So did you come up with an answer?
No matter what book you mentioned, chances are it was a HarperCollins title.
And if it was a HarperCollins book, then today’s guest probably marketed it to you.
Lindsey Reeder (nominative determinism much?) is the Marketing Director of HarperCollins Publishers where she oversees marketing efforts for some of the most talked-about books in the world.
In this episode, Lindsey shares how she’s been able to capture the moment—thanks in part to the power of “BookTok.”
- Build a “hive” of influencers.
“In our company, what we’ve done is built an influencer program called ‘the hive’.
It’s books with buzz. (ba-dum-tss 🥁)
Essentially what we’re trying to do is ensure that this group of influencers, who are the movers and the shakers of creating content and knowing about our books, make buzz within the community itself.
That’s one methodology of how we do it.
We work directly with influencers.
- Social listening is a must.
We do a lot of social listening.
It’s literally as simple as sometimes sitting on your phone and looking up different books that are our books or other books and finding who’s talking about books that have real impact and ensuring that they have your book.
There’s been a couple of massive books that have hit it big on TikTok and going to those people who kind of move that needle and saying ‘Hey, I have this book.’
We’ll send out an advanced reading copy to them, we’ll send digital copies to them, we’ll send them to events, we’ll do a bunch of different things.
Right now, more than ever, booktok influencers are such a strong part of our marketing plan.
- Understand the communities you’re selling to.
Oftentimes, an editor will come to me about a book about gardening or homesteading, or we have one about pelvic health, and they’ll say, ‘This is a conversation online’.
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I start doing some digging and try to understand how many videos on TikTok, who’s talking about it, and who are the movers and shakers within that community.
I know how to sell a traditional book, but when it comes to a topic, I really do need to understand where does that niche live, who are they, and how do I get them this book.
(This is HUGE for B2B, especially if you’re selling to a very niche job function)
- Always go back to the data
I think that data is your best friend.
I think that you should listen to it, read it, understand it, understand what consumers are doing and their behaviors, adapt quickly and nimbly, and know that you can adjust things as data changes.
(Getting that part about adapting quickly tattooed on me)
I think that’s really important and I don’t think that is ever really taught in marketing and it probably is now more so.
But I think that it’s important that people really start to understand and listen to data and how to read it.“
I hope you’re taking notes, Marketing Besties. And if you want more Marketing truth bombs, listen to the rest of my convo with Lindsey here!
