When was the last time you checked in on your author marketing assets? Because they may need a refresh. Content and other assets can grow stale or dated over time, so it’s always a good idea to schedule a yearly reevaluation and update them as needed. And the new year is a great time to do this!
These marketing assets include everything from your website and bios to headshots and other online images and graphics.
Below we’ll cover all the author marketing assets that you can check in on to see if they need a refresh for the new year. This can go hand in hand with your yearly author branding check-ins and you can read that all about that here.
Does Your Website Need a Refresh or Even a Redesign?
Stale content and stagnant websites are bad for SEO, and dated web design can affect your brand image. Of course, you’ll need to do regular website maintenance like plug-in updates, broken link fixes, and checking in on comments and analytics, but we’re talking more about content and design features. If it’s been five years or more since you’ve launched your author website you may need to do some bigger updates on content and design. For instance, your website may not have important accessibility features which allow your site to be readable or navigable for visitors with disabilities.
Take a few minutes to navigate your website from the perspective of a visitor. Now ask yourself:
- Is it easy to find specific content?
- Does the layout make sense?
- Is information up to date?
- Are the images fresh and of high-quality?
- Does it look modern and professional?
Does your most powerful author marketing asset reflect you and your brand?
- Does the design and color scheme still work?
- Is the tone of the content on brand?
- Are your blog topics current and reflective of your values and voice?
If you find yourself answering no to any of these, it’s probably time to refresh your website to add new images and update your content. If you answered no to multiple of these, it may be time for a website redesign.
Want to know if your website has the essentials required to unlock its full marketing power? You can read about that here.
Book Covers: A Redesign Can Bring New Interest and Boost Sales
Your book’s cover is its biggest selling point. Even excellent books are overlooked if they have a bad cover. And many new authors, despite their best intentions, look back on their original book covers with regret because they didn’t realize how bad it was at the time.
They may realize the cover doesn’t reflect the genre, or that the design is just not up to professional standards but think there’s nothing to be done about it now. But there is! You can redesign your cover.
Your book cover is one of your most valuable and important author marketing assets and it should be treated as such. Which means if it’s not up to par, you may need a redesign.
There are a few reasons your book cover may need a redesign:
- A book you had high hopes for is languishing in obscurity and you want to give it a second chance
- You’re planning a reprint or new edition and want the cover to reflect that
- You’re publishing a new book in a series and want cohesion across covers
- You’ve decided to get serious about the business of being an author and want to upgrade the quality of your old covers before your new books are published
Your Bio is One of the Easiest Author Marketing Assets to Refresh
Yes, your bio is one of your author marketing assets too! A professional bio is part of a powerful author brand. You want to keep it relevant, fresh and engaging. When new stuff happens, you’ll need to update it. These easy but important updates to your bio should happen when anything of significance can be added.
Here are some good reasons to update your bio:
- You’ve recently published a new book
- You’ve won a book award or other prize
- New year, new you: You’ve recently gone through a rebrand
- You’ve made a career change or gotten a promotion
- Maybe you’d just like to change and focus and tone
- You’ve earned new credentials
- You’ve joined a relevant organization, club, etc.
Should You Update Neglected Social Platforms this Year?
You don’t always have to be on social media, but if you have platforms you maintain as part of your author marketing assets, you don’t want them to be outdated, stale or off brand.
There’s also no need to commit to creating new content or engaging more often, but your readers may check in on you on these platforms so they should still reflect your brand and contain relevant information.
You may want to check if any of the following need an update:
- Profile photos
- The aforementioned bio
- Add new links (articles, website, other social platforms, etc.)
- Change out your banner image
- Announcements about new books, accomplishments, etc.
Other Author Marketing Assets that May Need a Refresh
Along with all of the above mentioned marketing assets, there are a few others you may want to check in on to see if they need a refresh too.
Some of the little things you may overlook that may need a refresh are:
- Your logo, if you have one
- One-Sheets
- Templates for graphics and newsletters
- Graphics and image banks for blogs, etc.
- Other print marketing materials
- Professional headshots: has it been a few years? Has your look changed significantly?
You can read more about professional headshots here.
It should be noted that if you decide to make major updates in your refreshing process, you’ll need to make all updates where necessary in order to keep your brand and message cohesive. In other words, if you change your website’s color scheme, you may want your social banners and one-sheets to match.
Because you’ve put time, energy and money into all of your author marketing assets it’s good to check in on them yearly so that they maintain their value and marketing power. Sometimes content grows stale, or out of date, and it no longer reflects who you are in the moment. From the big things like your website and book covers to the smaller things like your social media profiles, they all need a bit of a refresh sometimes. So, with the new year swiftly approaching, is now the time to check in on these important assets?
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