The quickest way to a potential reader’s shopping cart is to touch the heart of another reader. What do I mean by this? Well, according to Status Labs “100 Reputation Management Stats for 2020,” 83% of shoppers don’t trust advertisements, but they do trust online reviews. So you can see why book reviews are the cornerstone of any successful author’s book marketing plan, and why you should always be on the lookout for ways to get new ones. This is not the time to be shy if you want to be successful. It may comfort you to know that Podium reports that 77% of consumers are willing to write a review if asked.
Every good review on Amazon and Goodreads takes you one step closer to a potential sale. But you can also utilize your reviews in other ways. This is where book marketing strategies come in. Below are a few ways to maximize on your current book reviews to ensure they’re working to help sell more books.
1. Turn Your Website into a Love Fest
I’ve been guilty of not updating my website frequently enough in the past, but my team and I have gotten better about continually adding fresh and inviting content to the Author Marketing Experts website. Reviews of our services and of my books are our favorite things to add.
Be creative in the ways you employ excerpts from reviews; sprinkle them throughout the pages. You’ll sell more books when website visitors are continually reminded – through your reviews – how great each of your books is.
2. Use Social Media Expiration Dates to Your Advantage
The thing with social media is that nothing lasts very long. As a general rule, this is a book marketing challenge because you’re always having to make time to post new content. But when it comes to book reviews, this is helpful! Gather several of your favorite reviews and spend an afternoon creating posts that combine a great image with a review snippet. Canva is one of many online options that cater to this exact strategy. You can use the results of your work as part of your regular posting schedule; every time you upload a post, you’ll remind followers and fans how much book reviews mean to you!
3. Update Those eBook Files
One of the easiest ways to sell more books is with your current catalog of books. And not only are eBooks essentially free to update, but it also takes very little time to do so. You can update your back matter with stellar reviews – “Over 100 5 star reviews and counting” – and other standout recommendations. If you have multiple books out, you can use this strategy to lead readers to your other titles in the same genre or series by including some great reviews (and a link of course) for book two in the back matter of book one, and so on.
4. Sell More Books with a Personal Video
If it isn’t already, video should be an important part of your book marketing strategy. Why? Because video content is super unique to its creator. No one else can do what you do on video. A fun way to pair video with book reviews is to create a short video of you reading some of your latest reviews and thanking each reviewer by name. You can do this with Facebook Live or simply record it and upload it to whatever channels you have going for you, including your blog, your social accounts, and YouTube if you have a presence there.
5. Pump Up Your Email Marketing
Most authors have experienced the horror of staring at a computer screen while trying to come up with something clever or meaningful to put in a newsletter. Well, book reviews are a great way to highlight how well your book is doing and to fill space in a meaningful way, especially if you take the time to thank those who have reviewed your book. This is a really effective strategy if you have multiple books because there’s a chance your recipients may not have read all of your titles – yet. Highlighting reviews for different books helps push each of them in a natural, unassuming way.
The Takeaway
As you can see, your book reviews are book marketing gold, and it’s really pretty easy to maximize their impact with a handful of relatively low-stress DIY strategies. If you want to sell more books, shining as many lights as you can on your current book reviews will allow readers to truly see how great your books really are. You put a lot of effort into getting those reviews, so use them to your book marketing advantage!
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Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and Adjunct Professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. To learn more about Penny and AME, visit www.amarketingexpert.com.