Harnessing the Power of Quizzes An Unconventional Marketing Strategy for Authors

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Kickstart The Conversation, the place to learn how to build lists, generate leads and leverage your relationships. I'm your host, Catharine O'Leary. And today we are embarking on a unique journey. Today we're going to explore the exciting world that marries literature with lead generation. So today, everyone, it's all about quizzes for authors. So buckle in, here we go. Have you ever thought about how authors, especially the self published can use quizzes as a unique marketing strategy for the books? Well, this isn't just a concept, it's actually highly effective parts of strategies of the some of my clients that not only have coaching and courses and so on, but they also have books that they that they use as part of their businesses. So why are quizzes a perfect fit for authors, and there's several reasons why and I wanted to go through some of these quizzes aren't just merely a tool to engage your readers, but they can be used as a resource to understand them. So if you think about pre launch, if you think about when you're in that, you know, building your buzz around your book, you can really use a quiz to build that up. So you can use a quiz to help pique your ideal clients interests, their preferences and their thoughts. You can also start creating a an email list. So a pre sales list for your book by using a quiz. So a quiz at pre launch stage is a massive game changer for a lot of books, especially those that are self published, that you can really, you know, make sure that you're engaging, introduce your book, build that buzz, build your authority, and knowledge and, and respect and trust, but also build that you know, that pre launch email list, even, you know, asking people to be on your book launch team, you can, you can use a quiz that way too. So you can you know, pre launch, you're building your buzz around the book, you're building an email list to send out to people maybe around launch parties, or any bonuses that you have around the book, or maybe, you know, maybe some early bird sales, bonuses or VIP days or anything like that, you have an email list of people that you can reach out to that you know, are already engaged in your, your topic. And you can also be, you know, potentially getting people that really want to help you with your book launch and in actually getting them onto your team for your book. So that's kind of how you can use your quiz to build that pre launch buzz. You can also use a quiz to even you know, choose your book cover. So you might have three or four book covers that you are thinking about, why not use a quiz to say hey, you know, here's, here's, you know, the topic, here's the main character, you know, which which of these book covers, you know, would you choose for this novel, so that you can, you know, actually have it as co creation, you can co create some some of your graphics and some of your your inputs into your book, if you have time to do that. So that's, that's one way definitely that you can use a quiz to engage, pre pre sell and for your launch, where else can you use it, you can use it to build buzz, so that you are including your potential readers and your ideal clients as part of your creative journey. So they they're going to look forward to the launch even more eagerly, you can even use personality quizzes. So if you have really strong distinctive characters in your book so if you think about something along the lines of Lord of the Rings, there's you know, Frodo there's Gandalf there's you know Strider maybe you have similar characters or you know, strong distinct characters, you can actually build a what character are you quiz so that people are actually engaged in the content before you even launch it so that they you know, like, you know, they can go into a conversation maybe in a Facebook group, or you know, some sort of a community that you're building around your your book launch and they can start conversations around well, what character are you You know, like, if it's a Game of Thrones or you Jon Snow, if it's, you know, The Hobbit Are you you know, Bilbo Baggins, whatever that looks like but you can really if you've already got your distinct characters set up in your book, you can create a what character are you quiz as a way to market your your book even before it's launched, and get that interest and that buzz around it? Now the thing about self publishing in particular is, it's fantastic. Right? It is, it is a great way for people to get their their books out into the, you know, the marketplace, especially through Amazon. Amazon has, you know, extended distribution with Barnes and Noble and several other outlets, Target and Walmart and so on. But what Amazon doesn't give you is people's emails. So how do you turn your book readers into people that you can reach out to with your next book, or maybe a book launch party, or maybe it's a year anniversary bonus, or something along those lines to keep people engaged after you have after they've actually bought the book. And one way to do that is with quizzes and quizzes actually do collect that email. And you're able to really make sure that you have your book community on your email list, because you really want to make sure that you have that email list it is it is the one business asset that has a valuation to your business, that really helps when you go to, you know, sell your business or have it valued, that, you know, email is, it's an important asset for you. So you want to be building it all the time. And you don't want to miss anyone. So you want your book, you know, readers and your fans on the on the publishing side to be included in your email list. And a way to do that is to make sure that they are a part of the quiz. Now, not everyone that takes the quiz has to be, you know, a book, you know, has to be involved in the book, maybe they go straight from the quiz, and what character are they in the book, to straight into a course if you have a course after the book, or maybe they go to the pre launch, but you can actually sell your book, you know, whether pre sales or post, you know, post launch, you can sell your book at the back of the quiz. So you can go, you know, they can take the quiz, I can find out what character they are. And then they can be directed to the Amazon sales page to buy the book and learn more, learn more about their character learn more about their their issue, learn more about you know how to, you know, overcome the challenge that they might be having whatever your quizzes about whatever your book is about. But you can also include, you know, elements of the quiz in your book. So if you're just writing your book, and this is, you know, a good time to maybe think, okay, as part of my marketing strategy for my pre launch, how can I use a quiz to generate interest? But also then how can I use the book to get people to take the quiz, so that the people that are buying the book are, you know, are, you know, you've got a double whammy of making sure that they are on your email list. So you can include things like QR codes or links or you know, descriptions of the quiz in your in your actual book when it before it's published, if you have the time. So if you are now in the process of writing your book, you might want to consider how can I integrate my lead generation capture, you know, that your quiz into your book and so it becomes a cycle a circle, the quiz goes to the book, the book goes to the quiz, both, you know, kind of promote each other. And you in the end are you know, you get rewarded within you know, a larger email list. You capture your your raving fans, and you're able to service them with your you know, further books with your further initiatives offers and those kinds of things. Maybe you have bonuses, maybe you have, you know, fan days, you know, like there's any number of things that you can do after the fact to keep momentum and keep sales of your book going. So the only way to do that though, is if you do have the email list, so you really want to make sure you have the email list. And remember, it's not just gathering emails, you know, granted, that's definitely a priority. But the quiz can provide valuable insights to your audience. So you can really tailor your marketing messages and build that strong meaningful connection with your your readers, your fans, your clients through your book. The book is just an extension of your quiz, or vice versa. The quiz is a shorter version of your book. And you're able to really showcase your personality, showcase your expertise, and make sure that you are the person on the topic that you're talking about, that people want to you know learn from and want to get more information from because you are like, let's face it, you are literally the person that wrote the book on it.