In this episode of the podcast, Rob Osborne is Discussing Digital with Karen Williams, a book mentor from Libertas, to discuss her journey in the publishing industry and her strategies for successful digital marketing. Karen shares how she found her passion for writing and publishing in 2006 and how her first book in 2009 transformed her business. For the past decade, she has been helping business experts write and publish their own books.
One of the key topics of our discussion is Karen’s use of digital marketing, specifically in the development and promotion of her upcoming book. She explains how she has embraced video marketing, despite not initially enjoying it, by using platforms like Zoom to record, scripting her videos, and establishing a distribution process. Karen believes that video is a crucial aspect of her digital marketing strategy, alongside her website, blog, and email marketing.
🗝️ Key Tips:
1️⃣ Collaborate with experts and outsource tasks to streamline your digital marketing efforts.
2️⃣ Amplify your influence and spread your message far and wide during a book launch.
3️⃣ Prioritize a select few digital marketing channels and master them impeccably.
4️⃣ Test, measure, and track your analytics to fine-tune your strategy for optimal results.
This transcript of Discussing Digital with Karen Williams has been produced using the transcription function of Easy-Peasy.AI
You can find out more about Easy-Peasy-AI here
Transcript of Discussing Digital with Karen Williams
**Rob Osborne**:
Hi and welcome everybody to this edition of Discussing Digital and today I’m talking with Karen Williams, the book mentor from Libertas. Karen, would you like to give a bit more of an
**Karen WIlliams**:
introduction to yourself? Absolutely, thanks for inviting me Rob. So yeah, I’m Karen Williams, I’m the book mentor and my journey started out in 2006 when really fate, difficulty at work prompted me to get my own coach and I found a coach and thought actually I found a job, a career, a business that I’d quite like to run. The first few years were a little bit challenging but everything changed for me when I wrote my first book in 2009 and I would love to say it was easy but it wasn’t and I think if it was easy I probably wouldn’t be doing what I do today. I went through where do I get started? What if it’s no good and how do I get the book published? And it did. 18 months later I was at my book launch, amazing success and it really turned my business on its head and changed it completely and I did say never again after that first one but here we are today. I’m just about to publish a second edition of the fifth book and book number 10, a planner to accompany that book will also be out in September 2023 and really for the last 10 years I’ve supported business experts to write their own books, taking them through the whole process. From idea through to publication, marketing and launch and I love what I do every day.
**Rob Osborne**:
Wow that’s great to have done so much success and be doing something you love. One of the things that I know is a feature in the book you’re about to publish but also has been a feature of what you’ve been doing over the last few months is actually using digital marketing and digital channels not only to promote your book but also at times to kind of help narrow down some of the things in it. So for instance I know you’ve done a I’ve seen and responded to polls about what should I call the book and things like that so I’d really love to kind of spend some of this episode today not just talking about the great way you use digital marketing in general because you do but specifically how you’ve been using it to help develop the book and also how you will be using it to promote the book as it goes live if that’s okay.
**Karen WIlliams**:
Absolutely one of the things I learned when I wrote that first book is one of the coaches I interviewed for it he said choose three ways of marketing your business and do them well and I think these days there’s so many things you can do that we can get overwhelmed and we think oh we need to do everything but actually you don’t but I also believe that once you’ve got three things in place like website blog email marketing you can layer other things into it and I suppose it’s the layering that I’ve been doing most recently in terms of for the book launch itself I’ve been focusing on video marketing so I’ve started doing a video blog on a Friday to take people through my own process as I approach the launch. I started it um gosh where are we now so that was probably the end of June I started it I recorded the first episode now I’m a writer I don’t enjoy videos it can take me two hours to record the five minute video um but it’s really made me up my game and also remember what I’ve done in terms of you know the launch so I’ve been doing things like I’ve been planning an Amazon launch a lot of digital stuff involved with that um setting up my own podcast again there’s a lot of tech I am using someone to help edit it and upload them but I’m doing obviously the recording of that myself um the Amazon launch is going to be a big thing so there’s a lot I’ve been doing around using digital
**Rob Osborne**:
specifically around the book itself okay yeah I mean there’s so much we could pick out just from that section so to start I’m just going to talk a bit more about video because I I mean obviously we’re recording this on video and um my aim is to turn this into a podcast as well and thank you for the introduction to the person that you’re you’re working with so I will be in contact with him there
**Rob Osborne**:
yeah I mean you said it can take you a few hours to do it but is it kind of my life oh I don’t like it but I’ve got to do it or do you kind of once you get into the swing of it and sort of enjoy it because a reason why I’m saying that is I’ve looked at your website obviously I’ll watch some of the videos that you do and you’re using video really well some really interesting stuff you’re doing so I just be interesting to kind of just talk about that a bit more uh to try and encourage some of the businesses that might not like doing video at the moment um however yeah make that bit
**Karen WIlliams**:
up well it’s keeping it simple I use zoom just to record it because it’s just easy um so I just literally set myself up in front of my computer my webcam my microphone and I I do it and I use zoom to record it so really keeping it simple I do script it because I do I like to focus on a bite-sized chunk so for example with the launch I’ve been looking at what themes do I want to cover over the launch because it could be a bit repetitive if I’m saying well I recorded a podcast interview or recorded a video and I did this and I did that so I’ve been trying to pick a theme for each um time I’ve done it so I sit here and I have a script not word by word of course but kind of just an idea of what I want to cover I do practice a couple of times I did one um yesterday for this week and I did it in one take you know sometimes you know if I fluff my words in the first few sentences I might start again but actually it’s authentically me at the end of the day if I fall over my words or you know I say a few ums and ahs or you know which is something I think all of us do it’s okay because that’s me so I I joke and say it takes a long time um normally I do it in one or two takes and I go yeah it’s good enough and I think we before before you press record we talked about you know um done is better than not done I think I remember your phrase but it’s just about doing it really and then one of the things I did is I set up a process so to remind myself of what I need to do each week so I record the video I put the captions on it I upload it to YouTube I put it on my blog and I send it out to my mailing list so they’re the five things I do and I also tell my social media manager that I’ve done it so she can do a social media post so I guess that’s five technical things that I do but because there’s a process now
**Rob Osborne**:
it doesn’t take too long yeah and I think that’s really good that you have established a process to allow you to build it in you put some time aside because that’s the other thing that a lot of people struggle with certainly small business owners they’re busy trying to do uh they’re not trying to do the wrong form they’re delivering their services or producing their their products and then how do I find the time to do this but as you say you’ve got a really good process capture some stuff about what you’ve been doing this week so there’s some content and then you put some time aside to produce it and actually uh distributes that’s a really really good tip uh for
**Karen WIlliams**:
anybody sort of uh that struggles with how to do their digital marketing yeah well well I found that you know episode two I went I can’t remember what I did last week what did I do I better write it down um and I do work with people who support me in the business but actually because I am quite technically minded myself it doesn’t take me long to do it but obviously it’s something that people can outsource as well to people who can do it so much quicker than them um but for me it’s it’s a really good reinforcement by listening back to the video and going okay so what were the key points that need to go in the blog what were you know what is the hook that I can talk about on it on a newsletter so that’s why I generally do it myself is because I can bring all of that together as I do it so literally if it’s a five minute video it takes me hour and a half two hours to actually do everything
**Rob Osborne**:
end to end so I’m just scheduling that into my time no that’s that’s that’s really good um and I think you mentioned in context about how you distribute stuff uh email marketing uh your use of email um I’d like to talk about that a little bit more because I think a lot of businesses don’t really use or like using email it’s a bit like video um but I think it’s a really important part of any digital marketing strategy so could we just talk a little bit more about how you use email uh within your um you know sort of marketing and just a raising awareness of what you’re doing
**Karen WIlliams**:
um I have a lead magnet or a couple of lead magnets on my website so a free download that people can leave their name and email address to get something valuable that’s going to help them in their business so I’ve got 21 questions I’ve got a master class as well um that also leads into other products and services that I offer to people so people like what I do they want to look at more though you know I have got a sales funnel set up I’ve been working for the last few years in conjunction with the marketing expert so he’s been working alongside me to set that up um and I keep saying to myself I’m a writer so it’s easy Rob for me to actually write stuff I’ve always got content that’s never a problem so I can take I can see something I’ve done I go oh that would make this piece of content that piece of content obviously I’ve got 10 books to produce loads and loads of content so that’s not a problem for me um I share case studies I share updates there’s all sorts of things I can do um so it’s not a problem with me and I communicate with my mailing list at least once a week and sometimes more at the moment it’s a little bit more frequent because I’ve got more to say but normally it’s at least once a week and that’s the whole idea and I usually follow that once a week um it’s always at least once a week and i’ve been using email um newsletters since i started out in 2006 so it’s not a new thing for me it’s just it’s just become that consistent habit
**Rob Osborne**:
yeah no and it’s basically it happens that you’re a writer so because that’s another thing people struggle with sometimes or i’ve got to write something um but yeah it’s so it’s it’s but it’s good that again you’re building to have it you should say you try and write to an email at least once a week uh so i think that’s really powerful um you also mentioned uh your lead magnet and the structure of your website uh because i have been through that and i must admit again i think your website’s brilliant really well structured uh i love the fact that you’re 21 questions but you’ve got that great video right on right center straight of your home page uh you and cheryl um so i think that’s really good and i have followed most of the lead magnets and stuff like that um which kind of leads us all nicely to something you talked about uh when we said about is this something you’d like me to talk about and that’s your work you did using chat gpt earlier this year yeah um and i know that’s one of the things to link through to um i haven’t had a chance to look of re watch the whole video yet uh but i will because i know it’s something that one i’m interested in but also obviously a lot of people are interested in knowing about chat gpt because it’s an ai in general because there’s so much of it out there being discussed at the moment so yeah could you give a little bit of a chat about what you’ve been doing and what you’re doing and what you’re doing and what you’re doing
**Karen WIlliams**:
and how you did you’ve used uh ai and chat gpt well i think with anything in business when you have a potential threat or potential opportunity you have to see is it a threat or an opportunity so when i came across chat gpt around about january time i signed up for a couple of webinars with other people and i thought let’s explore it i signed up for chat gpt i pay um the 20 a month so i’ve got access to it as and when i want to and to be fair i use it most days um when i ran my first master class which i can’t remember when it was now but it was earlier this year so beginning part of the year i just wanted to explore could it help me to write a book and it did i use i did an experiment saying write me a book it was a 10 000 words it was okay i would never publish it because it was just the book but actually there’s so many tools so many ways you can use chat gpt or any other ai tool to help you so for example um if you’ve got an idea if sometimes i sit down and go i want to write this email newsletter this is the kind of thing i’m i want to write so i’ll often use chat gpt as a research tool and dump it in there and just see what it comes up with normally it’s a little bit flowery it’s not my voice but it might just give me an idea of how to structure it um so sometimes i can use it like that i’ve used it to help with the updates for book marketing made simple so for example if there’s a chapter i did a new chapter on i’m using it having a street team to help promote the book so i said to chat gpt what needs to go in this chapter so it gave me some ideas so it’s almost a sanity check against what i was writing so there’s a couple of things obviously i’ve ran run some training some of my clients use it with my support it’s never going to be replaced replacement of your voice and your style but use it as a research tool use it to help you use it when you’ve got that blank page syndrome and you know you want to write something but you’ve got no idea where to start that’s when it comes into its own but don’t copy and paste it because it’s not your voice it’s it you know there are lots of red flags around chat gpt as well um but just use it in the best use it however you feel you want to use it i said i use it a lot i’ve been um don’t ask me what it’s called but i was um recommended um a another ai tool that to do podcast notes cast magic i think it was someone recommended it and i’ve been playing around with that this week and so it’s another tool i’m probably going to sign up for because again if it makes it quicker and easier for you you might as well use it
**Rob Osborne**:
yeah okay that’s quite good um you mentioned your podcast uh so this is a good opportunity to give it a little plug i know you said you’re launching it next month so give it a little
**Karen WIlliams**:
now so when i updated book marketing made simple i’ve got various experts who talk about different elements of um marketing books so things from blogging websites uh instagram linkedin um podcasts you know all sorts of things and i contacted the people that contributed to the book and said do you want to be on my podcast so that’s series one it’s called business book bites um it launches early september five five podcasts in five more to record from for the initial series and i’ve got a couple of ideas for two more series so see where the first one goes and i’ve been doing interviews like this for for long a long long time yeah but there is something that happens when you do something that’s named podcast because it kind of puts it in a different different sphere in my mind anyway yeah so it’s been it’s been
**Rob Osborne**:
interesting and i’m still learning about the different things to do with it yeah yes well you said that when we were chatting beforehand you said about that when it’s fine having a chat and then suddenly the word podcast comes in and somebody presses the record button and sometimes your mind just goes
**Karen WIlliams**:
what’s going on yeah but i’m quite a planner so i like to plan them out i like to write the introduction so i know that i’m introducing the person in the in the best possible way i don’t want to wing it um but then when the conversation goes it’s so much more organic you know we we have some ideas of questions from from the guest of what they want to be asked around the topic they’re talking about in the book and then we meander and we go wherever on the podcast itself but it’s always good to have a starting point and knowing what where you want to start with it
**Rob Osborne**:
yeah yeah absolutely and it’s they should say it’s good to have some structure but also that fluidity to go where the um kind of just the direction of the conversation goes you know um yeah but but also one of the things i found learning this is like something oh it’s not that easy to be a chat show host is it because that’s kind of what this is a bit like and sometimes you know um you you realize the skill that you’ve you’ve seen uh of of people that do chat shows here okay not as easy as it doesn’t look sometimes
**Rob Osborne**:
oh brilliant um so um talking about you you’ve said you know we obviously were talking a lot about that your book your relaunch of um book marketing made simple so um when it again we give that a little bit of a plug when is when is that going to be relaunched uh when are you launching your new book when is it due to be uh 28th of september 28th september well that’s that
**Karen WIlliams**:
was firmly booked in your head that burn yeah it was yes we’ve been working towards it so fingers crossed i think we’re all on track for that at the moment i should be getting the proof copy within the next few days um i i decided not just to launch one book because i i think i alluded to earlier i’m launching a marketing planner alongside it yeah so that’s just one of those things um tracy my business manager she when we were talking about the launch and i’ve got a couple of planners i created before a writing planner um and a writing journal and she said are you going to do a planner alongside the book and yeah and it was another another job to add to the list but again it’s about i think the most important thing rob when it comes to anything like this is knowing where you can turn to so for example i’ve got someone who does the design for me i’ve got someone who does kind of some of the marketing stuff although i’m quite technically minded and i like to jump in and do some of this um it’s good to know you’ve got other people there to support you as well you don’t need to know everything so that’s if one piece of advice that people can take from this if some of the stuff i’m saying is a little bit too much you know go to experts like you like there’s a lot of people out there who can support in so many ways and make it easy as
**Rob Osborne**:
possible okay that’s and that’s kind of preemptive one of the things i said i normally ask people when i’m recording this one is a a good tip so i’m happy to take that as your actual one thing to recommend unless you’ve got something else you want to share as one thing to recommend
**Karen WIlliams**:
um i think that’s probably my one thing that would be good um yeah i think if i had to add one more thing it’s just about raising your profile especially when it comes to a book launch you know do what you need to do to raise your profile don’t be afraid of um doing lots of stuff because actually you want your message to get out to as many people as
**Rob Osborne**:
possible so you can have that bonus tip brilliant excellent and if there was one thing to say don’t do that just don’t do it have you got one thing that was put for that as well
**Karen WIlliams**:
um don’t try and do everything um because i you know sometimes i feel like there are we talked earlier about multiple jigsaws and there’s a lot of things going on and they do all link together and they’re all on the same theme they all link together um one thing that i don’t do as much as i should do is i do test and measure but i don’t always track my analytics so for example on social media and i think that’s one of the things that’s dreamt into me is check your analytics one thing i will do as a result of the launch because i’m teaching this and because i’m taking people through my process of course i’m going to have all the figures related to that but i don’t always sit down and actually do those figures as i go and go okay so what’s worked what hasn’t worked i think when i launched my first book i pretty much threw everything marketing-wise at it and something you know something i don’t believe i wouldn’t do without marketing and i’m stuck yeah i think now now i know a little bit more about what sticks and what doesn’t um but yeah it’s always about test measure test measure and then work out what do you need to do more
**Rob Osborne**:
what do you need to do less of as a result yeah absolutely and what’s working well so i’ll do more of it and if that really isn’t working then don’t put too much energy into it go and focus on something else as well i think that’s yeah again brilliant brilliant tips um so that’s great um yeah so um before we wrap up um obviously people may well want to be able to follow what you’ve been doing uh so what’s the best way for them to get in contact with you or to be able
**Karen WIlliams**:
to follow you and then kind of maybe from there follow all your other uh channels as well um best place to go is my website libretas.com which is l-i-b-r-o-t-a-s.com and you’ve got all my social media links on there um link to book marketing made simple you can find anything
**Rob Osborne**:
you want to know about me on the website okay fantastic and we’ll put all your links into the description when we post this post the video this on youtube and once i’ve learned more
**Karen WIlliams**:
about podcasting i’ll do the same if i can when i publish this as a podcast yeah you just need
**Rob Osborne**:
some show notes yeah okay that’s cool all right well i just want to say thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today um you’ve shared so many great tips about digital marketing um and uh so i i really enjoyed not only watching learning everything that you send and reading everything you send and processing it because you share so much um but i do also like as you said about jigsaw the fact that you have all the bits in the jigsaw going so you’ve got a website you’ve got social media channels you’ve got email you’ve got video and now you’re going to have podcasts as well as well as books because that’s what your actual base business is so you’ve got it all covered um that yeah you i personally as a i just think as a personality you’re brilliant at digital marketing so yeah no it’s really good so thank you so much