The Literary Entrepreneur Blog

Content Marketing: What Value Do You Bring To Readers?

by Tyora Moody

You may or may not have heard the term “content is king.” In recent years, there has been a movement among internet marketers that has been coined “Content Marketing.” Or at least it seemed like something new to me, but as  I dug deeper I realized I’ve been a “content” person all along… I just didn’t have a name for it. LOL!

Now some of the strategies that internet marketers deploy, I don’t think applies very well to an author, especially when you’re trying to market fiction. I do think it’s a good idea to study the industry. Marketers are continuously trying to drive traffic back to their websites with the goal being to capture a new lead or customer. Authors are always trying to attract new readers as well as keep loyal fans.

So, What is Content Marketing?

The Content Marketing Institute states “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Now another term to throw at you, would be “Inbound Marketing.” I first heard “Inbound Marketing” from HubSpot a few years ago. They were the first company that I saw investing a lot of time into blogging, social media and providing all types of cool content as free downloads in exchange for your email. Being an author, I started to see the value in offering cool content to my readers. In the quest to attract readers, it becomes really important to stand-out with something unique… that’s probably going to be some type of content.

Many authors spend a lot time posting “Buy My Book, Buy My Book” messages on Facebook or Twitter, making it obvious they’re more interested in getting the sales and/or commission. Now don’t get me wrong, obviously if you put a lot of effort into a book, you want to see some profit.  With so many authors and books to choose from, what can you do to attract readers on a consistent basis?

Whether the reader has a desire to improve a skill, be inspired or just to have a story that carries them away from the world for a few hours, the idea is for your  books to appeal to something that reader is seeking. As a literary entrepreneur, your marketing goal is to figure out that sweet spot where you’re marketing with the emphasis on “How This Book Can Serve Your Needs?”

So How Do you Find this Sweet Spot for Providing Value?

As I started to explore more about “Content Marketing,” I discovered I had been doing some of this content-driven marketing for years.  Content marketing is basically when you create valuable content for others to consume in one or more of the forms below:

  • Blogging
  • Podcasting
  • Video marketing
  • Short-form, information eBooks (could be short stories or flash fiction for fiction authors)
  • Email Newsletters
  • Social media marketing
  • Slideshares or Presentations
  • Graphics and Infographics

Looking at this list, I bet you have tried some of these forms of content marketing too. The thing is as the author YOU are one person so you can’t do all of these, but you can focus on at least one and dedicate time to that type of marketing.

Having valuable content is really essential to building a platform. It also provides you something more interesting to post on social media than the typical, “Buy My Book” post.

So, what are you doing to bring value to your readers?