9 Ways You Can Promote A Book On Instagram Effectively

Promote your book on Instagram without spending much money.

Congratulations on publishing your book! You must have put a lot of effort and time into it, and you believe that it may bring much value to your readers.

Although your book is interesting for your friends and family, you need to tell the world about your book, too.

The more people know about it, the more potential readers you have. No matter how interesting and useful your book is, it means nothing until you have readers who crave it.

Look: Promote your book – it won’t ‘sell’ itself.

Although there are many ways to promote your book, you’d better pay attention to the platforms that don’t require much time and money.

Believe it or not, Instagram is one of the best social media platforms, and it can be a perfect place for your marketing strategy and book promotion.

Why?

• Instagram has 700 million monthly active users
• 65% of top-performing brands post on Instagram feature products
• 1/3 of Instagram users have purchased a product they first discovered on the platform

You don’t have to do the calculations to understand that Instagram is a great platform for promoting your book and your author brand.

So, here’s how to do it without spending much money:

Create an Instagram Business Page

Instagram is getting more and more popular among businesses, so it has launched Business Accounts that give many opportunities for brand promotion.

If you use Instagram, it’s more likely you have a personal account.

To promote your book, you’d better create a business account, as it has options to make the process of establishing contacts with followers easier.

If you’re hesitating whether you need a business page, take a look at the benefits it offers:

• Allows your visitors to contact you.
• Shows statistics to find out what posts work better.
• Helps to create ads and manage them.

Once you’ve decided to create a business page as a marketing tool, it’s time to make it ‘yummy’.

Add information about your page

To interest more people and turn them into your followers (and maybe readers), you need to hook them.

Thus, you’d better provide Instagrammers with as much information as you can.

1. Write what your page is about, including how readers may benefit. Think about teaser quotes here.
2. Add a link to Amazon/website.
3. Include contact options to stay in touch – email/phone.

Source

Use statistics to understand your audience better.

Business accounts on Instagram have Instagram insights that allow you to understand who your followers are and what they like most about your page.

Moreover, you can see when they are online to adapt your schedule to their online presence.

Although you can promote your book with the help of your private Instagram account, switching it to a business page gives many more book marketing benefits.

But creating an Instagram business account is easy!

Build an Instagram Strategy

Running a business profile isn’t the same as posting your selfies and posting photos on a private one.

If you want to promote a product, you need to build a win-win Instagram strategy.

More reading: How to sell books with Instagram Stories

The rule of 30-35-35

Even though you plan to promote your book on Instagram, don’t focus on it only.

To create an interesting profile, you need to keep a balance. So publish brand, entertainment, and educational posts as part of your content strategy. Don’t get carried away with too many call to action statements.

Believe it or not, the maximum percentage of brand posts should be under 30% in order not to bother your followers with advertising.

And the rest of your publications should be divided into entertainment and educational ones (35% and 35% for both types).

Mobile photos first

It’s harsh but true: people are fed up with artificial content that stock photos offer.

If you’re posting on Instagram, learn how to take yummy photos on your phone, as it’s a proven way to create relevant and unique pictures.

You could also think about using a photo filter to make your profile look beautiful.

Post regularly

When you promote a book on Instagram, posting regularly is a must to keep your followers interested. According to several studies, posting 1-2 times a day is enough.

However, never post to fill your daily social schedule. Be sure that your posts are interesting and may increase engagement.

To achieve success on Instagram, you need to analyze your posts to see what works well for your audience.

Business profiles have statistics, so you can understand what posts are the best for your audience and when your followers are online to optimize the post timing.

Interact with Your Target Audience

You’ve posted another photo on your Instagram.

How many times do you check your Instagram account per day to see the number of likes/comments you’ve received? 10? 20? 50?

When people share photos on Instagram, they crave for likes and followers as these are the most common ways to prove appreciation for our posts. If you want to be heard, put your target audience first.

Find a person who matches your criteria, follow them, and like and comment on their photos (but avoid selling your book).

Show true interest in their account, and you will see that they’re interested in your profile too.

Interacting with your target audience pays off as you grab their attention.

Isn’t it great to gain followers without investing money?

Obviously, you spend time capturing your target audience’s attention. But it’s an actionable way to get more loyal followers on a tight budget and help you promote your upcoming book.

If you’re pressed for time, you can try tools like FollowingLike to automate mass liking/commenting.

However, be careful using such tools as they may lead to a shutdown if you overuse them. For example, limit your likes to 300 per day, and 60 follows/likes/comments per hour.

Collaborate with Opinion Leaders

Although we all know that advertising on Instagram allows you to reach your target audience, there’s another way to promote your book without spending much, and it’s collaboration with opinion leaders.

Word-of-mouth marketing is booming, and 82% of Americans say they look for recommendations from friends/family when considering a purchase.

For 67% of them, it’s more likely to purchase a product after a friend or family member shared it via social media.

Many brands offer their products for free to get a review in the form of a post on Instagram.

For example, you can send a hard copy to book reviewers or your target audience who have many followers to get a post with a tag.

It allows you to enter an already established community and get loyal followers who might be interested in buying your book.

In short, you need to deliver your book to one person to spread it among their circles.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to promoting your book on social media, and you don’t have much budget, you can give Instagram a try as it’s a platform that helps to promote your product without spending much.

Obviously, it takes time and effort to promote your book and sell it on Instagram, but spending a little time each day helps to build your awareness and attract loyal followers who may become your readers.

Have you tried Instagram for your book promotion?

Hugh Beaulac is a content manager behind the Assign U website and is interested in digital marketing.

He writes on different topics to contribute to top-notch websites to build awareness.

The views expressed in this guest post are solely those of the author and may not reflect the views of Just Publishing Advice.

Related Reading: Five Easy Book Marketing Tips For All Self-Published Authors