It’s important to remember that your author marketing budget isn’t just about money. You’ll also need to consider how much time and emotional labor you can afford to invest because setting and understanding these aspects of your budget is crucial to building a sustainable and joyful marketing plan. What do I mean by emotional and time budgets? And how do you know how to set them? I’ll explain below.
A Limited Resource in Your Author Marketing Budget: Time
Although your financial author marketing budget can vary, and most are limited in some way, it’s much easier to come up with more money than it is time. You can’t buy time. So, it’s important that you decide how much time you can set aside and dedicate to your marketing efforts. How much time do you have? Is it enough to meet your goals without inducing unneeded stress?
To figure out your time budget you’ll have to consider your goals, your schedule and your roadmap. You can choose to dedicate your time in the way that works best for you. You can create a weekly, or even a daily or monthly budget for your time. This is why it’s helpful to understand your goals and make sure they align with your budget. Keep in mind that even if you can’t buy more time, your schedule can be rearranged if necessary. Just remember, you don’t want to end up in burnout mode.
You Can’t Create More Time But You Can Decide When to Use it
It may be helpful to consider how much time you have to invest in stages. For example, you might want to invest more time now, during your building process, and then reevaluate your time again after your book launch. Please be kind to yourself. You can always invest more time when you have it, but if you over budget, you’ll find yourself in burnout mode and your passion will quickly become your burden.
If you want to make sure your budget and your goals align, read my post on knowing your purpose for writing your book. This will help you more clearly define your goals, which in turn will help you structure your author marketing budget. You can read it here.
Factoring Emotional Labor into Your Author Marketing Budget
Your emotional budget is perhaps the most critical and the most overlooked part of your author marketing budget. So, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions and be honest in your answers. Below I’ve listed some things for you to consider.
For instance, how comfortable are you with sharing? Are you comfortable in front of a camera? How savvy are you with technology? Do you love being in front of a crowd, or do you prefer to direct from behind the scenes?
How Do You Feel About Sharing?
How comfortable are you with sharing about yourself? Are you an open book, or more private? This is important to consider because authors are expected to put themselves out there, and sharing with your audience is a way to build trust and a sense of connection.
But you don’t have to be something you’re not, or share parts of yourself or your experience you prefer to keep private. Remember, sharing what you want to share and how you want to share it is part of being authentic too!
Your Visibility. Are You Willing to Get in Front of Your Audience?
You may not have thought to factor in shyness when structuring your author marketing budget, but visibility is a big part of your emotional budget. I’m referring to visibility in the sense of literally being seen by your audience. Are you comfortable in front of a camera? Will you be creating videos with you at the center? What about speaking in front of an audience?
This is all important to consider because if you’re not comfortable being seen and putting yourself front and center, it can be emotionally taxing. If this is the case, you can shift your energy to other marketing strategies like guest blogging and article publication, for example.
Are You Tech Savvy? Or Will Learning New Skills Drain Your Emotional Budget
Another thing that can drain your emotional budget is learning new skills. Are you already established on a social platform? Do you know how to create an Instagram reel, or edit and crop photos, for example? Do you see Canva (or similar tools) as helpful and fun or is it another frustrating experience? If you’re not already savvy online, and the prospect of learning new skills is stressful to you, you have options.
If navigating the social media landscape seems daunting, you may want to consider shifting some of the financial portion of your author marketing budget towards things like social media content creation, for instance. Remember, your author marketing strategy needs to be sustainable, and a strained emotional budget can lead to burnout.
If you shy away from social media, but still have the energy in your emotional budget for other types of promotion, here are some marketing ideas from the Monkey C Media blog that don’t involve social media.
Do Ideas Flow Freely or Do You Struggle with Content Creation?
Many authors I work with struggle with content creation. We all have different creative styles and some of us have more to say than others. Some struggle with the consistency and frequency required for regular blogging or newsletter creation.
Although regular content creation is a huge factor in your website SEO, discoverability, and audience growth, it may not be for everyone.
This is another area where you can shift money from your author marketing budget to save on your emotional budget. This is why content writers and creators exist! If you need help in this area, add content creation to your financial budget.
Adapt Your Author Marketing Budget to Create the Balance You Need
You’ll need to consider all aspects of your author marketing budget in order to develop a realistic plan that will work for you now and into the future. If you are uncomfortable being on video, then a weekly video is a bad plan, if blog writing makes you break out in hives, then a regular blog is also a bad idea. On the other hand, maybe you have great ideas and the money to invest in a helper who can turn your ideas into blog posts and articles!
As part of your brand, you’re building a strategic marketing plan that will establish your authority, build your online identity, and solidify your personal style. If the time and emotional budget involved in this plan causes you stress, you’ll avoid it and you’ll never find the success you seek. So, plan your author marketing budget with all this in mind and shift it where necessary so you can move forward with a joyful and sustainable plan.
