Social media is a platform that connects millions of people in a single place. Among other sites, Instagram is the most popular one used for product promotion. Now, the question is how to promote books on Instagram effectively so you get the desired results.
Let’s find out.
What is Instagram marketing?
Simply put, Instagram marketing is promoting products and services using the platform Instagram and its features.
In our case, books are the products that need to be promoted.
Therefore, it is essential to understand that Instagram is a tool rather than a separate marketing source in this form.
To understand this concept better, let’s look at the various aspect of the tool and understand how exactly a book is promoted on the site.
Why Instagram Marketing?
Before moving forward with Instagram marketing, you must understand why you should choose it. Among several reasons, here are a few of the most common ones.
Among various social media sites, Instagram is the most popular one. With millions of users across the globe, it is the perfect place to promote a book. In today’s scenario, authors can use Instagram to promote their books.
1. Easy Target Audience
With a large user base, it becomes easier to choose a target audience. As there are a variety of users on Instagram, you can come across people who are more likely to read your book by browsing the site. Then you can target this group as your potential customer and design the promotional advertisement accordingly.
Although seemingly straightforward, this task requires a lot of time and effort. So you need to find out a solution that could help you in the process of determining a target audience for the site.
Simply by analyzing the comments on the post and stories, you can gain insight into the audience. In some cases, it can also be helpful to give great pointers so that the quality of your work keeps up the pace.
You can check out our promotional services for that. They will help you reach the target audience. (Yeah, a bit of self-promotion. Because why not? Haha. But our services indeed can be beneficial and help you.)
2. Partnership with Influencers
Among the users on the site, there are many influencers with a large following base. You, as an author, can accommodate these influencers so that people might get to know about your book.
It is usually found that people follow influencers and celebrities, and the sales for the products they promote are generally high. In addition, using Instagram can increase your readership base as people will be keen to read the book the influencers suggest.
3. Customer Engagement
Instagram enables viewers to leave comments on posts, send messages, and post stories on their accounts.
So using Instagram marketing, you can find out the customer’s response rate, and by engaging and interacting with the customers, you can maximize the sales of your book.
Customer engagement is an integral part of marketing, as it determines the degree of responses, i.e., whether the book has a positive or negative response rate.
4. Users generate content
Often on social media sites, when a person likes your product, they repost it as a recommendation. In other words, word-of-mouth marketing can be used by the readers.
For example, you are an Instagram user who has found a great book on the site and wants to share it with others. So you post a story from your account about how great the book is and recommend it to others. All of your followers will be able to see the post and try the book.
Therefore, this is a form of word-of-mouth marketing where the readers spread the words voluntarily.
Are you an author or a publisher? If yes, then you must check our services for promotions and marketing. They will undoubtedly benefit you.
Drawbacks of Instagram Marketing
Now that you understand why to choose Instagram as a marketing channel, you should also be aware of the drawbacks. This is so that you can make better decisions and see for yourself if it is the best option for the promotion you have.
1. Negative Feedback
The biggest fear an author has about marketing is the negative response from the readers. Although uncommon, there are many cases where the readers cannot understand what the authors want to convey and, as a result, give negative feedback.
I would suggest sometimes you could ignore the facts and other times take them as constructive criticism.
2. Needs continuous Engagement and Activity
Instagram marketing can be time-consuming. It requires a lot of activity and engagement, like posting regularly on stories, commenting back, etc. Infrequent activity can cause readers to lose interest, and contrarily over-engagement can cause them to feel uncomfortable.
A solution for this can be hiring people to do specific tasks. For instance, a marketer can help you with promotional activities, and an intern can take care of keeping up daily with Instagram. But again, all this adds up to a cost. So it is up to you what you are comfortable with.
3. Doesn’t work on Everyone
Instagram’s audience is mostly young, in the age group of 16 – 40. So if you have a book targeted to more of an older audience, like people above 40, it might not work that well on Instagram.
That is why Instagram marketing might not work for everyone.
Hacks to Promote Books on Instagram
Now that you know the pros and cons of Instagram marketing next step is how to make your posts attractive. But before that, here are some exciting hacks that authors use to promote books on Instagram effectively.
1. Instagram Contests/Giveaways
If you use Instagram regularly, you may have heard about authors giving signed copies of their books or gifts to people by holding online contests. All of these are nothing but strategies for book promotion to increase the readership of the book.
Everyone loves free stuff, so when you use the contests, generally, they become curious and want to know what exactly is in the book.
Well, in other words, you can say that a happy customer responds well. If people are attracted to your way of presentation, there will definitely be positive feedback for your book.
2. Show off Photo proofs
Credibility is very important when it comes to promoting books.
As an author, you must make sure you make yourself presentable and credible in front of the audience, as many people are hesitant to buy books and seek social acceptance of the book.
You can repost the acceptance by other readers or feedback or reviews in the form of images on your story. Give the readers proof that your book is fantastic and encourage them to purchase it.
3. Make use of online Influencers
Among the users on the site, there are many influencers with a large following base.
You, as an author, can accommodate these influencers so that people might get to know about your book. This is one of the best and most straightforward ways to promote your books on Instagram.
Using this method, your readership base increases through the platform, as people will be keen to read the book the influencers suggest.
Again you can check out our promotional services for that. They will benefit you.
4. Be Thematic
Be mindful of the occasions around the corner.
For example, if your book’s release date is somewhere around the last week of December and the first week of January. You can make the post remembering Christmas or the New year. While designing the content for promotion, keep in mind if there are any important occasions nearby and accommodate that into the content.
This will help your promotion show up to more people.
5. Schedule your posts
Generally, readers are more likely to respond to authors who post regularly.
So scheduling your post gives you a chance to connect to the readers and increases the positive response rate of your book.
Seems good, right? All you need to do is post a few times a week or a day, and you’ll get the best results.
Well, the reality is a bit different from this—one thing you need to remember while scheduling is not to overdo anything.
For example, posting a few times in a few months is too boring as the readers will lose interest. Similarly, posting a few times daily is uncomfortable and may seem over the top.
So to solve this problem, create a schedule for a few weeks and make sure to follow it.
6. Advertise your content
If you want your post to be recognized and seen by a vast audience, the best way is to advertise your posts. You can select the target age group, countries, and interests and do paid ads on insta.
Choose wisely, as promotion is a continuous process and requires a lot of time and investment.
Tips to Make Your Posts Interesting
At some point, any author who uses Instagram marketing asks themselves a question; how can I make my posts interesting? To answer that question, here are a few tips that you might find helpful in creating a better post for the readers.
1. Use Instagram Carousels
Using a carousel is the best idea for long posts. They keep a user engaged for a comparatively longer time. You can share your knowledge about a certain topic, behind the scenes of your work, or things you enjoy currently, like books, movies, etc. The best way to use the carousel is – to instill curiosity on the first slide and respond to it on the later ones.
2. Use Ready-to-Use Templates
When you look at some Instagram posts, they are very engaging and visually pleasing. They might have a skilled graphic designer working on their feed. So how can you do that? The answer is simple- take the help of templates.
Templates are ready-to-use designs, and you just need to edit them accordingly. Using templates is the best way to save time and create high-quality content for your Instagram.
3. Share Teasers
This tip is for authors who are currently working on their new books. Share your work in progress. This will not only help your current followers remember you and your book; but also bring new followers to your feed.
The teasers can include the genre of the new book, behind-the-scenes, and the date of release. Remember to use the Add Reminder option so that the readers get a notification when your book is released.
Conclusion
Promotions done on Instagram does work, but it requires a lot of patience, time, creativity, and even investment.
I hope this article was insightful enough for you to figure out how to promote books on Instagram effectively.
If you have any queries, ask them in the comment section below. We would love to connect with you.
Are you an author or a publisher? If yes, then you must check our services for promotions and marketing. They will undoubtedly benefit you.
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