This year has seen the emergence of a new category of self-help books: Thrillers set in the world of e-commerce.

Whether you’re an independent author looking to break into a new market or an established business looking to expand your customer base, you can use the methods below to promote your book online.

1. Create compelling content.

Good content marketing is about much more than just attracting visitors to your site. Building a community around your content provides you with the opportunity to engage with your audience, promote your merchandise, and ultimately grow your business.

Creating compelling content means you’re giving the reader a reason to engage with you, your book, and what you have to say. While a traditional blog post might include a number of keywords and a few engaging sentences, compelling content will also include details that appeal to the reader’s senses and an emphasis on creating something that is memorable.

2. Build a platform.

Blogs and other content-centric platforms are simply the foot in the door; you can use these to establish yourself as an authoritative voice in your field and build a base of engaged followers who will want to hear what you have to say. Whether you’ve written a bestselling book or are just planning on writing a novel, having a platform will give you the opportunity to share your work and further establish yourself as an expert in your industry.

Whether you’re using Amazon, Apple, or another e-commerce platform, publishing a book is just the beginning. Once you’ve got a few dozen or hundred thousand followers on your blog, you can explore the lucrative world of content marketing, driving paid advertising and sponsorship deals to further expand your reach.

So how do you get started with content marketing? Use the methods below to find the right fit for your business.

Find your niche.

Whether you’re an expert in SEO or content strategy, you’ll want to explore the world of e-commerce and dive into how Google AdWords and other platforms work. But before you get started, find your niche. What do you know, research reveals that people searching for your niche are more likely to purchase products related to what you’ve written. So by exploring these online shopper insights, you can identify the ideal market for your content and the products that they’re likely to be interested in.

For example, if you’re an expert in SEO and you write a guide to improving your SEO strategy, you could explore the key phrases in Google AdWords that generated the most interest in relation to your niche. An ideal market for your content might be SEO novices who would benefit from your expertise. In this example, your ideal buyer is someone who’s new to SEO and searching for ways to improve their strategy. This is the kind of person you can help by creating a free guide for them.

Create educational content.

If you’re considering creating educational content to go alongside your book, then treat it like a course for beginners. Imagine you’ve just written a how-to guide on SEO, how does a typical reader interact with your content?

Your guide might start with a short definition of SEO, followed by step-by-step instructions on how to implement SEO into your strategy. Once this is done, you can move on to the nitty-gritty and explain the various metrics you might track to see how your SEO strategy is doing. Or maybe you’ve written a how-to guide on how to become a digital marketer, and you can move from explaining what a digital marketer does all the way through to showing your readers how to find the job they’re looking for. In this scenario, your guide acts as a primer for those who might not have much experience in this area.

Whatever your niche, you can write a guide that will serve as a concise introduction for beginners. By creating walkthroughs that guide your readers step-by-step through the information you’ve covered in your book, you can give them the confidence to explore further on their own. When done right, the results of your efforts might just result in a sale or two!

3. Use social media.

With hundreds of thousands of users, it’s perhaps not a great surprise that social media has taken the world by storm. Whether you’ve got a blog or an Instagram account, you can use these platforms to establish yourself as an expert in your niche and gain valuable traction in your field. To get started, simply follow the steps below:

Visit each of the platforms individually and take note of how you can grow your audience. From blogging to Instagram, you can find your perfect fit using the steps below. Just remember to be consistent across all platforms so that your audience knows you’re there to stay!

Start a blog.

Blogs have been around for decades but have mostly been used to share personal stories or express an opinion. Today, however, they can serve a much more practical function as a vehicle to conduct business. The same goes for content marketers looking to create, curate, or comment on content.

Starting a blog isn’t as difficult as you’d think. You don’t need a ton of money to get started, and you don’t need to have thousands of dollars to pay for hosting or tools. WordPress itself is free, and you can use a range of free or cheap tools to build and grow your blog.

You might consider taking advantage of the free trial offered by Shopify, which gives you access to all the functionalities of their software for a set period of time.

Use social media.

Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat are the big three when it comes to social media platforms. Typically thought of as image-based platforms, these allow you to share and engage with content that is both visual and engaging.

While Instagram and Pinterest are great for driving traffic and engaging with potential customers, Snapchat is more directed at sharing intimate experiences with your followers.

Each of these platforms can serve a business, educational, or creative purpose, and each one has a distinct audience. Use the steps below to find the right platform for you.

Find your niche.

Writing a topical guide on SEO can put you in touch with a massive audience of people who are seeking information on SEO. However, if your guide becomes extremely popular, you risk saturation as more and more people try and follow the guide. Alternatively, if you want to explore the world of e-commerce, you can use platforms like Shopify to build your store, or use a tool like Google Product Search to find the competition and figureheads in your niche. In both of these examples, you’ll want to find your niche in terms of the audience you’re aiming to reach and the products or services you’ll be promoting.

4. Get a website.

For those looking for something a little more traditional, a website is a great way to promote your book. The amount of text on a typical website can be a little intimidating for those just getting started, but the good news is that websites haven’t really changed that much over the years. Once you get the hang of it, establishing a website isn’t that difficult. You can use platforms like Shopify to build your store, or use a tool like Google Product Search to find the competition and figureheads in your niche.

With a website comes the opportunity to conduct business via forms, social media sharing, and email marketing. Plus, you can use SEO to get your site ranked in the search engines. If you’ve got a niche audience, a blog, or a social media account, a website is a great way to promote your work and build your brand.

Create digital marketing material.

If SEO is something you’re familiar with, then you might consider exploring the world of digital marketing, which aims to drive traffic to a website using various digital platforms and various forms of content, including video marketing.

The role of a digital marketer is typically thought of as someone who creates advertisements and social media campaigns for companies. However, with the right training, qualifications, and exposure, you can carve out a niche for yourself and become an expert in digital marketing for businesses.

Exploring digital marketing is a step up from simply exploring SEO. Not only will you learn a completely new set of terms and concepts, but you’ll get the opportunity to take part in a range of tasks, including keyword research, ad placement, and strategy. Learning these new skills and becoming an expert isn’t as difficult as you’d think. Just remember to be consistent and to continue learning.