My Farming Grandpa
would often say,
“Ya gotta make hay
while the sun shines.”
When the conditions are right
to do something,
do that something.
For many of us,
the time is currently right
to make sales.
People are looking
for gift ideas.
They’re looking to make
their lives easier
during the busy holiday season.
They’re looking
to treat themselves.
Suggest your product/service.
Put it in front of them.
Be where they are.
Market your face off.
Make hay
while the sun shines.
The average adult person’s
attention span
is
8.25 seconds.
That’s less than
a goldfish’s attention span.
And it is decreasing
every dang year.
In the book world,
in the past,
we’d ensure we had a hook,
an attention-grabbing statement
or question
that pushes readers to continue reading,
at the end of every chapter.
Now,
we place a hook
at the very least
at the end of every page.
Keep this in mind
when creating ad copy
or videos
or any other type
of selling/marketing material.
Hook them quickly
and continue to hook them
or you WILL lose their attention.
There are a LOT of trolls
on social media now
– both the bots
and the less likely
human sh*tstarters.
Trolls suck energy,
especially if we respond to them.
That’s energy
we could be using
to make our businesses a success.
They bring negativity
to ourselves
AND
our prospective customers.
That will decrease our sales.
And they will NEVER
buy our products/services.
NEVER.
Blocking them
will increase your sales
AND your happiness levels.
Block the trolls
and move on.
A friend runs
a dog toy company.
She had to craft
some artwork
for signs
and various marketing materials.
She then chose some favorite images
of dogs playing with
her company’s dog toys
from that commissioned artwork.
And she had those images
made into stickers.
That didn’t cost much extra
to produce.
It also doesn’t cost her
much extra
to mail/ship a sticker
with her products.
And, her customers,
when they receive one,
freak the f*ck out.
They LOVE these stickers.
Stickers that are advertising
my friend’s small company.
Consider crafting some stickers
and giving them
as a bonus item
with orders.
Halloween is a fun celebration
to organize marketing campaigns
around.
But there are people
who are adamantly
against Halloween.
How do we market
without angering those people?
We don’t mention Halloween.
We, instead,
use
orange and black
in our marketing.
Halloween lovers will know
it is a celebration of Halloween.
Halloween haters won’t be certain
it is a reference to Halloween.
A lot of things are orange and black.
They’ll likely target
companies
that do use ‘Halloween’
in their promotions.
Consider using
orange and black
in your marketing
this month.
A holiday ornament company
sent me an email
offering me
10% off all products
if I ordered
in September.
I ordered
in September.
They received holiday sales early
and
freed up resources
during the upcoming
busy holiday season.
I was able to order
and not have to worry
about remembering to order
in time
later in the year
AND
I received a discount.
It was a win-win
and all it took
was an email
and a small discount
from this company.
It truly WAS
that easy.
Don’t wait until
the holidays
to drive holiday sales.
Do it now.
A loved one saves
her best dress
or her best wine
or her best dance moves
for
a not-yet-known
special occasion.
Then she dies
before she experiences
that special occasion.
If we’re lucky to know
and love a lot of people,
we’ve heard
at least one version
of this life lesson.
It also applies
to business.
Don’t save
your best marketing ideas
or your best product
or your best speeches
for later.
Use them as soon
as they’d add
any sort of value.
I often receive requests
from customers
that don’t reference me
or my books (products)
by name.
I suspect
these are a form of spam,
perhaps a way
of verifying the emails
they used
are correct
before they sell their lists.
If the request is easy
to fulfill,
I fulfill it.
The worst that could happen is
I get added to spam lists.
I already receive
a ton of spam.
The best that could happen is
I make a reader (customer)
super happy.
If the request is difficult,
I’ll fulfill it
if I believe I’ll receive
that request again.
I’ll then save that response
to copy and paste later.
If I doubt I’ll receive
that request again,
I ignore it.
Determine
how you’ll deal
with vague customer requests.
A book reviewer has been
VERY vocal
about hating one of my books.
Whenever I promote that book,
she’ll share how much she hated it
in the comments of my posts.
Then she’ll share about how she liked
one of my books
in another unconnected thread.
She does that
because she wants me to like her.
I DON’T like her.
She is deliberately killing my sales
and making it d@mn difficult
for me to make a profit
on my books (products).
If I could block her
without her kicking up drama,
I would do that.
A good review
shared sparingly
doesn’t offset
a bad review
shared everywhere.
A nice comment
also doesn’t offset
a mean comment.
I’ve noticed a trend
on social media.
I’ll share another writer’s post.
They’ll, in response,
like one of my posts.
That’s not the same thing.
At all.
When I share a post,
it means all of my followers
have a better chance
of seeing the other person’s post.
When I like a post,
it means the other person’s followers
have a better chance
of seeing their own post.
Both increases reach.
But only one increases reach
to new-to-us readers (prospects).
A like doesn’t equal
a share.
Remember that
when reciprocating
on social media.