The business book market is ever-growing and highly competitive. To be successful, you must know your product, flex your expertise muscles, and keep your book relevant.

1. Start promoting to your niche business market first: Have you written a finance book? Start by promoting your book to finance media. Is your book a ‘how to’ for small businesses? Begin by pitching your book to small business interest media. The key to publicity is to build awareness in your niche market before you target mainstream media. By contacting media specific to your business genre, you’ll establish recognition among the groups that matter most. Once the ‘buzz’ sets in, then you can test out the waters in the mainstream business market.

2. Write by-line articles: Write what you know! Your by-line articles should be an extension of your expertise and your book. Each main point in your book can be a topic for an article. Another ideal source for by line articles comes from tracking industry news. Writing and pitching articles that tie in to current business events will help brand you as the ‘expert’ in your field and keep your book timely since publicity for you will encourage publicity for your title. If you’re ever struggling to think of article topics, go back to your table of contents and extract the main idea of each chapter. Sometimes you have to go back to the beginning to get a fresh start!

3. Monitor the news: By tracking industry news trends, you’ll be able to respond more quickly to ongoing business developments. With news – and with business – it’s important to have the edge and staying on top of ongoing trends allows you to position yourself for interview and commentary opportunities before your peers.

Tip: Set up Google Alerts for key phrases in your industry. You’ll be quickly notified of breaking news and can pitch your media contacts to offer insight into appropriate issues and trends.

4. Make your own news. Some of our best material to pitch comes from business authors who created their own surveys, statistics, or identified trends in their industry. Your information and your results become “news” and when it is covered in an interview, article, feature story, you are continuing to build your brand and name as a thought-leader.

5. Set up speaking engagements: There are a few business-oriented groups that provide business professionals with great places to network and grow their brand.

• Register your company with your local Better Business Bureau: An organization founded on “advancing marketplace trust,” your local BBB will introduce you to other organizations within your industry. You may contact these organizations and offer to hold a presentation about a topic in your book.
• Don’t plug your book during the presentation but do let your audience know that they can learn more about the topic in your book before you close. For information Join the National Speakers Association: Membership to the National Speakers Association (NSA) allows you to expand your client list service and reach a wider audience through your message all while generating awareness about your book. Their annual convention is a great place to network! Believe us, we’ve been there. For more information about NSA, visit: http://www.nsaspeaker.org/.
• Now that you’re starting to present, make sure your speaking practices are top notch with Toastmasters International: “is a non-profit organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of meeting locations.” For more information about Toastmasters, visit: http://www.toastmasters.org/.

Corinne Liccketto is the Sales & Marketing Manager at Smith Publicity, Inc. Beginning in 1997, Smith Publicity is one of the world’s leading promotional firms, specializing in book publicity. Fueled by a passion for making good things happen for clients, the company has worked with over 900 individuals and companies–from authors and entrepreneurs to publicly-held companies and businesses representing a wide range of industries. The Smith Publicity reach is international with offices in New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, and London. For more information about Smith Publicity, Inc., please visit www.smithpublicity.com.