July 2011 – Page 3

Your Competition’s Customer Base

Recently, one of my books
was nominated for a Best Of award.
The nominations were decided upon
by a selection committee
but
the award
was given to the book
with the most votes.

The other books
were written by established authors
with huge readerships.
My book received a tiny slither
of their votes.

I was excited.

Why?

Because it showed me
how many more readers
there were for me
to dazzle.

The wider the gap
between your sales
and the competitor’s sales,
the bigger your opportunity.

Taking Your Turn At The Helm

I’ve recently taken
a leadership position
within my local writing chapter.
I don’t have much excess time,
but I had to take it.

No, no one held a gun to my head.
I could have said no.

But I believe in this organization,
and since people are needed to lead it,
taking my turn at the helm
is the responsible thing to do,
and it is expected.

That is how it is
with project teams also.
A buddy of mine
liked being on project teams
but he didn’t like leading them.
When a project came up
that his department had to lead,
he passed on leadership.

So someone else within his department
led the project.
That someone else has now
replaced him on the other project teams.

If you’re part of an organization,
you should take your turn
leading, initiating, growing that organization.

Summer Marketing

One of my writing buddies
claims that marketing
during the summer
is a waste of time
because
everyone is on vacation.

Yes, people are on vacation,
but not everyone takes time off
and not many people take the entire summer off.

As I’ve posted in previous years,
I get a bump up in readership
during the summer
because I post new content,
while other bloggers are taking time off.

I’m seeing the same thing happen
with book promotions.
Normally, I fight for promotion space.
If I’m lucky,
I’ll have one of seven ads
in a reseller newsletter.

During the summer,
I don’t fight for space.
In some newsletters,
I’ll have one of three ads.
The readership may be smaller
but so is the competition
and I’m seeing a bigger lift in sales.

The total number of eyeballs
isn’t as important
as the number of eyeballs
noticing your marketing.

Don’t abandon your marketing program
during the summer
just because a few people
are taking a vacation.

Past Performance

The wonderful thing
about being a doer
is that the older we get,
the longer the history
of doing
we have,
and the longer the history
of doing
we have,
the better our reputations.

I have seven years of history
here on ClientK.
Seven years of posting once a day.
When people visit this site
for the first time,
they see that history,
and it says something.
I’m seen as more reputable
for that history.

With one of my pen names,
I have 20 stories published.
When readers go to my website,
they see that publishing history.
It means something to them.

As copyblogger states
“Past performance
helps people convince themselves …
because despite what those financial disclaimers say,
past performance very often
is
an indicator of future worth.

In other words,
if you’ve done good work before,
you’re probably going to do
good work going forward.
Crowing (humbly)
about your past
removes risk
from your potential new customer’s mind.”

That is why
I post my archives by month
on this blog.

That is also why
I list my backlist
on my writing sites.

Use your past history
of doing
to do even more in the future.

Being Humble

I loved that
Wimbledon winners
Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitova
wore their name tags
at the winners’ ball
and then left the name tags on
for the official Wimbledon champions’ photo.

LOVED it.

Not only did it cause a media frenzy
but it sent a clear message.
“We’re humble”
(and they likely have a rockin’ sense of humor)

New York Times Bestselling author
(and one of the biggest names
in paranormal romance)
Kelley Armstrong
starts many of her writing seminars
by telling the audience
she wrote a story with a female werewolf in it.
She is THAT understated.
(and she is truly that humble)

In this “look at me!” media world,
being humble is rare
so ironically,
avoiding the spotlight
will gain you the spotlight,
and it will snag you fans,
raving fans,
fans that will toot your horn
when humble you doesn’t want
any horn tooting.

You don’t have to be all flash
and ego
to be successful.

Sunk Decisions

When I consider selling a stock,
my financial adviser
always brings up
the price I bought the stock at.
I don’t care about that price.
It is in the past,
a sunk cost,
and my decision to sell or not
depends on my outlook for the future.

That’s how we should
feel about decisions also.
Past decisions are sunk decisions.
We can’t change them.
Today’s decision is based on new information,
new circumstances.
It should be looked at
with fresh eyes.

Unfortunately,
studies say that
we don’t do this.

“When the same person responsible
for the disappointing first strategy
was given the power
to decide the next move,
it was much more likely
that they would choose
to stay the course.
They were predisposed
to escalate the commitment
because to do otherwise
would be to admit a mistake.”

The solution?

When a project doesn’t work,
either switch project managers
or have the decision to continue/kill projects
depend upon another person.

Brand Strength And Rebranding

Jonathan Salem has a great post
on how to determine
brand strength.

He lists 10 indicators.
Many involve
benchmarking off of competitors
(if you don’t know
how your competitors are doing,
you should
– there’s no excuse
in this open information age).

One indication of brand strength
is the number of times
a brand has rebranded itself
over the past 20 years.
The lower the number,
the better.

Why?

Because as Jonathan states
“Successful brands build equity
consistently over time,
don’t they?”

Brand strength is important.
Measure it.
Track it.
Grow it.

Princess Cruises And Rewards

Many of the cruise lines
have reward systems.
The more you cruise,
the more you are rewarded.

Princess Cruises,
however,
puts some thought into
their rewards.

After the first cruise,
patrons receive gold status.
This entitles them to a free gift
(a Princess-branded tote bag
so cruisers ‘advertise’
while using the gift)
and a few other perks.

After five cruises,
patrons receive platinum status.
Anyone who has cruised five times
likely enjoys cruising.
The incentive isn’t to encourage them
to cruise
but to cruise longer or more often.
So what perk will help with this?

Free internet.

Princess is the only cruise line
to offer free internet to frequent cruisers.
Cruisers can stay on board for four months
(the World Cruise)
and not worry about falling out of touch
with loved ones
or the outside world.

The free internet is
why I cruise with Princess.
That $100 reward
(with minimal cost to the cruise line)
has netted them
thousands of dollars worth of sales.

If you have reward levels
for frequent customers,
don’t simply hand out trinkets.
Think about how those rewards
can increase your sales.

Free And Customer Expectations

Seth Godin has a great post
on how free is no longer a loss leader
for similar for-pay products,
and how some customers expect
certain products
(like music and books)
to be free.

“As the free-only cohort grows,
people start to feel foolish
when they pay for something
when the free substitute is easily available
and perhaps more convenient.

Think about that
–buying things now makes
some people feel foolish.
Few felt foolish buying
a Creedence album in the 1970s.
They felt good about it,
not stupid.

This new default to free
means that people with something to sell
are going to have to push ever harder
to invent things that can’t possibly
have a free substitute.
Patronage, live events,
membership, the benefits of connection
–all of these things are outside the scope
we used to associate with
the creative business model,
but that’s changing, fast.”

In the novel-writing world,
we haven’t yet figured out
what that invention is.
It could be advertising.
It could be clubs.
It could be… I don’t know.

If your product has
no incremental costs of production,
you should be thinking about this.
Hard.

The Pursuit

A few of my buddies are
on a constant search for happiness.
They read books on the subject.
They go to presentations by gurus.
They’ve even traveled overseas to find it.

They haven’t found happiness.
They’re more unhappy than
buddies in dire circumstances.

Dr. Rick Kirschner explains why
“look for happiness and
you’ll not find it.
Pursuing it means you think
you don’t have it.
But find it in your moment
through appreciation,
and expand your gratitude
to encompass more of your life,
and you’ll find an abundance of it
without having to go anywhere
or do anything more.”

Many of us are in the business
of selling happiness.
We’re selling moments.

Focus on a single moment.

The pull of the caramel
dripping out of
a piece of chocolate.
The admiring look of the blonde
at the crowded bar.

Capture that moment completely.