Marketing – Page 137

Tricking Your Customers

Publishers and publicists
often email me sales sheets
for their upcoming releases.
If I’m interested in the romance novel,
they’ll send it to me
and I review it.

Sometimes the sales sheet is designed to trick.
I say I don’t review paranormals
so it will neglect to mention the hero is a vampire
(although it is obvious first page
that he is).

That’s fine.
Usually I’ll review the novel.
Then I never, ever accept a book
from that contact again.

Customers aren’t dumb
and no one likes being lied to.
Save the tricks for Halloween.

The Anthology

Want the expert status
publishing a book gets you
but don’t have time to write
300 pages?

Susan Friedmann
in Riches In Niches
suggests publishing an anthology.

An anthology is a collection of works
by (usually) different authors.

The best authors to team with
are not direct competitors.
A divorce lawyer
could team with a financial advisor
and a tax accountant,
both specializing in divorce.

The work is shared.
Any publishing or promotion expense
can be shared.
Client bases can be shared.

Stretching Your Marketing Dollars

Some companies are pulling back
on marketing
during the recession.

That creates an opportunity for the rest of us.
I’ve contacted prime advertising outlets,
telling them
if an advertiser bails,
I have creative ready.
Pending price, I’ll step in.

It is allowing me to advertise
on sites I couldn’t afford prior to this.

Note:
To take advantage of this,
you have to be ready to go,
your creative in the proper format
and your cash ready.

The Little Extras

One day last week,
after losing thousands in the markets,
I walked into a business
and they gave me a free pen.

Normally, I wouldn’t have thought twice
about that free pen
but that day, wow,
I told everyone about it.

People like to be in their natural state.
I’m a happy person.
I was looking for a reason to be happy.
I’ll remember for years
that company with their free pen
helped put me there.

Do you have a little extra
you can add to orders?

Send A Thank You Today

With a down economy
comes downsizing.
Downsizing means more work for remaining employees.
How to ensure some of their precious time
is spent on your projects?

Send thank you’s.

I’m working on an implementation right now.
After each milestone is reached,
I send out thank you emails.
I make them personal.
I place them in an isolated email
(nothing other than the thank you).
I cc the person’s boss.

Thank you’s in this company are rare.
The receipients appreciate them
(especially with lay offs looming).
Their bosses appreciate them
(everyone wants to manage superstars).
My project has suddenly become a priority.

Send a thank you today
(they are even better sent on a Sunday).

Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, And Branding

Love her or hate her,
Sarah Palin is in touch with her own style,
her own brand, and her own target market.

It irked me when,
upon her nomination,
she was set up to take the Hillary Clinton vote.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Yes, both are women
but they are completely different women and
they appeal to completely different voters.

Like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Both are colas
but they have very different brands.
Coke is traditional while Pepsi is edgy.
When Coke tries to be edgy,
they fail.
When Pepsi tries to be traditional,
they fail.

Is your product trying to be something it isn’t?

Measuring The Right Things

Peter Drucker said
“What gets measured gets managed.”

True
But the important decision is
what to measure.

An author buddy told me
her contest promotion didn’t work.
Why?
Because she didn’t get a single entry.

When we dug into her site stats,
there was a clear spike in traffic
during the contest.
As increasing traffic,
not receiving contest entries,
was her goal,
she clearly met it.
The promotion was a success.

Look at what you’re measuring.
Are they tied to your goals?

Why We Should Be Hopeful

The media is focusing on
the gloom and doom.
They may be right.
There may be a legit reason to be worried.

But when the big guns are promoting one emotion
(fear),
there is always a marketing opportunity
for small business
to promote the opposite
(hope).

Now, I’m not saying
stand up and say the economy is going to be fine
when no one thinks it will be.
That’ll make you look like an ignorant jack a$$

What I’m suggesting is
focusing on the positives
in
other areas.

For example:

On reader loops,
a lot of people are talking about the economy.
Heavy, depressing, tiring stuff.

I, instead, talk about the great books
I’ve read recently.

This positive promotion makes me stand out.

Standing For Something

Seth Godin has a great post
reminding us
that when we stand for something,
we have to say no.

This is more challenging to do
when sales are not-so-hot.
It is, however, still necessary.

On my romance blog,
I have one regular reader
who is very much against eBooks
(yet she reads blogs, go figure).
Every month,
I give away an eBook
and receive an unhappy email
from this reader.

As a flag waving member
of the eBook community,
I continue to give away eBooks.

Sales for Breach Of Trust
are not great.
I could be walking away from a sale
by irritating this reader
but I can’t say eBook is the future
and then give away print.

No one would trust me
and we only buy from those we trust.

A Tradeshow Partner

There was a huge bookfair in my city last week.
I didn’t have a booth but
I wanted a presence.

What did I do?

I walked up and asked a smaller booth
if they would like some free pens to distribute.
These pens had my logo and website on them.
After a couple tries,
a booth said yes.

Win-Win

The distributor had freebies
to lure participants in with.
I had click thrus to my site
for the next couple days,
all for the cost of some pens.

Cash and time strapped entrepreneurs
CAN have a tradeshow presence.
All you have to do is partner.