InstaFreebie now gives us the ability to not only deliver ARCs, email-list-building books, and give away stories to our fans, but now, we also have the ability to run group giveaways.
These group giveaways are designed to bring authors together in a collaborative effort to give away books (or samples of books) to prospective readers in an effort to gain new fans and subscribers.
Today, I’ve not only got a click-for-click tutorial on how to use this new feature, but also several tutorial videos on how to use it effectively within your marketing strategy, plus a few bonuses to make your life even easier as you use this new platform addition.
Let’s jump in with the click-for-click tutorial:
Now that you know how to use this new features, let’s talk about specifically how you can be using this in your author marketing strategy! Stay tuned, because at the end, I have some group giveaways that you can join RIGHT NOW to get more publicity for your book 😉
So at this point, you’re ready to jump in, right? >>>JOIN HERE<<< But jumping in without doing a little planning isn’t going to work so well for you, trust me. So how do you use this intelligently and strategically within your marketing plan?
How To Effectively Use Group Giveaways as Part Of Your Marketing Strategy:
Just jumping in and using this new feature isn’t enough…you need to be using it strategically in your author marketing strategy.
It’s like getting in your car, turning it on, but only coasting in neutral…maybe you’ll get somewhere, but you’re no getting there fast and you certainly aren’t getting there in an efficient manner, nor as far as you could go if you pressed on the gas pedal.
Using group giveaways in your strategy is a great idea during the right times and places within your brand!
Now that you’ve got a plan for using this in your marketing, let’s chat a bit about making the most out of each giveaway you use in your marketing strategy.
How To Extend The Life and Reach Of Your Instafreebie Group Giveaway:
Prioritizing and streamlining your giveaway is so essential to it’s success. Remember, if it’s a messy collection all shoved into one giveaway and slapped under a vague umbrella of a title, people will be confused. Your job is to know exactly who it is that you are speaking to with the collection you are creating. The more streamlined you can get, the more productive your giveaway will be AND the more trusted you become as an authority on the topic.
Once you have a streamlined giveaway and your’e ready to move on to the next step and actually set up your giveaway, we need to talk about your graphics.
How To Design Your Header and Promotional Graphics For Group Giveaways:
We are a visual society. Let’s face it, especially in the book world, covers are what convince most people to look at books (unless it’s be recommended by a friend) Seeing a stunning cover will entice a potential reader to pick ups he book and read about it in order to decide if it’s coming home with them.
Similarly, your marketing graphics are THAT important to your giveaway. If you have a high-end-looking graphic, you’re going to get more people noticing it. If, however, it’s not so good…you likely won’t do well, and certainly not as well as if you had a well deigned graphic. So you NEED to take the time and effort to create good visuals to use as your header and in your social media marketing.
If you want to design it yourself, use the best program you have access to. If you have Photoshop and can use it well, use Photoshop. If you have another program and can use it, run with that. If you don’t have a program, use a free program like Canva.com to make it. In fact, here’s a tutorial:
If you can’t design your own graphic, or don’t want to, hire a professional. But please, make sure they are a well trained professional, and not one of the many people who decided to play with Photoshop and start charging people for poor quality work. Your fans (and potential-new-fans) deserve better than that.
Need help creating your graphics? I’ve got you covered! Send me a message and I’ll get your pointed in the right direction-I have a ton of designer friends who are happy to help (and I design too if your heart is set on hanging out with me! info@readingtransforms.com)
Remember, if you are designing this yourself, you CAN NOT just pull graphics from Google to use. This is illegal and copyright infringement. You MUST (as in required by law) take the photos yourself or draw your pictures yourself, or properly license them. There are a ton of sites to get graphics from like stock.adobe.com or shutterstock.com or your can find royalty free sites like pixabay.com or pexels.com (Pro tip: always be sure to read the licensing agreement to know what your rights and permissions are on these sites)
Just like you don’t want people stealing your books and putting them online, photographers and artists don’t want you stealing their images and using them without permission. Even if you aren’t making money off of it, it’s still stealing and it’s illegal. Please treat other creatives with he respect you yourself want to be treated with and protect their work like you would want your books protected. Remember…just as easily as you can use someone’s images, someone can put your book online…just because they aren’t making money off your book, doesn’t mean that’s okay to do. Let’s work together and protect and support our fellow creatives!
Remember to keep your graphics in alignment with the theme of your giveaway. Use eye catching colors and images that communicate the point of your theme. Avoid fonts that are too loopy or are hard to read. Focus on using colors that pop (light background=dark font and dark background=light font) and get opinions before you post the graphics to make sure they are the best they can be!
Giveaway header dimensions are 1500×500 pixels and I highly recommend using the square format for your social media marketing graphics because those translate best on all of the social platform sites (see the video for more about why this is)
Want examples of good header graphics? Here’s a few mock ups I made to give you some ideas. While you can’t use these exact (remember, copyright) you CAN let them inspire you to come up with some of your own ideas!
And, yes, for those of you who are wondering, these ARE all my own images. I’m a professional photographer at K.M. Robinson Photography and I do all my own design work 😉
Bonus Fact: I do weekly live broadcast on Facebook.com/kmrobinsonphotography where I design fine art composite images and turn them into fake book covers live on air with the audience helping me make choices on which images to use, what worlds to create, fake title, tagline and write up, and more. >>>Join me<<<
Now that you’re setting up your group giveaway, you need to make sure in addition to great graphics that you have great copy.
How To Manage The Public and Private Descriptions on Group Giveaways:
Being exceptionally clear to the people involved in your giveaway is important to make sure everyone is on the same page. Authors need to know what is required of them to participate, including dates for the promo, how much promo they are required to do and where, and what specifically to tell their fans.
Readers also need to be very aware of what the giveaway is for. It’s important you put as much effort into this as you do for your book synopsis. Just like the jacket write up on your book, you have to hook readers and convince them that this giveaway is FOR THEM. Your ant to speak directly to them, as if you had designed it specifically for THEM to read through the list. Use your words wisely…you might just be the difference between a person scrolling through the first six books and wandering off or reading eagerly through the entire list.
Now I promised you a few extras, didn’t I? Time to deliver!
Bonus #1
Join me as I jump on Facebook Live to talk about Why Shorter Group Giveaways Are More Valuable to you. I’ll be going live at 2:30pm today. Come ask questions and hang out.
Did you miss out? Don’t worry, there’s a rebroadcast on the page!
Bonus #2
Join Reading Transforms on Facebook Live on Thursday Aug 31 at 3pm EST for a live broadcast Group Giveaway Q&A with Ashley Durrer from InstaFreebie as we chat about the new group giveaways feature, giveaway an epic bonus (hint: it’s going to streamline the set up process for those of you creating group giveaways and make it easy to ensure you don’t miss anything) answer your questions live on air, and *wait for it* give away something special to one awesome person who joins us live.
>>>WATCH THE REBROADCAST HERE<<<
Bonus #3
Join me in the exclusive Reading Transforms Community on Facebook where I educate on social media marketing strategy for authors as I bring you an exclusive live broadcast training on How To Set Up A Twitter Chat To Promote Your Group Giveaway on Monday Sept 4 at 10am EST where I’ll be step-by-step helping you to set up your chat to use as a vehicle to promote your giveaway.
Plus, I teach on the social media algorithms that keep cutting your organic reach, platform additions, and what you need to know to work with the algorithms to get the platforms to promote you without paying for ads. So added bonus to the bonus 😉
Bonus #4
I have created group giveaway header templates for you to use when designing your graphics.
>>>Template 1-White Background<<<
>>>Template 2-Black Background<<<
Feel free to customize these anyway you like. These are just to get you started and give you the correct sizing for your header graphic. (Again, if you want a professional to help you with this, I have a whole list of trusted designers, or you can work with me-just send me a message, info@readingtransforms.com)
Bonus #5
I know, this is the part you’ve been waiting for…the groups.
Please note, these aren’t the only group giveaways that are currently up and running, however, we wanted to give you all the opportunity to jump immediately into a giveaway without having to worry about going through the motions of setting one up without a lot of notice.
Click on the graphics that fit with your books and come join us! All of these giveaways run Aug 31-Sept5.
I personally will be overseeing these groups. You’ll notice they are pretty short-there’s an important reason why (see Bonus #1 for details) so jump in while you can! All of the promotional graphics and info you will need are in the descriptions of each group for you.
These are something I’ll be running from time to time and really building out, so if you want to be friends and participate in our upcoming giveaway, come hang out in the Reading Transforms Community where I’ll be dropping info on upcoming giveaways as well (both full books and samples+fun events) Come hang out with me! (Pro tip: I also give away a ton of resources to promote your books, including events with my trusted bloggers and booktubers) I’d love to have you join us!
>>>TEST OUT INSTAFREEBIE HERE<<<
Have questions on how to use group giveaways in your marketing strategy? Hit me up below! I’m happy to help out and create new resources for you! I can also reach out to InstaFreebie with any of the questions you might have on the technical side of things that they would need to be the ones to answer.
Have questions on social media marketing as an author? Hit me up in the comments and I’ll get you pointed to the resources we already have available, create new resources for you, or, if I don’t have the answer, I’ll bring in one of my industry professional friends to answer it for you. I’ve totally got you covered!
We’re talking Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Periscope, Pinterest, YouTube, Live broadcasting, your newsletter, blog, or website. Whatever is tripping you up or you need just a bit of help with, I’m your girl! Let me know what you’re struggling with and I’ll be here with as much help as I can give you!
Stay inspired,
-K.M. Robinson