How to Leverage Your Book for Content Marketing

Maximizing your thought leadership requires leveraging the content you developed for additional purposes. This entails utilizing the material in a variety of formats as part of an ongoing content marketing strategy.

There are a few ways to extend your reach:

• Turn the book into derivative works of shorter content like articles, blog posts, videos and podcast episodes covering book highlights. These snippets will circulate online to new audiences.

• Maintain an active social media presence highlighting your book's message and examples through shareable quotes, anecdotes, facts/stats, related resources, etc.

• Book excerpts make great educational content to distribute through email newsletters, Slideshare presentations and webinars.

• Update online profiles/bios to feature yourself as a published author. The book remains a prominent credential.

• Create supplemental content - podcast interviews, courses, worksheets, assessments - that ties back to your book as the definitive source.

This multimedia content marketing expands your book's reach greatly. The more value you extract from the core content asset, the more influential you become.

Putting Principles into Practice

Clearly, writing a book holds tremendous power when it comes to cementing your thought leadership status. Let's explore some practical tips for how to make it happen successfully:

Pick a Focused Niche The ideal book is laser-focused on a tight niche, not a broad general topic. Become known as THE authority on a specialized subject vs. one voice among many on a crowded issue. Own a niche.

Select a compelling Title Your title needs to be memorable, descriptive and provocative. Spend time brainstorming possibilities and testing them with others. The title plays a huge role in driving book sales.

Align to Your Platform Ideally your book should connect to your existing brand, expertise and body of content. It should feel like a natural extension vs. random departure.

Leverage Existing Assets Repurpose content you've already created into book chapters - blog posts, articles, slide decks, white papers etc. Then supplement with all-new content.

Make Time to Write Commit to consistently carving out a few dedicated hours each week to write. Set milestones and deadlines to stay accountable to the writing process. The book won't write itself.

Hire Help if Needed Consider collaborating with a skilled ghostwriter if you need assistance outlining chapters, organizing research or crafting passages. The investment can accelerate progress.

Plan Ongoing Promotion Have a launch plan ready but also think long term - out at least 1-2 years. Plot media pitches, speaking opportunities, tie-ins to leverage the book as an evergreen asset.

Measure Impact Gauge the influence of your book by tracking book sales, media mentions, speech invites, book reviews/ratings, email feedback, social shares, etc.

Quantify the boost.

Keep Building Your Platform Your book provides a boost but ongoing content creation in other formats remains vital. Don't go silent waiting for book sales. Keep publishing and promoting actively.

Write Your Next Book! Use the experience gained to begin planning your next book project right away while momentum is high. Serial authors amass incredible authority.

Writing a book is a highly rewarding endeavor requiring significant commitment. The payoff in terms of boosting your visibility, credibility and status as a thought leader can be immense. A book provides lasting value. It becomes an asset and calling card you can leverage in perpetuity.

But a book must be approached strategically. Follow the best practices covered here for maximizing the opportunity. Position the book effectively. Market it well. Extend the content creatively. If executed properly, your book can propel your thought leadership trajectory to new heights. Get started today on authoring your breakthrough book.

John Rovito