In our Author Academy we have lots of useful guidance for promoting your resources in our marketing and social media section. To introduce you to this, first we will give you 10 top tips for marketing your resources:
1 Be one step ahead
It’s always worth being ready for the early birds who’ll be looking for resources weeks ahead of when they want to teach it – particularly if you create topical content, so make sure your resources are ready before they start searching.
2 Check it does exactly what it says on the tin
Don’t get caught out by underselling or overselling your resources in your titles and descriptions. Let your customers know exactly what they’re getting.
3 Pass on your exam-related knowledge
Every year of teaching an exam class is an education in itself. Share your top hacks (and lessons) with fellow teachers, including those things you wish you knew before you started teaching a tricky topic.
4 Keep things specific
Whether you’re updating content or adding new resources, specificity sells. For example, tell your customers if you made the lesson for a GCSE class taking a certain exam board.
5 Review your content
Ensure you update your tried-and-tested resources with all the learnings you’ve gathered from delivering them in the classroom, so that your customers get an up-to-date product.
6 Build a bundle
By packaging together two or more of your complementary resources you can help teachers to find all the materials they need for a particular lesson or whole topic quickly and easily (and sell more of your resources).
7 Tempt them with a freebie
By providing samples of your content, such as making one lesson out of a unit of work free, you can advertise your brand and showcase your high-quality work to potential new buyers.
8 Tidy up your shop
Just as you try to keep your classroom, store cupboard and desk drawer tidy, it’s also a good idea to keep dusting down your shop, making sure your best content is on show and clearing out anything outdated.
9 Mastermind your promotions
Don’t forget to think about setting up discounts to increase your chances of sales, especially at times of the year when pockets can feel stretched.
10 Socialise on social
Start engaging with fellow teachers (read: potential buyers) across social platforms to share top tips between each other.
As well as promoting your resources, it’s also imperative to build yourself a brand image as a Tes resource author. Our blog here goes into depth about what you should focus on when building your brand, but to summarise some of the points which were provided by some of our knowledgeable authors:
1 Use a username that sounds both professional and trustworthy
2 Keep your resource layout consistent to make them instantly recognisable
3 Create consistency across your cover, preview and profile images, and consider creating yourself a logo to include in these
4 Remember to try and cater to all your different audience groups with your branding
Another important aspect of your resources to bear in mind is your resource cover and preview images – which are the first things your customers will see. To distinguish between the two:
- The cover image could be likened to the front cover of a book, designed to be attention grabbing with minimal information. This will be shown to users in the search results.
- The preview image will only be visible on the resource page and is designed to give the user more insight into what is included within your resource.
Here are a few tips to make sure yours are optimised:
1 Use a simple, clear and informative cover image
2 Create a branded cover image
3 Create your own resource previews so that you’re not relying on the automated default previews
4 Make sure your preview image correctly displays the content included in the resource, without showing every page
5 If you are concerned about how preview images are used, we recommend that you create your own watermarks as the default previews will not include this
For more detailed tips on creating good cover and preview images, visit our blog here.
Don’t forget, our author academy section includes much more guidance including:
Targeting specific markets
A webinar recording from one of our gold tier authors
And a breakdown of some guidance for popular social media platforms, including:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest