Maybe you’ve published a couple of low-content books or journals already…
Or maybe you’re just thinking about getting started with this kind of business.
Either way, there’s no bad time to start thinking about building a brand around you published content.
There are many advantages to building a brand rather than just publishing books under random names…
And this is true for traditional books as well!
In this article, we’ll go over some benefits of branding and some tips to set you on the right path.
Why build a brand?
It’s a well-known fact in the marketing world that it’s much easier to sell something to someone who has already purchased from you, rather than finding a new customer every time.
This is definitely true in the publishing world as well.
How much more likely are you to buy a book from an author you love, rather than trying out a new author?
I’d bet the odds are slightly more in favour of the beloved author you already know.
But leveraging that loyalty can be very tricky online.
Especially so when you are selling on a self-publishing platform like Amazon.
That’s because they give you no information about your customers (other than their country), and no way to contact them!
This makes the job of building repeat business and loyalty difficult.
Luckily, there are still ways to work around this.
Building a brand is a great starting point for setting up your own space online where you can actually know your customers, talk to them, and promote new products to them as they come out.
How to start building your brand
The easiest way to start is simply by branding yourself on Amazon, and on your books themselves.
This means picking an ‘author name’ (this can also be a brand name or a publishing name) that you use consistently across your products.
You can put this name on the physical books themselves, along with a brand logo.
Logos are easy to whip up using templates on Canva. You can also hire someone to design one for you via Fiverr or Upwork.
Next, you’ll want to create an Amazon Author account.
To do this, you have to go to Author Central and sign up for an account.
This will give you an author ‘profile’ that is accessed any time someone clicks on your author name on Amazon’s website.
Here, you can link all your books so that customers can see everything you have to offer.
You can also add a bio, photo, and other personal touches to help customers connect with you as an individual.
Getting your customers off Amazon
As I mentioned earlier, Amazon doesn’t let you know or contact your customers.
But you can give the customers ways to connect with you.
The way to do this is through links and offers inside the actual book or journal itself.
Most commonly, you’ll see this as an offer in the back matter of the book.
This could be something like, “visit this website and join my mailing list to get a free downloadable worksheet”.
Create an offer that compliments the journal they’ve already purchased. In exchange, they can join your mailing list, which is where you can send future offers, book announcements, or promotions.
Of course, you can get creative with this. Maybe your journal offer feeds into a larger program or course offering on the same subject.
Just make sure that your offer is relevant to the kind of person who purchased your book.
You don’t want to offer a video course on karate lessons to someone who bought a birdwatching journal.
You can also invite customers to follow you on social media, or to buy another journal in your collection.
There’s no limit to the kinds of offers you can include at the back of your book.
Just make sure that you are complying with Amazon’s terms and conditions.
Mainly, they have rules around how you are allowed to ask for reviews of your product.
Building your own brand platform
Once you’ve got people joining you on your mailing list or social media platforms, you can start to expand what your brand offers.
This could mean building a blog and promoting affiliate links and products.
You could create digital products that appeal to your audience, like printables or online courses.
You could create more physical products like journals, or branch out into running an eCommerce platform selling a wider array of product.
Spend some time thinking about the audience that you are building.
What sorts of wants or needs to they have in relation to your niche?
What problems do they have that you can solve?
For example, my audience on SelfPubMagic is interested in self-publishing books, and more specifically low-content books…
So I’ve created several courses they can take, and I have designed hundreds of templates they can use to achieve the goal of publishing their own books.
As you might guess, it helps a lot of you have a personal interest in the subject…
That way, you innately understand the needs of that audience because you’re part of it!
I was publishing books and working as a writer and designer for years before starting this platform…
I’d worked with so many authors and heard their concerns about getting started and reaching their goals in this industry.
This made me uniquely positioned to build a brand around this knowledge and the products I can craft to help that audience.
The idea is the same for nearly all online businesses. Journals are no different!
With that in mind, I hope you give some thought as to how you can go big with your brand…
There’s no limit to the kind of results you can achieve online!
And if you’re curious about those online courses I offer, you can find them all on Skillshare.
If you want to learn about publishing and passive income, click here to get a FREE month on Skillshare! That’s more than enough time to watch all my courses and start building your next business.
