15 Amazon Marketing Strategies to Boost Organic Ranking

Want to elevate your organic ranking and see your book sales skyrocket?

Then, brush up on your Amazon advertising and book marketing strategies!

Find out if you're using the latest effective approaches. If you're not, you need to adopt the strategies below.

In this article, we will talk about 15 Amazon marketing strategies that'll help you reach your goal.

1. Create an Irresistible Book Description

The book description describes what your book is about. It's also the piece that can capture your manuscript's essence and leave an unforgettable impression on readers.

Below are ways you can craft an effective book description:

Use a Killer Hook

Steal the reader's attention the instant you write your first sentence. The idea is to pique their interest and make them want to read your book.

Communicate the Benefits

Acknowledge the reader's pain points. Then let them know about your book's benefits and how these can help make their lives easier.

Feature Positive Reviews or Testimonials

Boost your trustworthiness and authenticity with these forms of social proof and User-Generated Content (UGC). They make your book more relatable and instill confidence in potential readers.

2. Optimize Your Book Title and Subtitle

Besides effectively communicating the book's message to readers, your book's title and subtitle also enhance search discoverability and marketability. The more discoverable it is, the more sales it can magnetize.

Here are tips that can help you:

Capitalize on Your Book's USP

Highlight your book's Unique Selling Point (USP). You can do this by choosing descriptive words that can help set it apart from the other books in a similar category.

Evoke Emotion

Appeal to the reader's likes, interests, and desires. You can win them over by captivating them with evocative words that resonate with them.

Use Keywords

Conduct keyword research and incorporate the keywords your target audience will likely use to find books on a particular topic.

3. Encourage Genuine Book Reviews

You wouldn't want to buy a book with terrible or no reviews, would you? This may also be the case if a book's review is obviously fabricated for the sole purpose of amplifying book sales.

Below are ways you can encourage genuine book reviews:

Run Contests

Organize contests where the winning participant gets to take home a copy of your book. Then ask them to leave an honest book review as part of the process.

Conduct Outreach Campaigns

Reach out to family, friends, and other interested parties. Do it personally via phone call or face-to-face meetings.

Offer Advanced and Free Copies

Distribute copies of your book prior to its official launch. Then, offer these books for free in exchange for an authentic book review.

4. Use Email Marketing

You might not wonder, but 4 billion daily email users are active online! So, why not use it to your advantage and use email as a channel to advertise your book?

Here are ways you can use email marketing:

Build a Segmented List

Collect email addresses. Then, segment your list. The great idea is to group emails based on interests and preferences.

Personalize and Automate Sequences

Increase engagement and open rates by customizing messages and adding a personalized touch (like using first names) to your messages. Then, take it up a notch by creating automated sequences to help continually promote your book.

Include a CTA

End your emails with a Call-to-Action (CTA) button. This way, the recipient will finish reading your message with an urge to take your desired action,

5. Engage with Your Audience on Social Media

Here's an effective social media promotion strategy to use for your book: Find out where your target audience hangs out. Then, conduct social listening to learn how to vibe with them.

Now, how you can do this:

Strike Up Conversations

Chat with them to determine if they're likely to show interest in your book. If they are, tell them about your book and give them a link to it. Double up on this by encouraging them to share the link with their peers.

Respond to Comments

Read the comments and react to them. This shows appreciation and suggests you don't ignore the readers.

Host Livestreams

Create excitement and a sense of urgency with these powerful promotional tools. Livestreams let you show your personality, demonstrate your expertise, and engage with your audience directly and in real time.

6. Create Eye-Catching Book Covers

Your book cover is a venue for you to stand out. If you appeal to your readers and steal their attention visually, that is.

Below are ways you can make this happen:

Familiarize Yourself with Your Target Audience

Learn about their behavior, interests, and dislikes. Then, use this information as the basis to design your book cover.

Refer to the "Golden Ratio"

Create harmony and a sense of balance according to the principle of the golden ratio. Designers refer to it to guide placement and aesthetic choices.

Focus on Key Elements

Draw attention to your book's central theme. The idea is to make it your cover's focal point.

7. Use Amazon Author Central

With an Amazon Author Central account, you have a place to shine as an author. Not only does this boost your credibility, but this also facilitates audience and reader engagement.

What you can do:

Add an Author Bio

Tell the audience who you are and why you wrote the book. This lets you build a connection with them.

Show Your Credibility and Mettle

Emphasize your credentials and authoritative nature. If you have any accolades, achievements, and relevant awards, feature them.

Monitor Book Performance

Track customer ratings and reviews. Based on the valuable data from Amazon Author Central, you can respond professionally to drum up book sales.

8. Optimize Your Amazon Author Bio

Your Author bio is where you can make an impression on potential readers. How you present it can make or break how they see you (and whether or not they'll buy your book).

What you can do:

Include a Professional Photo

Feature a pleasant photo of yourself. A great play is to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and ask "Would I read the book of this person in the photo?"

Add Relevant Links

Use the "Related Links" area to include relevant links to external websites. Letting the audience in on your social media accounts and blogs is how you can give them a better idea of your identity.

Share Published Works

Mention any published works to increase people's confidence in your ability as an author. This also encourages them to check out and boost the sales of your other works.

9. Leverage Influencer Endorsements

Influencers tend to have a flock of followers. Once they promote your book (and their followers show genuine interest in your book), you can count on a number of readers.

What can you do:

Work with Relevant Influencers

Identify relevant influencers with a significant amount of followers. If their values and content creation approach align with your book, partner with them.

Encourage User-Generated Content

Grant creative freedom to influencers. Then, let them ask their followers to post relevant UGC.

Use Shareable Content

Invite influencers to create easily shareable content. This way, it's effortless to distribute these to their followers (and these people can do the same).

10. Cross-Promote with Other Authors

Connect with new people and widen your reach. Not only is it effective and powerful, but it's also a strategy that borders on pragmatism. Because other authors are going to promote their books anyway, why not join in?

Below are ways to cross-promote with fellow authors:

Participate in Joint Author Events

Organize Q&A sessions, meet and greet, book discussions, and other joint author events. Participating in such events lets you attract new readership and understand more audiences.

Welcome Guest Opportunities

Be open to invitations to join podcasts, interviews, and other guest opportunities. If possible, accept the invite and show up.

Create Co-author Bundles

Offer your book as part of a set. For example, if your book is about traveling in your 20s, why not sell it as a package along with other travel-related books?

11. Participate in Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select Program

Amazon's KDP Select offers unique advantages and promotional opportunities. Enroll your book exclusively on Amazon for 90 days to join.

Here are ways you can make the most of it:

Run a Free Book Promotion

Attract more readers and increase visibility with this free Amazon advertising campaign. To reap the rewards, ensure you offer your book for free during Free Book Promotion campaigns.

Use Kindle Countdown Deals

Magnetize readers who love discounted prices of books for a limited time. This promotional tool (Kindle Countdown Deals) is known to ramp up sales during the promotional period.

Leverage Kindle Unlimited

Encourage people to read your book for free via Kindle Unlimited. Then, encourage them to leave a review, tell their friends about it, or both. Once your book's enrolled in Amazon's KDP Select, they become Kindle Unlimited Subscribers.

12. Guest Blog on Relevant Websites

Search for websites that match your book's message, vibe, and tone. Then, contact the webmasters to propose a guest blog.

How to deal with this:

Create High-Quality Posts

Write a post that reeks of excellence. Focus on providing authoritative information, visual appeal, and digestible and error-free content.

Harmonize with Their Audiences

Study each website closely and be attentive to their audience's preferences. Then, refer to this data as you craft a top-quality submission that resonates with readers.

Offer Exclusive Content

Provide unique value to the webmaster and strengthen your relationship. An effective way to do this is to offer content that nobody can find elsewhere.

13. Create an Author Website or Blog

In addition to boosting book sales, setting up an author website will help your marketability as an author. If you optimize it with relevant keywords and design it strategically, it'll also help you rank high in search results—another benefit that can lead to increased book sales.

How to go about this like a pro:

Choose the Right Platform

Opt for common options like WordPress or Blogger. Or you can go with Wix or Squarespace.

The objective is to choose a user-friendly platform that'll help you develop an author website easily.

Feature a Media Kit

Design a page or section solely for your brand's media kit. Add your author profile, photos, press releases, book cover designs, and other forms of media coverage.

Strengthen Your Brand

Define your website's logo, site icon, color schemes, and other branding elements. Ensure they are in sync, reflect your author persona, and make your collective efforts respectable.

14. Make the Most of Amazon’s “Look Inside” Feature

Here's a fun idea: Give the audience a sneak peek of your book. Fortunately, Amazon's "Look Inside" feature lets you do this.

How to go about this:

Optimize Your Book Sample

Compel audiences from the start. Ensure the beginning of your book is well-crafted, engaging, and intriguing.

Ensure Professionalism

Check to see if your book includes high-quality formatting. A well-formatted and error-free book impresses the reader and implies high quality.

End with a CTA

Invite the reader to purchase your full book. You can incentivize them (by giving them a discount) to take inspire immediate action.

15. Offer Limited-Time Discounts

Did you know that if you use urgent language like "Buy Now" and "Read Today," you're persuading the reader to take an actionable step more quickly?

It's called an urgency hack. Consider using this tactic too!

What else you can do:

Run Flash Sales

Hold a sale that lasts for only hours or days. It drums up a sense of urgency and enhances the impact of the idea of a discounted price.

Celebrate Special Days

Announce your book's anniversary, a personal achievement, or other special moments. Then, use these events as the reason you're offering a limited-time discount.

Offer Pre-Order Promotions

Show gratitude to the enthusiastic reader who put in a pre-order for your upcoming book. Giving them an exclusive discount is a way of thanking them for committing to a book purchase.

Final Thoughts

Selling your book on Amazon can be challenging.

The hard part? It's a competitive marketplace with a plethora of high-profile authors.

If you think not many people want to buy your book, then you need to elevate yourself and sharpen your Amazon marketing campaigns.

If you refer to the strategies above, you'll see an increase in readership and engagement.

Chances are, you won't see results immediately. Give these strategies time, though.

Just stay persistent and unwavering. Soon enough, you'll see your book sales increase.