Category: Marketing

Academy Award organizers are asking
stars to skip the red carpet
and use a secret entrance
hoping this will boost show viewers.

This won’t happen.

Why?
Because no intelligent star would agree to it.

Stars are compensated more
for walking the red carpet
than they are for taking part in the show.
Designers give them free dresses,
jewellers lend them jewels,
and advertisers listen for their names to be mentioned.

The stars are there FOR the red carpet,
not for the ceremony.

There are other ways to increase viewership.
Don’t ask someone to work against their own interests.

If I was hosting an award show,
I would do anything within my power
to ensure Justin Timberlake was there.

At the last minute,
Rihanna pulled out of her Grammy performance.
Not only did Justin Timberlake
participate in an impromptu performance
with Al Green, Keith Urban and Boyz II Men,
but he also stalled for time
while it was being put together.

Firefighters are rare in any industry.
They are sought after
and given opportunities.
If you stay cool under pressure,
you WILL profit.

A fellow author is hosting a seminar.
She asked for donations.
I donated coupons
(glossy, with my cover and blurb)
for a free eBook.
One for each participant.

The author asked how I could afford it.

Easy.
Although all of the coupons will be looked at
(often in the dead moments before class),
very few will be redeemed.
The promotional win is in putting my cover
in front of the participant.

Redemption is not the true measurement
of a coupon’s success.
Awareness is.

Entrepreneur.com has a great article
on email subject lines

Some of the tidbits?
Keep it less than 41 characters.
Personalize it.
Write it as though it was sent from a friend.

If you’re emailing your contact list,
emails should read as though you’re talking to a friend
because they’ve given you permission
to address them as friends.

An interesting tidbit?
More and more of us are using the preview screen.
“Statistics from MarketingSherpa show
that 26.6 percent of consumers read e-mails that way.
And 69 percent of people reading e-mail at work do so
with the preview pane turned on.”

If you’re getting flowers this Valentine’s Day,
I suggest you source them
from a florist other than Teleflora.

Although I didn’t watch the Super Bowl,
I’ve received a few hundred email pleas
to boycott Teleflora.
I’ve since watched the commercial
and wow, this is a great example of a company
NOT knowing their market (women).

Either
Teleflora didn’t know women watched the Super Bowl
(in 2008, 39% of viewers were female over the age of 18)
or
they didn’t know
women don’t like to be insulted
(men are open to it, women are not)
or
they didn’t know that most women read romance novels
(64 million Americans read a romance in 2004)
and/or have a cat
(34% of Americans have a cat)
or
they didn’t know that negativity is usually not the emotion
you want associated with flowers.

No matter what,
that very expensive spot was a miss for Teleflora.

An interesting tidbit…
15% of women send themselves flowers on Valentine’s Day.

What no manufacturer will tell you
is that a little leakage is a good thing.

The No Name Colas keep cost conscious consumers
drinking cola.
When consumers have more money,
they move up to Pepsi or Coca-Cola.

Illegally copied eBooks increase awareness,
helping with the marketing of authors and novels.

Knock off purses give the impression
that ‘everyone’ has one.

The issue is not with leakage,
the issue is with the extent of leakage.
How to control that?
Give the consumer a reason
to prefer the original.

I tried a variety of promotional methods
to build awareness of my first novel,
Breach Of Trust.

Now, with my second,
Invisible,
I’m concentrating on the one
that works best…

Giving the book away to ‘noisy’ people.

It is ironic
that as the publishing community fights free books,
I’m giving mine away.

It has to be done.
You don’t talk about a novel you haven’t read
and some brave reader has to be first.

With the first novel,
I gave away my book randomly.
With the second novel,
I target readers who talked about my first book.
The buzz is already building.

When I hear about times being tough
and about businesses being cost conscious,
I scoff.

Why?

Because a 30 second advertising spot
in yesterday’s Super Bowl
cost $3 million
and some advertisers,
including Anheuser-Busch,
consider that a bargain.

When businesses talk about being cost conscious,
that means they don’t waste money,
not that they don’t spend money.

Ensure that your product adds value.

Today, my second novel, Invisible,
was released.
It is a dark book about identity theft
and financial abuse.

You wouldn’t know it was dark by the reviews.
Reviewers, fans, and other authors
found it refreshing, entertaining, humorous!

Why?

Because although I’m tough on this blog
and in business,
personally I’m known for being a happy person.
I love to make people laugh.
These readers expect humor in my novels.
They look for it.
And they somehow find it.

The framework of your message matters.

I received a couple of emails yesterday
about local businesses
sourcing locally.
The key concern was pricing.
These local sources are more expensive
so the local business would have to sell
at a higher price point.

So sell at a higher price point.
You have a different product,
sell it at a different price point.

It is the only real strategy for you.
If you’re a local business
and you plan to compete solely
on pricing,
you’re one of the walking dead.
You will never be able to match Wal-Mart’s pricing.
Never.