Street team marketing for authors
This is one of the most potent forms of marketing you can employ for your book. It’s not just restricted to book launch time, but that’s when it’s most often used.
I strongly recommend involving a street team from the very beginning of your writing process - but it’s also true that it’s never too late to set one up. Even if your book is already written and launched, you could create a street team as part of a new promotion for your already-published book.
What is a street team for authors?
Your street team is a group of fans of your work who commit to actively promoting your book. They may do this by pre-ordering copies ahead of publication day, by posting reviews, or talking about the book on social media, and/or promoting other book-related events, giveaways or competitions you may be running.
The term comes from the music industry, where teams of fans might literally hit the streets to put up posters in advance of a band’s live event.
Usually street teams aren’t paid - the idea is that they’re genuine fans who enjoy sharing their enthusiasm with others - but they’re often incentivized via special access to the author, signed copies of books and other forms of perks or prizes.
What’s the benefit of working with a street team?
Your street team is the genesis of your word-of-mouth marketing. You can’t write reviews of your own work, and there’s a limit to how many people you can directly recommend your book to. But your street team can write hundreds of reviews, and can reach audiences to whom you have no access. They generate your social proof for you, which then leads to more book sales (and some of those book buyers may go on to leave book reviews or recommend your book to others, increasing the ripple effect).
It’s a real privilege to have a street team - you get your own marketing team, working on your behalf to promote your book.
It’s also worth remembering that your street team is part of your overall author platform, so it’s something to talk about in your Book Proposal, if you’re going down the traditional publishing route.
How and when to recruit your street team
In an ideal world, you’ll start creating your street team at the same time as you start planning and writing your book. This way, you’ll initially recruit beta readers, who will go on to become street team members, meaning they’ll have an incredible feeling of ownership and belonging, having been involved from the inception of the book.
However, in most cases, people start recruiting their street team much closer to their book launch. Usually they’ll do a shout-out on social media or via their newsletter (or podcast, or whatever platform makes most sense for them), asking for interested people who’d like to get involved.
When you make the ask, it’s important to be clear about what exactly you’re asking people to do for you and how (if at all) you’re planning to reward them for their efforts.
How should you manage your street team?
Usually authors either create a private forum (such as a Facebook or Slack group) for their street team and/or they set up a separate newsletter to stay in touch and let people know about new opportunities. Essentially, you want to ensure that communication is smooth, transparent and two-way. It’s important that you encourage people to let you know about any problems or concerns, and it’s equally important to make sure that you create a sense of buzz and excitement about taking part.
You want to make sure that your street team members feel special, and that people who go the extra mile on your behalf feel appreciated for doing so. Depending on the size of your group, it may be easy for you to stay personally in touch with members, or you may need to create some kind of leaderboard system, so that people who are going all-out get recognized.
What kinds of rewards should you offer your street team?
The most common rewards are access to you and your work (either sneak peeks into your work in progress or private Q&A sessions), but all kinds of options are possible. Depending on how your business is set up, it might make sense to offer free or discounted access to your other courses or programmes, or a one-off 1:1 coaching session for people who’ve really gone out of their way to help you.
Free or signed copies of your book are an obvious thank you, or free access to book-related events that you’re running.
What else is in it for street team members?
Successful street teams are built when the author taps into creating a sense of community and shared purpose for their street team members. It’s not just about people supporting you personally (although of course it’s lovely when that happens), it’s about bringing like-minded people together to support a bigger cause. If you can help to connect the members to one another and also instill a feeling that everyone’s working towards the bigger movement that your book is part of, you’re likely to have a flourishing street team.