The Basics of Influencer Outreach

OUTREACH IS WHERE THE MARKETING MAGIC HAPPENS.

Outreach is exactly what it sounds like, it's getting out in front of people who've never heard of you, but would probably enjoy your book because of their interests. 

You, dear writer, need to be doing the reaching out. You can't wait around for your book to be found. (Well, you can, but you shouldn't expect to move many copies that way.)

Outreach is where authors should be putting 80-90% percent of their marketing energy.

But outreach is kind of a big topic. To help break it down, I've created a 7 step outline for all the components you need to do outreach successfully. We go deep into these steps and put them into practice in my group coaching programs, but I'm going to share the basics them here with you today. 

7 STEPS TO OUTREACH SUCCESS

1. Get Your Mind Right. 
   Outreach is the scariest part of book marketing, but it also has the most impact. You've got to deal with your own fears before (and during) walking this path. Without tackling your mindset as your first step, you may inadvertently sabotage your own efforts either by giving up when things get scary, or coming from a needy, desperate place that will turn off potential readers.

2. Goal Setting
   You'll have far more measurable success when you set goals. Get clear on the amount of outreach you plan to do, and your timeline for doing it, so you don't stall out. Then share your goals and invite people to keep you accountable.

3. Take Aim
   You shouldn't be flailing around trying to tell EVERYONE about your book. You need to target your ideal readers, which means pausing to figure out your ideal reader persona. <-- That's a link to a pretty damn good webinar I created on why and how to create a reader persona. You should watch it.

4. Research
   Now that you know the type of audience you're looking for, it's time to figure out how to find them. This means doing the unglamorous work of scouring the internet to figure out where your target readers congregate and who influences their book buying decisions.

5. Cultivate
   Once you know who holds influence with your ideal readers, it's time to start cultivating a relationship with them. Ideally, when you reach out to an influencer for help promoting your book, it shouldn't be the first time they've ever heard from you.

6. Ask & Follow-up
   To maximize your chances of success, it's important to create a win-win opportunity for both you and the influencer. This means customizing each pitch to make sure it's easy for the influencer to say yes. And if you don't hear back after a few weeks, go ahead and follow-up. It's quicker to follow-up on an ignored pitch than it is to research and write a new one. (But only follow-up once so you don't make a nuisance of yourself.)

7. Deliver
   Once you get a yes, you need to deliver the goods. Whatever you've agreed to provide the influencer, be it a blog post, a podcast interview or a live appearance, you need to go in prepared, professional, ready to delight your influencer's audience and make an elevator pitch that invites them to your email list.

Rinse and repeat those 7 steps until you have the audience size you want—and try to have fun while you're doing it!

You can build the author career you’ve dreamed of without sacrificing your soul - or your writing time. Inside the Happily Ever Author Club, you’ll get access to workshops and resources on how to find and pitch influencers so you finally get your book into the hands of your ideal readers.