Written by Are you getting your promotion ducks in a row? Do you know that testimonials are near the top of the pre-marketing you need to do before you publish? Here’s a few quick tips to get you started.
1. Start early.
Plan for testimonials as you write your chapters. Mention or quote an author, a top person in your niche you used for research, or a celebrity interested in your book’s message. Start a list of these influentials and Google for their website and email. Send them a request to see the chapter you mentioned them in and be a peer editor to make sure it’s right. After receiving a note of their interest or feedback, ask them if they’d like to get the whole book for a testimonial.
2. Build your list of influential contacts.
Make friends with these people. This is what marketing is all about. Visit and comment on their websites, blogs and respond to their stories and tips in their emails. Subscribe to their newsletter and respond to their stories and tips they provide on social media.
Recently, I responded to two top people in my field of nonfiction. One person’s dog had died and I gave her a few kind words. I could relate with my own dog’s death and how important a pet is to his master. We are friendly in between big programs with a quick email. In the end, we’ve ended up doing a joint venture together to expand our influence and really help our audience. I simply asked her if she’d like to do a program together.
3. Visit and join their groups.
Recently, I joined five new groups in Facebook and two in LinkedIn when I knew who and what audience was a good fit for me. Ever since, I’ve added some useful tips for them in the forums they head up. Be helpful, follow the rules and you will get noticed.
4. Buy books or programs from some of the influentials.
Share what helped you in your project. They may be impressed by you and will want to help you succeed.
5. Position yourself as a leader.
Stand out from the crowd with your blog articles and social media posts.
6. If you are a member of a local group of writers/publishers, offer to help in some way you’ll get noticed.
For a publishing group, I helped contact speakers for our monthly programs. That’s 12 people in my niche I could be friendly with and help in some way – then later asked for my testimonial. Dan Poynter gave me one, and we did a teleseminar together on promotion for extraverts and introverts, a profitable joint venture. These programs expand your audience. Then even more of your new audience will give you testimonials.
7. Make it easy for your email list or your group members to help you.
Prepare sample benefit statements and sample testimonials that fit your book. Include them in your request emails.
Book Coach’s Bonus Tip: Keep Your Testimonials Organized
You’ll be glad you did! As soon as my signature book, Write Your eBook or Other Short Book – Fast! got published, I created a business around it. You can be sure many of those testimonials are on all the website landing pages of my books, ecourses, audio programs and my blog.
Create a folder. Within it, you’ll have subfolders that include different categories. Mine included book reviews, book coaching reviews, teleseminar reviews, and blurbs at the top of my blog page. New ones come from my LinkedIn group and other groups.
With these categories, I can find the testimonial I want within a few minutes. Keep your lists of benefits and features in this folder. These will come in handy to use in all kinds of promotion later including testimonials.
Finally, it’s like the rest of your book’s work – it will pay off well when you stay on top of what will bring your readers running to you. So take action today!
And don’t forget to learn the 7 ways to leverage your testimonials once you get them!
Which tip will you act on this week?
Leave me a message and I’ll respond.
Judy Cullins
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