Suggested Influencer Marketing Campaign Timeline
If you're an author looking to promote your upcoming book release, influencer marketing can be a powerful tool to get your book in front of a wider audience. But how and when should you start your influencer marketing campaign? Here's the Nerd Fam timeline to use as a general suggestion as you plan your influencer marketing campaign for a book release.
3 months before release:
Either reach out to a PR company that already has relationships with influencers or start researching and reaching out yourself to content creators. Look for influencers who create content about your book's genre or subject matter. Reach out to them via email to gauge their interest in collaborating with you (check out this blog post about how). A PR company might not need to reach out this far in advance, but if you are doing this for the first time, it’s going to take you longer to gather willing collaborators.
Then, decide on the scope of your campaign. I always suggest a minimum of 100 e-books or 50 physical book packages to gain any traction on social media, but 100 physical book packages is the most effective in my experience. If you are reaching out to people yourself, you might not find 100 people who are interested, so your scope might depend on how many respond. That’s ok! Don’t be discouraged. Just reinvest the money you would have spent on additional packages into making the ones you are sending as eye-catching as possible.
If you are customizing packaging or sending additional swag, now is the time to start thinking about how to make the package cohesive and compelling. Think of a color scheme and stick to it. Make sure your book title is on everything. People shouldn’t hold up an item that cost you more than $1 and not be able to tell exactly where it came from.
2 months before release:
Speaking of packaing and swag, be sure to order it with enough time to arrive before you plan to mail packages. Often, these custom itmes take 2 weeks in production and another week to ship.
If you are still looking for influencers to send your packages, consider making a request form to funnel people from social media. Tease the campaign with some quotes and a cover reveal if you haven’t done one already. Make sure you have a strong marketing hook decided upon and drive the message home with every post.
1 month before release:
Close your request form, finalize your list, and send your packages! Include tracking so that your collaborators know when to expect the book. As soon as people start posting, run a giveaway to capitalize on the new eyes on your books. Make following you on social media (or signing up for your newsletter) a requirement as well as tagging a friend or sharing the post. Choose a couple of these things so that people don’t get overwhelmed and not participate.
Week of release:
Send an email thanking influencers for participating and how much it means for your upcoming release. If people haven’t posted, this will remind them, and if they have, it shows you respect them. Be sure to comment on their posts and share their stories promoting your book.