Marketing – Page 13

Making The Future Urgent Today

I prefer readers pre-order
my new releases.

That creates a marketing challenge
for me
because I’m trying to convince people
to take action/spend money
NOW
for a payoff that might happen
months from now.

Most people aren’t interested
in delayed gratification.

So I promote pre-orders
by telling readers
if they pre-order
NOW,
they don’t have to worry
NOW
about seeing spoilers.

They can avoid the product pages
for my books
at booksellers.
They can ignore
social media posts
and reviews.

Some readers are convinced
merely by the
‘they don’t have to worry now’
part.

In a chaotic world,
if they pre-order my book now,
remembering to buy it later
will be one less thing
they need to worry about.

The key is to make
that future action
a NOW issue.

As
Seth Godin
shares

“All problems are
short-term problems
if we tell ourselves
the right story.
But we usually don’t,
because we discount
the future significantly.”

Make future actions
a NOW issue.

Corporations And Trust

I recently watched
a movie
that had a twist
that relied on people
trusting other people
and
trusting
businesses.

I don’t have that trust
anymore.
Many people,
especially younger people,
don’t have that trust.

The twist in the movie
was predictable
and almost cliché.
The movie
wasn’t financially
or critically successful.

People don’t trust
businesses or people
like they used to do.
The pandemic taught us
not to do that.

When promoting your products/services,
don’t rely on this trust.

Offer the money back guarantees.
Give customers/clients an opportunity
to say their say
on online reviews.

And assume they will be skeptical
about all your claims.

Dandelions And Marketing

In my area of the world,
dandelions are considered weeds.
They are perceived
as ‘bad’ plants.

Every part of a dandelion
from the flowers to the roots
is edible.

Dandelions feed the bees.
They are often
the first flowers to appear.

They’re drought tolerant,
don’t need much water
in this water-shortage world.

They have taproots
that help aerate
and fertilize the soil.

And they grow in all types
of soil
from sand to clay.

There is no reason
that dandelions
should be considered undesirable.

Yet the lawn and grass companies
have convinced us,
through persistent marketing,
that dandelions are weeds,
that we should remove them
from our yards.

Think of the dandelions
when someone claims
marketing has no impact
on people’s perceptions.

Marketing DOES work.

Justifying Your Personal Choices Publicly

A climate change scientist
recently welcomed
a new baby to the world.

Having a baby
is a strange choice
for someone who knows
what the future likely holds.
But hey,
that’s his personal choice.

He then wrote an article
rationalizing why
people should have kids.

It was no longer
merely a personal choice.
It was a public agenda.

Other climate scientists critiqued
that agenda
as they should.
That’s their responsibility.

He got upset,
called everyone disagreeing with him
doomers.

If you recommend your personal choice
to others,
you WILL get critiqued.
You SHOULD be critiqued.

If you don’t want pushback,
don’t push your personal choice
on others.

If The Packaging Doesn’t Fit

I often buy cozy mysteries
for my wonderful Mom.

I look for them
in the cozy mystery category,
of course.

But I also look for
cozy mystery covers.

If the book claims
to be a cozy mystery
but doesn’t have
the normal type of cover
for the genre,
I assume the writer or publisher
has no idea
what a cozy mystery is.
And I don’t buy
that book.

We DO judge books
by their covers.
That’s one of the purposes
of covers
– to tell us
what type of story it is.

And we DO judge other products
by their packaging.
Be different
but not TOO different.

The product should indicate
it belongs
in the category.

It Is The WORLD Wide Web

A tragedy happens
in your part of the world
and
you get angry
because people are continuing
to post funny memes
and happy content
on social media.

Because, of course,
they’re doing that.
They could be half a planet
away from your tragedy.

And I would bet
big dollars
you didn’t stop posting
funny memes
when a child starved to death
halfway around the world.

(Because children, unfortunately,
starve
to death every dang day
in this harsh world.)

It is the WORLD wide web.
The entire planet
is using the internet
and many of the social media platforms.

Don’t judge people
for being happy.

Please Share

When I send schwag to readers
and other influentials,
I usually send two sets.

Why?

Because it is often
the same cost to mail
and it increases the odds
they will share the schwag
with someone else.

I’m promoting to
two people
instead of just one.

Seth Godin
shares

“I’ve learned
in sharing galleys of
The Carbon Almanac
that sending two
is far more useful
and beneficial than
sending one.

Because when someone gets two,
they immediately decide
to share the other one.

Organizing around
‘please share’
is a choice.”

Consider sending
a set of promo
for the person to share.

Be Careful With Acronyms

Every industry has acronyms,
a series of words
shortened to a series of letters.

Acronyms save time.
It is faster to say NASA,
for example,
than
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

But acronyms are only effective
when
the person we’re communicating with
knows what those letters stand for
AND
there is only one possible
interpretation of the letters.

If I’m marketing
to the general public,
I either
don’t use acronyms at all
or
I explain them
when I use them.

I will say
something like
“In Romance Novels,
the main characters
always find their romantic
HEAs, Happy Ever Afters,
or
HFNs, Happy For Nows.”

This is important
also when using an acronym
that might have two or more possible
interpretations.

MC, for example,
in Romance Novel talk,
could refer to Main Character
OR
Motorcycle Club,
an extremely popular subgenre.

Don’t assume everyone knows
the acronym you’re using.

Considering explaining it
the first time it is used
in a communication.

If Your Product Or Service Is Seasonal…

Major chocolate suppliers
listed at a certain online marketplace
don’t ship chocolate
during the hot summer months
in my area.

They have a good reason
for doing this
– the chocolate
is likely to melt
while sitting on doorsteps
and in mailboxes.
Customers will be unhappy.

The issue is…
these chocolate suppliers
rarely list
their last shipment date
before they stop shipping.
New customers are surprised
by the shipping break.

If your product or service
is seasonal,
state that.

And state, if you can,
when the product or service
will be unavailable.