If people are not aware of what you are offering they can’t buy it. That’s why most writers these days also have to be marketers.
Want to get an agent? You have to sell them on yourself and your work.
Want to get a publisher (or producer, if you're writing screenplays)? Same challenge.
Planning to self-publish? You have to make people aware of your ebook and convince them it's the right book or ebook for them to buy right now.
Marketing doesn’t necessarily come easily to us and it may not be our favorite activity, but it’s necessary. That’s why over the next ten Tuesdays (or more if the response is good) I want to share with you some of the best strategies and tips that I have discovered and employed.
1: Don’t reinvent the wheel
Two questions can lead you to a much faster and more effective marketing approach. The first one is: What are your successful competitors doing that you can adopt or adapt?
There's a good chance that your most successful competitors have spent a lot of time and money coming up with the methods that are working for them. These are not hidden, they're right out there for you to see in action,analyze, and adapt.
I'm not suggesting plagiarism. Generally these are methods that are not protected by copyright and you're not doing anything illegal or immoral by figuring out how to use them to promote your product or service.
For instance, let's say you're a coach in the field of nutrition and fitness. You notice that the your successful competitor uses contests to motivate people to sign up for their sales newsletters. There's nothing wrong with coming up with your own contests--don't use exactly the same contest name and don't give away exactly the same thing, but otherwise feel free to copy them.
The second question:
What are successful people or companies in other fields doing that you can adopt or adapt?
In this case you're not looking at competitors but at what's successful in other fields. Sometimes you can copy, other times you might parody. For instance, a while back one of the most talked-about and most successful campaigns was conducted by a company that sells blenders. Their gimmick was to make videos showing their blender destroying a variety of items. These videos got millions of views.
At that time, as a coach you might have garnered attention by using a blender to destroy the foods that people who are trying to get fit or lose weight should avoid--candy bars, potato chips, etc. You would have acknowledged that you were following in the footsteps of the blender campaign.
For example, you might have said something like, "I don't know why those other guys are destroying iPods and wristwatches and all that other stuff--what you really need to destroy if you want more energy, better health, and to be more fit and slim is THIS STUFF! Here we go, candy bar, 543 calories!" And in goes the candy bar.
That could have made an amusing lead in to your main message that you have a system that will help people to make the right food choices.
One warning: In both instances, be sure you are copying or adapting things that work now. Things are moving so fast that what worked a year ago or even 90 days ago may no longer be as effective. Keep track of what's successful and constantly ask yourself how you can take advantage of it. The video parody I described above would have been great at the time; now, not so much.
APPLYING THIS TO YOUR WRITING
Who is most successful at marketing the kind of writing you do? What's working for them? This could be a publisher or an individual author. Are they using videos? Contests? Tieing in to events? Giving out free sample chapters?
Who is most successful at marketing other products that appeal to the same target audience as yours? For instance, distributors of independent movies have a lot in common with self-published authors. Or take a look at the most successful people on Kickstarter.com, the crowdfunding site. Don't look only at the successful authors using that site, but also designers, film-makers, artists, etc. What makes their videos stand out? What kinds of incentives do they offer? What kind of sales pitch?
Returning to the timeliness issues, while it's still useful to be aware of the marketing methods used by two of the most successful Kindle authors, John Locke and Amanda Hocking, keep in mind that when they first had success there were not as many Kindle titles available. Now there are hundreds of thousands more, and many of the authors are using the same methods that were a novelty when Locke and Hocking used them. Be sure you are also looking at the methods being used by newer writers whose books are high on the Kindle (and other ebook) charts now.
(Come back next Tuesday for then next essential marketing strategy. Also find loads of useful information in the chapters on traditional and guerrilla marketing in my book, "Your Writing Coach." You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller and it's also available as an ebook.)
