The New Year of 2021: How to Work with Any New Year to Market Your Books

You can use the new year of 2021 (or any new year!) as a tool for getting publicity for your book, increasing social media awareness, or upping traffic to your website. Here are a few 2021 and New Year headlines I’ve seen in the past month (in my email and in blog posts):

All You Can Control in 2021 is You. Here’s How to Do It — This is a great headline for any self-help or spirituality book. You can go in many directions from this headline.

The Best Price for an Ebook in 2021 — This headline targets a specific group: self-publishing authors who want to know how to price their ebooks for the most sales and/or income. And, if the article lived up to the headline, it would provide updated info to many authors and publishers.

Boost Your Sales in 2021 with Xxx — For a business post, this is a very attractive headline because it promises that you can increase your sales by using Xxx services or products.

Chicken Soup’s Jack Canfield on writing and selling your books in 2021 — This headline features a top author influencer on selling your books in the new year. A lot of people would click through on a headline featuring a key influencer, especially if they love that influencer.

Expert Advertising Predictions for 2021 — Expert predictions are always hot at the beginning of a new year, especially if the readers respect the experts making predictions.

5 Food Trends We Think Will Be Big in 2021 — Trend stories at the beginning of a new year are always hot. What trends do you see in your field? New trends in science fiction. New trends in dating. New trends in sports. New trends in business. Lots of opportunities to get attention!

5 Lessons from 2020 to Make the Most of 2021 — Always a great article: Reflect on the lessons you learned in the previous year and apply them to the new year.

5 Nonprofit Digital Marketing Trends for 2021 — Trend stories at the beginning of a new year are always hot. What trends do you see in your field?

5 Tricks to Gain Instagram Followers Organically in 2021 — People love tricks because they promise to be easy to do. If you’re going to promise something easy, make sure it’s actually easy.

Happy New Year! New Year Means a New Opportunity to Improve — Every new year offers new beginnings. Does your book offer new beginnings? Or a new way of doing things?

How Influencers Are Shaping 2021 — A forward-looking headline where you can talk about all the possibilities for 2021. This headline would work for a series of podcasts, video interviews, a Zoom summit, etc.

How New Technology Will Make Podcast Advertising Surpass $1B in 2021 — First thing I would do with this headline is spell out billion (replace the B). That way anyone, no matter how naïve or newbie, would get that this is a big deal worth shouting about and sharing.

How to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Work—from Someone Who Lost 90 Pounds — A proof-based, or at least experience-based, article about making resolutions work. One of the most popular topics at the beginning of a new year are diets, self-help, and inspiration—all, of course, based on making changes for the new year.

How to Sell Books in 2021 — Any headline featuring tips on how to do something, perhaps better, in a new year will always pull readers in.

Kick Off 2021 with 25% Off Pro Annual — A clear advertising headline offering a discount — always a winner!

Make 2021 a SUPER Year with These Checks — Another advertising headline offering a super year if you use their checks. The beginning of a new year is a good time to encourage people to try out your products or services.

Marketing 2021: Rebound, Personalization, and Digital Honesty — I presume this story would talk about three key elements of marketing anything in 2021. If it doesn’t, of course, it fails its promise.

The Most Important Thing You Need to Know for 2021 — What is the most important thing you need to know in 2021? This headline can cover any topic: food, science, history, politics, self-help, business, marketing, or more.

National Branding Strategist Talks Super Bowl Ads: The Good, Bad & What to Expect in 2021 — This headline features a number of top highlights: a national strategist on branding (national experts are more trustworthy than local experts), Super Bowl ads, and what to expect in 2021 (before the Super Bowl). After the Super Bowl, the ads are often a hot trending topic, more so than who won the game! If you watch the game and see an ad that you can relate to your book’s topic, write a blog post or article that day and share it everywhere you can. Writing about Super Bowl ads are an effective way to get attention for the few days after the Super Bowl.

New Mexico Is 2021’s Worst State for Singles — A 2021 tie-in headline as a lead up to romantic stories around Valentine’s Day. Note that this headline actually names the worst state.

New Year, New Beginnings, Let’s Plan It Better with This Gift — Again, new beginnings. Planning for a new year, a new effort.

New Year, New Business Goals — A weak headline, but focused on new business goals. I might make the headline more proactive: In 2021, Set New Business Goals to Grow Your Business!

New Year, New Opportunity — This is a great generic headline you can use for a new year article, podcast, video, blog post, Medium story, etc. The benefit of a generic headline is that it’s not limited to 2021 or any specific new year. So, if it’s a great article, it could continue to get views, likes, social media shares, Google love, and Alexa rankings.

9 YouTube Marketing Predictions for 2021 — Predictions, trends, habits, things to stock up on, etc. are all things that can make for good headlines at the beginning of a new year.

The #1 deal to launch and scale your super successful startup in 2021 — One of the keys when promoting something for the new year: Talk about success.

150 Global Trends We Expect to Take Off in 2021 — Trends are always popular at the end of an old year as well as at the beginning of a new year.

6 Writing Habits You Should Adopt in 2021 — Change is always hot in a new year. New habits you should adopt goes along with change for the new year.

Sponsors in 2021? 3 Ways to Get Sponsors, Even Now — Feature a number of ways to do something in 2021, especially if your category is changing or has changed during the past year.

10 Healthy Foods Coming to Aldi Stores in January — If you are promoting a retail store or an online store, highlight the new things coming to your store in the new year.

10 Healthy Foods to Stock Up on at Costco This Year — Rather than highlight what’s coming to your store, encourage people to stock up on what’s coming.

10 Post Pandemic Opportunities to Grow Your Business in 2021 — Another opportunity to grow in the new year. In fact, this email headline offers ten opportunities!

31% Growth in 2020: Study Shows How Some Firms Pulled It Off — Some key words here that help to make this headline a top headline: Growth is always great news. Studies are always worth citing. And how someone pulled off something successfully makes for a great story.

3 Things I’m Buying Myself to Get a Little Healthier in 2021 — A personal focus for improvement in the new year. Self-help, diets, self-improvement, spiritual growth are all hot topics for changing during the new year. This can be tied into new year resolutions.

365 Days: What Will You Do with Them? — A question you can ask at the beginning of any new year.

The Top 20 Cocktails of 2021 — Feature the top 10 or top 20 of something for the new year. Of course, the top 10 or 20 listing should be related to your book topic.

The Top 2021 Trends That’ll Spark New Ideas — Pinterest sent out an email with this headline. They encouraged people to look into the top trends for the new year to develop new pins.

20 Questions to Know If You’re Ready for Retirement in 2021 — 20 questions to focus on at the beginning of a new year to see if you are ready for anything (in this case, retirement). This headline, of course would have worked better if they had featured 21 questions to ask in ’21.

The 2020 Election Coup: The Bellwether Breakdown — Not really a retrospective for the year 2020, but a specific headline related to the 2020 presidential election.

2020 in Review: How COVID-19 Impacted Journalists, Our Top Blog Posts & More — Retrospective news articles or blog posts at the end of the old year or at the beginning of the new year are always a hit. Featuring top blog posts or articles is an effective way to drive people once more to your website.

2021 Book Cover Trends — As always, trend stories are hot at the end of a year or the beginning of the new year. You can write a story about the trends in your business, in your topic, in your genre.

2021 Is the Year of the Quitter: 7 Things Leaders Should Stop Doing — Note how this headline leads easily into a news release or blog post or Medium article. This kind of headline works well for any sort of business topic.

2021’s Manscaping/Womanscaping Trends

2021’s Best & Worst Cities for Basketball Fans
2021’s Best & Worst Cities for Football Fans & Super Bowl LV by the Numbers
2021’s Best and Worst Cities for Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions
2021’s Best and Worst Cities for Singles
2021’s Best and Worst Places to Raise a Family
2021’s Best and Worst States for Living Off the Grid
2021’s Best and Worst States to Start a Farm or Ranch
2021’s Best and Worst U.S. Cities for Remote Workers
2021’s Best and Worst U.S. Cities to Be Stuck at Home
2021’s Best Baseball Cities
2021’s Best Biking Cities in America
2021’s Best California Wine Counties
2021’s Best Cities for Cheese Lovers in the U.S.
2021’s Best Cities for College Basketball Fans
2021’s Best Cities for Golfers in America
2021’s Best Cities for Hiking
2021’s Best Cities for Hockey Fans
2021’s Best Cities for Living Without a Car
2021’s Best Cities for Locavores
2021’s Best Cities for Naked Gardening
2021’s Best Cities for Outdoor Jobs
2021’s Best Cities for Pizza Addicts
2021’s Best Cities for Soccer Fans
2021’s Best Cities for Spring Outdoor Activities
2021’s Best Cities for Urban Gardening
2021’s Best Cities for World Naked Gardening Day
2021’s Best Cities to Get Stoned
2021’s Best Cities to Own an Electric Car
2021’s Best Cities to Own a Vacation Home
2021’s Best Cities to Own a Vacation Rental
2021’s Best Places for Valentine’s Day
2021’s Best Sports Cities
2021’s Best States to Start a Farm or Ranch
2021’s Dirtiest Cities in America
2021’s Happiest Cities in America
2021’s Horniest Cities in America
2021’s Most Glamorous Cities in America
2021’s Most Relaxed Cities in America
2021’s Most Romantic Gardens in the U.S.
2021’s Most Sinful States
2021’s Most Sustainable Cities
2020’s Most Generous U.S. Cities (looking back at the old year)

All of the above headlines are for stories about cities, but note how you could have a headline about cities but tie it into remote working, being stuck at home, keeping New Year’s resolutions (a double new year hit), living off the grid, golfing hot spots, traveling while poor, eating local food, starting a ranch, avoiding dirty cities, glamour sites, or even generosity or giving. So you can use a best and worst cities listing to feature any topic related to your book!

2021 Predictions in Digital Marketing — One of the hottest ways to start of a new year is by making predictions, especially for things that will happen in your field. Here’s one of my main predictions for book marketing in 2021: Book marketing will become more social — but not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube. They are so passé. So old-school. So boring. So not happening. I’ll tell about the new online social magic in another story.

2021 Sports Calendar: Plan Your Coverage, from the X Games to the Bowl Games — Offer a calendar for the new year—for sports, for business, for food, for romance, for travel, and on and on. Focus, of course, on your key topic.

2021 State of the Media Survey — Surveys are a great way to discover trends for a new year. For the publicist and marketer, surveys are a great twofer: announce the survey and make the news, then announce the results of the survey and make the news again.

25 Top Tools for Writers to Crush It in 2021 — A headline featuring tools to use for a new year will attract attention.

21 Questions to Know If You’re Ready for Retirement in 2021 — Asking questions is something we all do at the beginning of a new year. You can tie into that impulse by featuring a list of questions to ask for a specific topic in your area.

21 Recipes to Celebrate the Start of 2021 — A number post playing off of 21 for 21. Plus, recipes to celebrate. Everyone loves great recipes.

21 Soup Recipes to Make in 2021 — Another number post playing off of 21 for 21. Everyone loves great recipes.

21 Ways to Change Your Life in 2021 — Change is one of the key topics at the beginning of a new year. And this headline plays on 21 ways in 2021, a nice touch.

Welcome to 2021 Opportunities, Tons Coming Your Way — Isn’t a welcome headline a great way to welcome in a new year? I think so. Plus, of course, this headline promises tons coming your way!

What did you learn from 2020? Are you going to have a better 2021? — In the original headline and subhead (the second sentence), the writer focused on we rather than you. As one wag observed, only the Queen can use the word we in a sentence. Of course, I would be even worse. Never focus on your needs or try to rope people in by saying we. Focus on the audience, the user, the reader. It’s their needs and desires that count.

What 2020 Did to the Book Business — A retrospective look at the previous year, this headline can be applied to any business, trend, or topic.

Will 2021 Be Your Best Year Ever or a Repeat of 2020? — Questions can be problematic in a headline. It’s so easy for people to answer no to your question—and then move on. So, make sure your question is one your target audience needs to have answered.

Your 3 Steps to More Publicity in 2021 with Less Time and Effort — A great headline focused on helping you get more publicity. And that is always a great to start out the new year!

Zoom into the New Year Like a Pro — The video app Zoom sent out an email promoting using Zoom like a pro.

Use any of these headlines for an email subject line, a blog post title, the lead for a Medium article, a press release headline, a social media post, a newsletter headline or article, a speech promotion, a seminar title, or a book title (or chapter title).

Note: 2021 headlines and New Year headlines only work for the first 15 days of January. Then it’s on to other things like Valentine’s Day or Presidents Day.