Are most successes something totally different...or something a bit better than what existed already?
Marketing guru Michael Masterson says his experience shows that the real successes tend to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. As a mentor in the publishing industry he was directly involved in the development of at least 50 publications. He says, "In the beginning, I made an effort to create something new - something the market didn't have. In every case, I failed."
Instead he suggests a new application of the 80/20 principle:"Give them 80 percent of what they are already buying and only 20 percent of something new. The 20 percent matters. But the 80 percent keeps you in business."
If you already have a winning product or service, what's the 20% you can change or add to make it more exciting to clients or customers and stay ahead of the competition? If you don't, what's out there now that you can improve by 20% to come up with a winner?
For writers, what would make your novel or screenplay 20% different in a good way?
The same applies to marketing what you've written--how can you use existing marketing channels like Twitter and Facebook and Youtube in a somewhat different way?
(For inspiration for marketing your work in a creative and inexpensive way, see the 100 case studies of innovative marketing in my book, Do Something Different, published by Virgin Books. The examples come from people with all kinds of products and services, your task is to adapt them to what you are offering. The result is that yours will stand out.)
