One Novel Advertising and marketing Podcast listener referred to as to ask what to do with the information she collected from monitoring these advertising and marketing efforts. Shauna requested:
What do I do with statistics from my web site, social media, and ebook gross sales?
Why is it necessary to gather knowledge?
An outdated saying goes, “What will get measured will get managed.”
One cause authors work so onerous posting to social media is due to the suggestions they obtain. When you realize you acquired 50 likes or feedback, it appears like measurement. However it solely counts as measurement for those who observe the information and use it to make higher advertising and marketing choices.
Measurement is what separates masters from bozos. Masters know what they’re doing, they usually know why. Bozos, as Steve Jobs referred to as them, don’t know what they don’t know. They advise individuals with out having enough info themselves.
If an creator on Fb says that posting on social media will assist construct your platform, you want to ask for knowledge. Easy likes and feedback don’t make a platform, however bozos don’t know that but.
Many advertising and marketing gurus have a particular set of methods that they stick with lengthy after these methods cease working.
The Novel Advertising and marketing strategy to ebook advertising and marketing is just not static or dependent upon one approach. We consistently measure in order that we’ll know what works now.
The guiding ideas of the Novel Advertising and marketing strategy are as follows:
- Every creator is totally different, and every advertising and marketing strategy have to be tailor-made to an creator’s particular strengths and weaknesses.
- Experimentation is the important thing to discovering what works for you. Simply because one thing works (or doesn’t) for others doesn’t imply it’ll (or received’t) be just right for you.
Step 1: Begin Gathering Information
You’ll be able to’t use knowledge you don’t have. In case you’re not amassing knowledge, take a look at our submit on Learn how to Measure Your Advertising and marketing.
It’s essential to gather knowledge earlier than you want it. You’ll be able to’t retroactively set up Google Analytics. The earlier you begin, the extra knowledge you’ll should work with. Gather knowledge even for those who’re unsure the way you’ll use it.
In case you don’t have knowledge, you may’t use it to make higher choices.
Step 2: Write Questions You Need Your Information to Reply
Computer systems are nice at answering questions, however they’re horrible at asking questions. You’ll be able to’t program a pc to be curious. Asking questions requires a human strategy.
Write out some questions you may ask of your knowledge.
Pattern questions may embody:
- Had been gross sales up or down final month?
- How a lot do my promotions on Fb enhance ebook gross sales?
- Do my advertisements on Fb pay for themselves?
- How a lot do my promotions on Twitter enhance ebook gross sales?
- Does my web site site visitors correlate with ebook gross sales?
- Are my followers largely males or ladies? What ages?
- What weblog subjects get probably the most consideration?
- What’s my sell-through price?
- Did my BookBub advert pay for itself?
- Are my Amazon advertisements making a living?
- Did that weblog tour assist promote any books?
- What’s the lifetime worth of a brand new reader? What number of books do they go on to purchase?
- How a lot of my income comes from book gross sales?
- What number of further books did my podcast interviews assist promote? Keep in mind to measure from when the podcast airs, not when it was recorded.
Even for those who don’t know methods to reply the query, ask the questions earlier than staring on the knowledge.
Step 3: Preserve a Advertising and marketing Journal
Analytics measures results. Information tells you what occurred, but it surely doesn’t essentially let you know what triggered one thing to occur.
Preserving a advertising and marketing journal received’t make any sense until you know the way to attach the results with causes.
Your advertising and marketing knowledge won’t remind you that you just went on a podcast tour in September. It’s going to solely present you a spike in gross sales throughout September. However once you report your exercise in a advertising and marketing journal, you’ll see an entry that reminds you in regards to the podcast tour you probably did in September, and you’ll fairly hyperlink the trigger to the impact.
Step one is to start out journaling your advertising and marketing actions.
Contemplate recording journal entries like the next:
- Began Fb Promoting on DATE
- Added cash to Fb advert funds on DATE
- Tweaked Fb advert with a brand new headline on DATE
- Podcast interview aired on DATE
Each two weeks, I’ve a mastermind name the place we replace the group on our objectives and progress. I’ve been retaining a written log of my updates for the final couple of years, and that log serves as a journal of my advertising and marketing efforts.
In case you are utilizing an editorial calendar, you have already got a journal. You’ll be able to look again and see what you probably did to advertise your ebook on a sure date.
Step 4: Create a Dashboard
Making a dashboard is an elective step. You will get solutions out of your knowledge with out a dashboard. Nonetheless, a dashboard typically makes the information simpler to learn.
There are a lot of dashboard instruments, however they’re sometimes costly, as much as $1000 monthly. For authors, I like to recommend the next cheap or free dashboard instruments:
GetBookReport.com: BookReport is nice for authors who’ve a number of books revealed. It means that you can break up out the information on a per-book foundation. To a lesser extent, KDP’s dashboard means that you can break up the information in line with title or format.
Cyfe.com and Dasheroo.com join your knowledge from Google Analytics, Fb, Twitter, Instagram, and even Fast Books.
Step 5: Set Benchmarks
Your benchmarks will assist you realize what “regular” is for you and your knowledge. Benchmarks are the place to begin by which you’ll be able to measure your progress.
- What are typical gross sales?
- What’s my typical site visitors?
- What’s my typical engagement?
Step 6: Run Experiments
After you’ve established some benchmarks, you may start to attempt a brand new advertising and marketing approach to see if it makes a distinction. Your purpose is to beat your benchmarks.
In case you usually promote $100 in ebooks every month, you need to discover out in case your newly applied advertising and marketing approach boosts books gross sales or not.
In case you give a visitor interview on a podcast, have a look at your knowledge after the interview airs and see in case your book gross sales numbers beat your regular $100-per-month gross sales quantity.
Experiments may embody stopping actions you’ve been doing.
- How a lot do gross sales drop after I cease shopping for Amazon/Fb advertisements?
- How a lot do gross sales drop if I take a break from Fb for a month to write down my subsequent ebook?
It’s possible you’ll uncover that your absence from social media has no affect in your gross sales. If that’s the case, you may confidently take day off with out adversely affecting your gross sales numbers.
Perhaps social media is working to promote books. In case you take a month off, it’s possible you’ll uncover your trip negatively impacted your gross sales. You received’t know both approach until you measure and experiment.
Step 7: Consider the Experiments
After your experiment is over, examine the information and see how your experiment impacted your gross sales.
It’s also possible to run retroactive experiments. You’ll be able to have a look at your calendar or emails and piece collectively a advertising and marketing journal from final month’s exercise. Evaluate your knowledge and make your evaluations retroactively.
Keep in mind, there’s a seasonal side to gross sales.
It’s possible you’ll discover that your gross sales are up in November, however you don’t have something in your advertising and marketing journal that accounts for the spike. November is seasonally an enormous month for buying, and seasonality has a big effect in sure genres.
Evaluating this November’s knowledge with final November’s knowledge for a seasonal Christmas novella will probably be extra instructive than evaluating November to October.
As you be taught to trace, measure, and consider your gross sales and advertising and marketing knowledge, you’ll be taught which efforts work greatest for you. You’ll uncover what comes most naturally to you and which actions convey the most important ROI.
Monitoring your advertising and marketing knowledge takes time and group, but it surely additionally supplies knowledge that means that you can make good choices about your advertising and marketing methods.
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