Why You Need a Blog and Website to Sell Books

April 26, 2017 • Aerio Staff

A lot of life takes place online. We are connected more than ever. In few places is that more evident than the wide world of retail.

A few stats we garnered from a survey done by comScore and data we found at BigCommerce.com, you may find interesting:

51% of Americans prefer to shop online
There are 205M online shoppers in the U.S.
Online sales are predicted to reach $2,489 Trillion worldwide in 2018
Books and other content account for 44% of online purchases

Create a Blog to Sell Books

Since it is the easier of the two to implement, we’ll cover why you need to create a blog to sell more books first.

Your blog is your stage. It’s not a soapbox, but an opportunity for you to provide potential customers with valuable content at no cost. This valuable content can cover a wide range of topics from products to author interviews to interesting industry news to fun insights

A blog is one of the most valuable assets in your book marketing tool bag:

Blogs are easy to setup and usually free
Blogs are a great way to introduce and further establish branding
Blogs can be used to highlight single titles, a series, an author, or a publisher
Blogs open up networking opportunities with guest bloggers
Blogs smartly optimized with keywords help with search engine rankings
Blogs offer opportunities to interact with customers through comments
Blogs create gateways to other points of sale like your e-commerce website, social media, and website

Which leads us to our next topic…

Create a Website to Sell More Books

Building your own website may sound like a huge undertaking, but in reality there are plenty of platforms that make creating a website fairly simple. True, it will take a little more time and effort than maintaining a blog, but the returns are definitely worthwhile.

Take a look at the most successful retailers—the brands you shop most—and you will notice a common thread…they all have a website.

The importance of these websites?

Websites tie together an extensive web presence—blogs, social media, email marketing, etc.
Websites are one of the best ways to create meaningful connections with customers.
Websites can be extremely flexible with built-in point-of-sale and ecommerce.
Websites can play host to all kinds of other marketing tools: news, author highlights, video, etc.
Websites can make your brand look legit and bigger than you actually are.
Websites allow you to feature products in creative ways and offer more in-depth info.
Websites give you the chance to easily build email lists for newsletters.

Creating a Blog and Website: It’s Easy. It’s Smart. It’s Cheap.

Because shopping online has become such an ingrained part of the consumer experience, there are tons of services that make creating a blog or website simple. Such tools usually require little to no coding experience.

Your book marketing strategy doesn’t need a 10-point plan and a 500-word mission statement. You’re not Apple or Coca-Cola.

Do however, take a note from the people who sell books online best, like Barnes & Noble or Powell’s Books. Sure, they have billion-dollar marketing and advertising budgets, but you’d be surprised how much traction you can get from a small investment in a blog and website.