Bibbity, bobbity, boo to YOU!
I have a friend whose publishing dream has come true! Like me (and maybe, you), she’s soldiered through the submission, rejection, submission, rejection process like a champ in efforts to achieve her goal. Now it the time to deeply consider establishing marketing strategies that are authentic, helpful, manageable, and fun.
Candy has an active personal, professional, and writing life, leaving little time to master the nuances of Canva or Google Analytics. Yet, she understands that she’ll need to do some work to assure that her picture book biography will gain the visibility it will need to survive. In efforts to get her pre-pub marketing campaign, my wise friend has built a bare-bones, professional marketing account on Pinterest for free! I have plans to chronicle the steps of her process in a series of blog posts for your reference. For now, let’s hit the highlights in three broad steps.
Talk to the bots: Optimized board descriptions using language that Pinterest and Google algorithms understand. This language is called SEO. Each one of Candy’s boards include a descriptive paragraph explaining what type of pins will live in that board. Eventually, her audience will delight in these well-crafted paragraphs. For now, she’s telling the Pinterest and Google algorithms about her debut. And...if they know what is good for them, they’d better sit up and recognize.
Clarify your message: Candy has a rich life surrounded by friends and family. She’s generous to a fault. While these are all noble attributes, Candy has resisted showcasing her favorite recipes and decor ideas on her business account. Her boards reflect her writing life. For example, her passion for history is communicated in her Civil War board. There she can boost visibility for her middle grade novel by surrounding it with like-content pins. Bots love this.
Less is more: Observe that Candy has just nine boards on her platform. She’s off to a grand start. Note that each board is relevant to her Kidlit and nonfiction messaging and are optimized to a tee. She can keep those Pinterest algorithms happy for years by consistently searching for and adding relevant content to her platform. For instance, she might like to add this pin to her Strong Girls board. That would work, right?
That’s enough for now, I'd say. As I mentioned earlier, I’ll blog about this process. It’s not really as heady as it sounds. Not to worry.
I’m also available for one-off webinars and weekend workshops, if you’d like to schedule an event. I love teaching and I love Pinterest. As far as I’m concerned, the two go hand-in-hand!
