsoever that you will get any sales. What authors need to understand, these campaigns were designed to service businesses, not individuals. An email campaign may work for an author, but it is a very time-consuming and labor intensive effort. So, if you have $10,000 doing nothing, employ a recognized book publicist company that will produce genuine results.

If you don’t have any spare cash, do your own budget self-branding and book marketing.

• Create and Amazon Author Central page.
• Use social media to post about your books and engage with other authors.
• Consider using giveaways on Amazon or Goodreads.
• Promote through newspapers (press kit).
• Explore book signings with local bookstores without generating interest.
• Sell or give your books to libraries.
• Contact radio interviews. Post prepared answers to interview questions to papers, ezines, blogs, etc.
• Run email newsletters.
• Use your website Blog to create posts.
• Make up business cards, flyers, and bookmarks to give away.
• If you can afford it, attend conventions and book fairs.
• If nothing works, there is always that bottle of bourbon or wine to console you.

As I often say to my friends: Writing fills my soul while marketing drains it. Whether you like it or not, every author should do some marketing, or no one will know you exist. However, be VERY WARY of trawling marketing ‘experts’ looking to net and bleed you. NO REPUTABLE marketer will make cold posts on Facebook or other social media seeking your business. When you see such a post, ignore or block it.