The Ugly 'Finish Line' Truth About Agency Owners Who Write Books

Would you like your business to grow by 50 percent>

Then never forget that books don’t promote agency owners; agency owners promote books.

This is true for everyone in the business of selling their expertise, including strategic consultants, executive coaches, and professional service business owners who market with a book.

The ugly truth is we agency owners never get discovered. Publishing the book is the starting line, not the finish line.

An author who writes a book to promote their agency needs to shine the spotlight on the book in hopes of gaining buzz.

Just publishing a book is not enough. Authors must work to see that people read and hear about the book.

When it comes to promotion, agency owner Minal Sampat is an immigrant who thinks big. At the age of twenty-eight, she launched her first marketing agency by breaking a Guinness World Record.

Since her book was published, her agency has grown 50 percent.

She attributes many clients coming as a direct result of reading the book.

Born in India, Sampat grew up in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and now resides in the state of Washington with her husband.

In 2020 Sampat used her social media skills to make her book, Why Your Marketing is Killing Your Business and What to Do About It, an international Amazon bestseller.

We met when she asked for editing help with the book.

The dirty little secret of books is that unless you are a celebrity, the publisher expects the author to promote the book. Even if you are a celebrity, the publisher expects the author to do most of the promotion.

Sampat feels the best place to promote a book is to go direct to readers through social media.

Sampat shared how her book marketing campaign was so successful. Here are Sampat’s top ten ways to use social media to create a bestseller:

Start marketing with an intention. “Even if you are trying to simply do brand awareness about the book,” says Sampat.

Learn how the social media algorithms such as Facebook and Instagram work and plan your strategy around it. The more you know, the better your marketing plan will be. “Whatever platform you are most active on, learn the algorithm for that platform,” she says.

Leverage the organic reach by building an audience that would be genuinely interested in your book and topic. Sampat focused on people in business who are readers and liked content about books.

Make your marketing message about them, and not you, by highlighting the readers and spotlighting them in your marketing. “It’s about them, it’s not about you, is the attitude to have,” says Sampat.

Share, share, share. Share content that is attached with the book but can be easily downloaded, such as worksheets, graphs, and checklists.

Continuously show appreciation for the readers and the book. When you focus on connecting and not promotion, you will continue to do better with your marketing. Sampat always highlighted readers on Facebook and Instagram.

She created a dialogue with readers and shared news about their business. “Nobody expected that from a random book they bought,” said Sampat.

More share, share, share. On a weekly basis, share digestible content from the book, such as quotes, lines, and chapter page photos.

Share your journey as an author. Readers want to connect with you. Give them a glimpse “behind the scenes.”

Show off social proof. For example, share testimonials and reviews. Sampat would take screenshots from Amazon reviews to show what people had said.

Always offer book copies at webinars, conferences, and seminars. If you are teaching a course, use the book as required reading. And why not? Shouldn’t students get your best thoughts?

Bottomline: Minal had a big idea to share. What is your big idea? If you could publish a book on any subject, which topic would you choose?