[Guest Expert] Ely Delaney: The 3 Ms of Book Marketing

As an author, you need to market your book to get your message out there. That’s why you wrote the book, right? To share your message with the world?

So why do so many authors (and other entrepreneurs) shy away from marketing?

I do a lot of speaking and I tend to ask the question “How many of you love marketing?”

Very few people raise their hands.

When I ask why, I get a laundry list of reasons like:

• It’s scary
• Don’t know where to start
• Don’t want to sound like a sleazy salesman
• I tried XYZ and it didn’t work, so I’m no good that it

And the list goes on…

Marketing is About Getting Your Message Out There

I’m going to assume you have a message and a mission to add value to the world. If not, then why would you put the hard work in to writing your book?

Marketing is not scary or sleazy. It’s about sharing your given gift with as many people as you can to add value to their lives. That’s it!

If you think about marketing from that mindset it becomes a whole different creature.

It’s not scary or bad. It’s a 180 shift from your old way of thinking and can be a lot of fun.

Think of marketing as three modes or sections…

Mindset

Your mindset is your positive attitude towards marketing.

If you think marketing is bad, guess what… You won’t sell many books.
If you think you can’t learn marketing and it’s scary stuff… again, you won’t sell many books.

You have to change your mindset first.

Remember, Marketing is just the way you share your message with the world to add value to others’ lives.

Method (AKA Strategy)

As an entrepreneur, you don’t have to push all the buttons, but you need to understand what buttons to push in what order and at what time.

You have to have a plan and a strategy to get your book out there. Who’s your target? Where do they hang out? What referral partners (Joint Ventures) can you connect with, etc.

As the saying goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

I love mind-mapping out the big picture of my strategies and tactics. Once you brainstorm the big picture, you can move to the next phase…

Mechanics (AKA Tactics)

These are the tactics to use to get the word out there. These are the buttons. Networking, speaking, Facebook, advertising, websites, etc. These are the tactics.

This is the part people generally get stuck on. They try to do too many tactics without mastering any one of them. Many times they get pushed to one tactic because somebody persuaded them that it’s the “next great thing.”

The great thing about this is that as long as you have the first two modes figured out, the third is actually pretty easy. It’s just pushing buttons. Some of it can be automated. Some of it can be outsourced. Some you can even skip altogether because if you have your methods planned out, you will know which mechanics won’t actually be a good choice for you anyway.

Think of the three marketing modes as your 3000-foot GPS view telling you the best path for you to get from where you are to where you want to be.

About the Author

Ely Delaney is the Co-Founder, Dean and Lead Trainer at Your Marketing University, a marketing education company designed specifically to help teach motivated entrepreneurs and business professionals how to take control of their marketing, online and offline. Ely has been in the marketing and multimedia design world since 1996 and is dedicated to helping businesses achieve their marketing goals without the need for expensive advertising agencies.