Eye-catching promotion to pique your reader’s interest…
As marketing specialists, part of our role is staying right on top of current promo tactics and tracking the success and improvement areas of all our campaigns. Like us, I’m sure you’ve noticed something: no matter what seems to be the ‘sweet spot for promotion’ at the time, pictures and rich visuals get more engagement.
Our dandy little graphic cards are called a number of different things (teasers, quote cards, memes, man candy, promo graphics), but they are always eye-catching, attention-hooking, informative and shareable – main hit-points you want in social media, blog, and newsletter posts.
Here’s a quick run-down of what we like to include in our quote cards.
Disclaimer: the featured authors in this post happen to have varying levels of steam to their writing, but it’s not a necessary factor for an effective quote card!
Three main components of an effective quote card:
1. A snappy slice of dialogue or extra-vivid description taken right from your book
You want people to read this card, buy your book, and see that line, and many more like it, as they sink into your story. That will be a satisfied customer, and hopefully a return reader.
As for length, there is some debate on this, but we like to keep ours short and sweet. Say, four very short sentences as the max. This keeps the text large and easy to read – the idea is to tease, so just a little taste is enough. We prefer to save longer excerpts for spotlight blog posts (that won’t make your fans squint).
2. Your book’s cover and your name.
You need to make sure that everyone who sees the graphic knows exactly where that quote is coming from – your work! So feature your book’s cover as much as you can while keeping the text the focal point of your graphic. And if your name and the book’s title are not super clear on the cover, then don’t be afraid to put both elsewhere on the quote card.
3. Some genre-appropriate eye-candy.
There is no need to compromise your genre or confuse your audience with eye-candy outside of your brand. A clear shot of a woman’s face showing any kind of emotion is just as eye-catching as a couple in a sexy pose or a nice piece of man-chest. Landscape scenery or fan art may also be the perfect fit depending on your audience. The goal is for potential readers to notice your graphic when scrolling by, but also for you to be consistent with your brand, and the genre of your story – it’s always better to let readers know exactly what to expect when it comes to genre and especially sexy-times content as we've featured in this post.
Here are some examples of how we’ve put these tips to use for romance authors. Enjoy!
Looking for some promo graphics to boost a new release or revive your backlist titles? We can help. Send us a message here, or check out our Book Promotion services to look over our packages and how we can help you get noticed!
Are you a D-I-Y author?
We've got you covered with some great resources to help you along the way. Beautiful, free images and do-it-yourself design tools can be found at pixabay, PEXELS, BURST, Ivory Mix, and Canva.
As always, we're here if you have any questions. Happy Promoting!
