If you’ve been promoting online for any length of time, you know that, when used correctly, social media can be a really effective way to promote your book. The term “inbound marketing” is actually referring to the pull-marketing that exists online.

Whether you’re marketing widgets or books, there are two types of marketing: push and pull. Push marketing is what we all know. That’s where we send emails, press releases – the “push” of pushing our pitches to the media. In recent years, however, push marketing has become less and less effective. The media targets for push marketing are narrowing as are the opportunities for placement. Also, when you think about it, push marketing is a lot more work and, generally, a lot more expensive. To further differentiate, push tactics generally involve placements on radio, TV, print.

The affect or end results of push marketing isn’t what it used to be. I was speaking to an author who had recently been on a major morning show (we’re talking “Good Morning America/CBS The Early Show/The Today Show”) and only sold 68 books from her appearance on this show. When you consider the viewership for these programs, that’s not much. Why is this number so low? Well, consumer buying habits have changed, along with their viewing habits. Enter TiVo and online viewing and now you’ve skewed your general demographic considerably.

Enter pull marketing or, in layman’s terms: inbound/Internet marketing. It’s important to know the terms and know the difference because as you’re planning your marketing strategy, the more effective you can be in your marketing, the better you’ll do and the more wind you’ll have in your marketing sales. As a marketing person I do know that push marketing is more alluring. Yes, many of us would want to get on Oprah but the reality is: few of us actually do. Further to that point, many authors overlook the benefits of inbound marketing because it’s confusing. Yes, I agree there are a lot of choices. So let’s look at these right now:

Social networks: sites like Facebook and Squidoo are fantastic ways to pull visitors to your site, when used effectively you can increase your platform, exposure, and book sales

Twitter: Another fantastic promotional platform that costs you only in time.

Blogs: we’re going to talk both about blogging as well as blog commenting, which is something my firm has done for years.

In the coming weeks, we’re going to look at all forms of Internet/inbound marketing so you can plan your strategy accordingly. We’ll look at what’s working and what the future holds for your online campaign. Stay tuned! And get caught up with another piece from this series: Inbound Marketing Rocks – Now What? http://amarketingexpert.com/ameblog/marketing/inbound-marketing-rocks-now-what/.

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