International Book Marketing - Audience Expansion Ideas for Self-Publishers

Successful self-publishing is all about identifying your niche and appealing to a very target audience with your books. Do this well, and you eventually turn your prospects and customers into a loyal fan base that can’t wait to buy your next offer.

For effective marketing, it’s important to create a profile of your ideal customer.

Keeping your focus on one specific type of person always yields better results than diluting your marketing message and trying to appeal to anyone and everyone.

While keeping your customer focus narrow is very effective, there’s no marketing rule that states that you have to limit your customer base to a specific location.

Think about some of the most popular authors and books, and you’ll see how they have transcended international borders. J.K. Rowling with her Harry Potter series, Stephen King with his page-turning thrillers as well as what is perhaps the most read and most translated book in all history, The Bible.

Many publishers would say that in order for a book to be wildly successful, it must have an international audience supporting it.

If you are interested in growing your audience exponentially, there are more than a few ways that you can tap into an international audience.

These audience expansion methods work best for books that are already doing well with your local and national marketing efforts. This is because you can typically expect a book that is already selling well to do even better with more exposure.

Do Free Giveaways on Amazon’s International Sites

One of the fastest and easiest ways for you to gain as much exposure for your book in international markets as possible is to give away free copies through Amazon’s international sites.

While US based Amazon is the primary domain for the book selling giant, they also have several other domains associated with the different regions of the world they serve. Each website offers a unique opportunity for you to market your book.

Want massive exposure at warp speed?

Set up a limited time free giveaway of one of your books.

Use the giveaway as a hook to draw potential readers in and leave them wanting more with the promise of even more great content with the release of your next book which you will, of course, charge for.

Connect with Top Reviewers on Amazon Regional Sites

Amazon’s review system is one of the best tools a self-published author can use to convince prospective readers that their book is worth buying and consuming.

Amazon is so serious about their rating system that they even award customers who give quality reviews with badges that indicate that any reviews offered by these individuals come highly recommended.

An incredible way to use Amazon to tap into new international reader markets is to seek out these top reviewers on each of Amazon’s regional sites and offer them a free copy of your book in exchange for their honest feedback.

Top reviewers take this title very seriously.

They are more likely to get back to you quickly with a quality review and they usually put a lot of time and effort into writing reviews that resonate with potential prospects.

Browse popular titles in the same niche as the book you want to market.
Search through the reviews and look for badges that indicate top reviewers.
Visit the reviewer’s Amazon profile page and find their contact information.
Send them a quick email letting them know how you found them and why you think they would enjoy your book.
Offer them a free copy, thank them for their time and let them know that you hope to hear from them soon.
Repeat this process until you get between 3 and 5 top reviewers in each region to agree to read your book and offer feedback.

You may not get a response from all of the top reviewers you contact. However, the handful of quality reviews you do get can make a big difference for your level of international marketing exposure and any subsequent sales.

License Your Book to International Publishers

If you want wider international distribution for your book but don’t want to deal with tasks such as getting it translated or doing the heavy lifting required to market effectively, another option is licensing your book to international publishers.

You keep the rights to your self-published book, but allow international publishers to introduce your book to new markets and promote it as they see fit.

This agreement means they are able to marketing your book in its original English-language format, or they can have the book translated for foreign markets.

With this hands-off approach, you get to spend your time working on new projects while collecting royalties for books sold under your licensing agreement.

It’s a win-win situation, that can be repeated with all of your future book titles.

Do International Blog Tours

Partnering with popular blogs that already have a large audience that would be interested in your book is one of the quickest and simplest ways to gain rapid exposure and rack up sales for your offers.

If you’re a self-published author already enjoying some success, chances are you already know about and utilize the powerful book marketing tool known as blog tours.

But have you ever thought about doing blog tours with an international market in mind?

It works almost exactly the same way as your typical blog tour, except that you are deliberately seeking out websites that cater to a primarily international audience.

International blog tours allow you to connect with potential readers all over the world without having to spend a dollar on travel or its related expenses.

To be successful the only things you need are the time to write compelling blog posts and the research effort necessary to find the blogs where you can get the best results.

Use Social Media with an International Audience in Mind

Serious self-published authors use social media as a part of their marketing arsenal.

Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are invaluable when it comes to becoming more discoverable by members of your target audience and building a sense of community around your brand.

You can harness the explosive power of social media for international marketing purposes by leveraging these channels and tapping into new audiences whenever possible.

On Facebook, this could mean having several fan pages that each cater to audiences that speak different languages (for example, English, French and Spanish, depending on where you plan on expanding to).

Facebook also offers text translation options right on each post on their platform, so even if you decide to only create and maintain one fan page, you still have the ability to interact with your international prospects and fans in a meaningful way.

Having several accounts on Twitter that support different languages can also be a good audience expansion strategy, along with using foreign language subtitles on any promotional YouTube videos that you create.

To reach as many potential new international readers as possible, it’s important to cast as wide a net as you can with your social media marketing efforts.

Today, the world is truly globalized. And this is particularly true when it comes to creating and marketing books.

Instead of confining your efforts for connecting with potential buyers to your neighborhood, state or even country, why not explore the possibilities for expanding your audience internationally?