Digital Marketing for Author Mary Weins

Challenge

In the summer of 2019, author Mary Weins self-published her first book, Letter from Paul: to the Church in Galatia … and Us! She shared it with friends, family, and followers on Facebook, and sold copies sporadically in the early months. But without a real marketing strategy, sales stalled. In the first three months of 2020, she sold a total of 12 books.

Approach

I started with the data. Mary believed her audience was primarily middle-aged women — she estimated 75% or more fit that profile. I pulled demographic data from her Amazon sales account, website analytics, and social media insights. The reality was different: her readership was nearly evenly split between men and women, with her female audience ranging from 24 to 65. That changed the entire strategy.

I studied Mary's book and other written content to understand her voice — a process I call "copy stalking" — then built a three-month social media campaign around it, designed to build awareness and continue gathering audience data.

Result

In the first three months of the campaign, Mary sold just over 400 books. She retained me for an additional three months and sold 250 more, bringing her total to 650. She also saw a 112% increase in new and organic social media followers, and her website traffic grew by an average of 12% per month.