No matter how you published your book, whether you signed a traditional publishing contract, worked with a hybrid publishing house, or chose to self-publish, marketing your book is one of the most consistent and most difficult parts of the publishing process.

Marketing any product (including books) has a few main steps, and keeping these in mind while you begin your adventure into the wild realm of marketing will help streamline your efforts.

Step 1: Understand the Marketing Funnel

When you think of a marketing funnel, I want you to imagine the big “toilet bowl” water slide at most water parks. You know the one. You go in on a big tube with four other riders and you swirl around and around at the top of the water, progressing slowly toward the same end point and hoping you don’t get stuck going over the lip. Multiple tubes get stuck in that swirl at once, and depending on how the current grabs the tube, someone who entered the ride after you may slide down that inevitable drain first.

This is marketing 101, the very first thing you will ever learn about customer interactions in any class or book. This funnel has three main segments: entry (top of funnel), warming the audience (middle of funnel), and sale (end of funnel).

All of your marketing efforts for your book should fulfill one of those three roles. Ideally, each role should flow into the next—just like the current on that water slide.

Step 2: Set up your Entry Point(s)

Anything you can do to be discovered is an entry point. Social Media, interviews, in-person events, even publishing your book—these are all points in the journey where someone can discover you. The more you have* the easier you will be to discover, and the more naturally your sales will come.

Step 3: Prime your Audience

The more often someone interacts with your content, the more likely they are to eventually buy a product you sell. Give your followers a reason to engage with you. Post often enough to stay on their mind. Engage with the people who engage with you. Drive them toward a more intimate form of communication. Your email list is fantastic for this sort of interaction. If you get people interacting with you, it’s likely they like you and what you’re doing. That’s the position you want them in when you move to the next step.

Step 4: Close the Deal

When your audience is warm, they’ve been interacting and they’ve been following, they’re most likely to say yes to a bigger ask. Think about when you were young and you wanted to ask your parents for a little extra cash for ice cream or a fun night out at the movies. Did you do all your chores and maybe even do a little extra to make sure they’d be in a good mood before you asked for that extra, out-of-the-ordinary thing?

You’re doing the same thing with your followers in this step. Now that they like you, you can ask them for the big ask: pitch your book and provide an easy call to action.

That’s it! How you accomplish each of these steps will be determined by your personal brand and your personal comfort zone. What works for one book may not work for your book, but the marketing funnel stays the same no matter what you’re selling.

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*Only set up as many entry points as you can comfortably manage and maintain. Too many may decrease your effectiveness because you can’t engage with every potential lead.

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