Marketing – Page 2

The Importance Of Events

Experts often post
about how everything is always available
and how this lack of scarcity
makes it more difficult
to stand out.

In the Romance Novel Industry,
one of the solutions
to this challenge
is
to hold events.

10 writers promote
a themed Facebook party, for example.

Before and during that party,
their books are in the spotlight.

There is curation
for that event.

Readers who are interested
in the theme gather.
They share an experience.
They then buy the same books
and share that experience also.

TV shows have watch parties.
Viewers post while watching
the episode
at the same time.

Video games have release parties.
Everyone goes online
and plays the game
at the same time.

Events are one solution
to cut through the noise.

And the good news is…
anyone can organize
and host one.

They Won’t ‘Eventually’ Notice

Keep putting out great products
and someone will eventually notice.

Older business gurus offer
this advice
ALL the time.

It is wrong,
so very wrong.

Look at this blog
– client k.
I’ve posted every day
here
for a couple decades.

My readership is tiny.
And it isn’t growing.

There’s a LOT
of sh*t on the internet.
It is highly unlikely
someone will ‘discover’ this blog.

If I cared about
the size of my readership
(I don’t),
I should promote
this blog
– constantly.

I would definitely
have to do some things,
perhaps many things
differently.

If your products/services
have too small of a customer base
for you,
you have to do something
different
also.

No one is going to
‘discover’ you.

You have to bring
yourself, your business,
your products/services
to prospective customers.

If You Need It, Will It Be There?

I’m installing rain barrels
around my house this year.
I don’t need them
this year.
Our area, thankfully,
has a lot of water.

Now.

But I’ve seen the trends.
I’ve seen how the UK,
a part of the world
that normally has a lot of rain,
is dealing with drought.

And I know
if drought can happen there,
it can happen in my area.

Once drought arrives,
there’s no rain water to gather.
The rain has to be gathered
well BEFORE
there are any signs of drought.

Our businesses are faced
with these types of situations
also.

Marketing funds, for example,
should be ‘gathered’
when sales and cash flow
are healthy.

Because we REALLY need marketing
when sales suck
but, at that time.
we likely don’t have a healthy cash flow
to pay for the marketing.

We need to fill up
our marketing barrels
before the sales drought comes.

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.

There WILL Be Spoilers

I warn readers
there WILL be spoilers
posted
about my newly released stories.

If they want to avoid
the spoilers,
they should pre-order the story.

I know there will be spoilers posted
because I design my stories
to be talked about.

Spoilers are a side effect
of a product launch
product designers should want.

We WANT customers
to rave to others
about our products and services.

During those raves,
too much information
will be shared.
That’s human nature.

So I account for that.
I offer a way
for spoiler-haters
to avoid spoilers
(pre-ordering the story).

And I ensure
the stories provide happiness
even if they are spoiled.
The magic isn’t
in the surprises.

We WANT spoilers
to be posted
about our products/services.

Design those products/services
to prompt spoilers
and to provide satisfaction
if…when those spoilers happen.

What Is Your Enough?

Part of a marketer’s job
is convincing us
we don’t have enough.
We need more.
Ads, TV shows, magazines
are designed
to seed dissatisfaction,
to shift our expectations.

That is THEIR agenda.

Decades ago,
I sat down and decided
what level of investments,
of income,
of professional success,
of travel,
of other areas
was ‘enough.’

As I hit those targets,
I become immune
to much of the marketing out there.
I feel satisfaction,
peace,
joy with my life.

And it changes my actions.

If 3 business suits are ‘enough’ for me,
as one super simple example,
I stop shopping for business suits
once I have 3 of them.
That time and money
is freed
to do other things.

Seth Godin
shares
“Enough becomes a choice,
not a measure of science.

The essence of choice is that
it belongs to each of us.
And if you decide
you have enough,
then you do.

And with that choice
comes a remarkable sort of freedom.
The freedom to be still,
to become aware
and to stop hiding
from the living
that’s yet to be done.”

Figure out
what your ‘enough’ is,
Write it down.
Look at it every so often.

Live YOUR agenda.

There are writers
who complain
the Romance genre
isn’t covered enough
by the media.
It is the largest genre
(depending on the stats provided)
and it should be mentioned
when other genres are mentioned.

But then, these same writers
complain when Romance is covered
by media
negatively,
when it is criticized.

We can’t have it
both ways.
Either we welcome media coverage
and we accept there will be
some negative coverage
or
we don’t accept
there will be negative coverage
and we don’t get media coverage.

This is true of all groups
and all demographics.

If we want to be talked about,
we have to accept
there will be negative talk.

Have A Brand Lead

When we first start
building our businesses,
managing our brands
is usually easy.
We tend to have
one brand to build
and
we can put ourselves
in the role of
brand leaders.

Once we expand our brands,
managing more than one,
it often makes sense
to put one person
in charge of each brand.

As
Sandra Sanderson,
Marketing SVP
at Empire,
shares

“Having a lead
for each brand
helps to drive the strategy
and drive differentiation.

In the past,
there would have been
ad hoc fulfillment
of communications requests.
Now there’s someone
sitting at the leadership table,
discussing business needs
with all of the other functional needs.
It’s fundamentally a different approach.”

Designate a brand lead,
a champion for each brand.

Early Bird Specials

When I was younger,
I would make jokes
about seniors
and early bird specials.
I didn’t understand
why older people ate dinner
so early.

I was missing a key component.
I didn’t realize
that our night vision degrades
as we get older.

Older people don’t necessarily
WANT to eat at 4pm.
They HAVE to eat then.
If they plan to drive
to and from the restaurant,
the sun has to be shining
when they leave.

They’ve changed their schedules
to accommodate this restriction.

If a large group of people
says or does the same thing
and
we don’t understand
why anyone would ever
say or do that,
we are likely missing
a key component
influencing that choice.

Uncover that component.
It could mean the difference
between success and failure
with that demographic.

Tag: Marketing