Monday Marketing - Branding

People have been asking about specific forms of promotions, from blogging to bookmarks to book signings, and whether they're effective. Many products in our world make it easy for the company (marketer) to know how the end-user learned about the product or company. For example, in my day-job company, it's right on our client form: How did you hear about us? It's awesome because, over time, we can tell which of our promotions are working and which are not. With books, however, you don't get that.

Someone walks into a store somewhere in the world or goes online to their favorite ebook provider and they buy. Through the use of coupons, other promotions and/or website tracking, the retailers might be able to find out where the customer came from - how they got to the retailer. But they don't pass that info onto the publisher, who definitely doesn't pass it on to you, the author. The only way you can possibly tell if a promotion has been successful is through a sales spike, but even then, you can't be sure. There are too many outside influences.

So your goal as an author is to create and promote your brand, which you've probably heard a hundred times by now. But I'm not going to talk about how your image is your brand and vice versa. Unless this is the only blog you read at all (if it is, wow, I'm terribly flattered, but, really, dude, you're missing out!), you've seen/heard this time and again. Last week's post was even related to this.

My point today is that blogging, bookmarks, book signings, twitter, Facebook, forums, ads, press releases, websites, etc., are all ways to make people familiar with your brand. When I first started in marketing (way too long ago :-P), the rule of thumb was that someone had to see your brand name at least seven times before they even absorbed it. Now it's seventy times. Yes, 7. 0. We see so many product, company and brand names throughout the day now, they just don't root into our minds as easily as they used to.

Based on this rule of thumb, if you want people to remember your book's title or cover and/or your name, they must see it an average of 70 times for it to really sink into their minds. (Unless of course, someone they personally know or admire has made a strong recommendation, which is a different story, because that's from someone else, not from you or your company/publisher.) It seems a little high, but even if it's half that for books specifically - that's 35 times! Pictures help, which is why people will often remember seeing a cover before they'll remember the title or author's name.

So, yes, blogs, bookmarks, signings...all of those things can make a difference. Because they are one more way to get your book's title, cover and your name in front of a potential reader. One more way for them to remember your brand. And it might be that 70th time they've heard of it - the time that they decide to buy.

Your turn: Does hearing about a book or author many times eventually lead you to buy? Have you ever realized how many brand names you encounter a day? Have you ever stopped to think about how many book and author names you encounter a day?

Monday Marketing (Part 11) - Promotions 2

Last week, we discussed how the 4th P - Promotions - plays into the Marketing Mix and the marketing campaign. Today, we look at what you need to know before you can start planning your promotions.

First, you need to know your Target Customer - everything you can possibly find out. Where do they live? Work? Go to school? How old are they? What do they eat? What do they do on the weekends? Where do they hang out - both in the real world and online? What do they talk about? Where do they shop? What do they buy? What do they read? Watch on TV? What are their fears? Their desires? Their hopes? What's the hot topic they're talking about right now?

Second, you need to know the purpose of your message. What are you trying to accomplish? What do you want the prospect to know when they're done reading/watching/hearing your promotional piece? What do you want them to do?

Next, decide what media you'll be using to deliver your message. This is your communications tool. Selecting the media should be a decision based on knowing your Target Customer and how you can communicate with them. You want to be able to hit as many of your Target Customers' eyeballs or ears as you possibly can, otherwise, it's not worth it. If your Target Customer is a 16-year-old girl who reads, don't advertise in GQ, no matter how cheap you can get the ad. (Unless, of course, there's any chance you can get Dad or Uncle Bill to buy the book for her, but then your Target Customer is really Dad or Uncle Bill, not the girl, because they're buying it...but that's, well, going off on a tangent for the purpose of this post.)

So, what is the most effective way to reach your Target Customer? Online? Radio? Podcast? Television? Magazines? Newspapers? Other books? Billboards? Someone's boobs or butt? (Just making sure you're paying attention, although...yes, these have been used for advertising and might be a possibility...)

Once you have know all of these things, you have direction for your promotional piece. You put these together to create your marketing message, whether it's a video, a Podcast, a banner ad on a website or a newspaper ad (or a temporary tattoo, if you decide you really like that idea and it will be effective for your audience). Here's an example:

Your Target Customer is a 17-year-old female who spends most of her time reading, loves vampires, hangs out on the fanfic forums, rarely goes to movies, doesn't read magazines and, when not reading or doing homework, she spends her time on Facebook and Twitter. The purpose for this promotional piece is to get her excited about your new vampire release so she'll pre-order the book. You've decided to create an ad that can go up on the fanfic forums and Facebook.

Now you have a general idea of what your ad will be about (vampires, new book, pre-order) and who will be looking at it. So you can create your promotional piece with matching graphics and text. But how do you make it stand out? How do you get her to pre-order your book? We'll talk about that later...

Questions? Thoughts?

Lessons Learned at MBFI

As you know, my publishing team and I traveled over to the Miami Book Fair International a couple weekends ago. It was a long three days, after which we were completely exhausted. We didn't sell a ton of books, but we did sell some to people who may have otherwise never heard of Promise or Kristie Cook. And we had fun and learned quite a bit, too.

So here's what I learned, from an author's perspective to other writers:

Big is not always great. - MBFI touts that approximately 500,000 people walk the street fair. It's also nearly 30 years running. Size and tradition doesn't necessarily mean organization and success, though. We ran into a few snafus getting started, didn't particularly love the location our booth was given and were missing our booth sign for half of the first day. The organizers seemed to have their plates way over-full. We decided to do this particular fair because of the crowds it draws. Unfortunately, it was a smaller crowd this year compared to usual and not exactly our target market (see below). My new writer-friend, Tracy Darity, who shared our booth with us, said she goes to many fairs and festivals in Florida - not just book fairs - and has had a lot of success at the smaller ones. Especially when she is the only author or one of a small handful. So we'll be looking into smaller events to attend now.

Know who makes up the crowd. - The fair took place on the Miami-Dade Community College grounds. My books' primary target audience is 18 to 35-year-old women. A community college, with non-traditional students, seemed like a great idea. However, the majority of the visitors were not college students and the majority of them did not speak English as their first language. This created a bit of a language barrier for most of the people passing our booth. On the flip side, because this was not our usual geographic or demographic hang-out, online or offline, we were able to spread the word to a whole new segment of the audience. The buyers did not know each other or get recommendations from people they know. So Promise is now gaining hold in entirely new circles (we hope it's gaining hold, anyway!).

Bring lots of hand-outs. - We handed out hundreds of fliers, bookmarks and coupons. The coupons were never used (they expired already), but that doesn't mean people won't be buying later. We're hoping that even if the people we gave the literature to aren't interested, they'll know someone who is. Bookmarks are the best because there is more reason to hang onto those. Readers can always use bookmarks.

Don't be afraid to talk to people. - You never know who might be interested in your book and who you might meet. We met the parents of the owner of one of the biggest independently owned bookstore chains in the country. They were impressed with Promise's reviews (thank you, people!!!) and award and thought their son would be interested, too. Score!! I have the owner's phone number now and we will be getting in touch with him about doing signings.

Probably the most important thing I learned for all of you, especially if you're not yet published or worried about book fairs and trade shows:

The book itself is often your #1 sales tool. - You've heard it when querying agents or promoting your book. If you have a good book, it will sell. What helps? Having good jacket copy and pages for people to sample. A good percentage of the time, if we could get people to hold the book in their hands, read the back and, sometimes, a page or two inside, they bought. Many times, as soon as they read the last sentence of the jacket copy, they smiled, squirmed a little and said, "I want it!" If you're not yet published, if you're seeking representation, the "jacket copy" is pretty much what needs to be in your query letter. Write it strong, sell the story itself, and you'll get interest.

These are the major highlights of what we learned from the Miami Book Fair. But there is one other thing I'll be sharing on Wednesday, something else I learned that is totally not related to book promotions or sales, but completely to my writing and books: the color purple.

Questions about the fair and our experience? Please feel free to ask! Any experiences of your own? Please do share!

Monday Marketing - Part 8: Price

Last week, we learned the basics of setting Price for a Product. This week we get more specific - setting Price for your Product. What's your Product? For most of us, it's ourselves - either as blogger, writer/author or employee; and it's our books or our blogs.

Your Blog as the Product
If your Product is your blog, you most likely don't have any Price to set. Unless you charge a subscription or for advertising, which is rare for most bloggers. So if a blog is your only Product, then you can leave now. But please don't!!! Cuz I really like you! And, you might find something useful here, whether to apply to your own Products later or to gain a better understanding of why books take up so much of your budget (besides the fact that you can't live without them!).

Yourself as the Product
If your Product is yourself, then you must know what you're worth - your market value. As an employee looking for a job, your Price is your salary. Before you can answer the question of what you want to make, you must know what you need to pay your bills and what people in similar positions with similar education, experience and skills make.

If you're a writer and pursuing traditional publishing, however, you don't have much say. The publisher pretty much determines your market value and pays you somewhat standard royalties. This is why you need an agent - someone who knows your market value and can negotiate with the publisher to ensure you're paid fairly.

Aside for Royalties
Royalties are calculated in all sorts of ways, but in all shapes and forms, they basically come down to about $1 per book to the author, give or take around 30 cents, depending on the list price, the actual price sold, the sales and distribution channels (B&N, Amazon, indie stores, etc.) in which the particular copy was sold and the book's format (hardback, paperback, various ebook formats, etc.)...as well as on the proven ability of the author's name to sell books.

To give you an indication of what you can expect - a handful of top-level authors put in their contracts that they get a flat $1 per book. Period. No percentages, no difference in how the book was sold. $1 per book. The authors (and their agents) know, on average, this is a little higher than normal, but the publisher also knows these authors are worth it. So if $1 per book is good for Stephen King, what is good for you? Take off your agent's share and you might be worth about 85 cents per book, give or take. (Kind of eye-opening? It was for me!)

Your Book as the Product
Now we get to the Product that started this whole marketing series - books. Specifically, your book. How do you price it?

Well, if you're pursuing the traditional publishing route, don't worry your pretty little head over it. Because you have absolutely no say. The publisher will decide how to price your book, which, in turn, determines the Price for yourself as the Product (your royalties, see above).

If you go indie, however, then you have this burden of setting your Price. So you must determine how much it will cost you to produce each book and how much you want to profit from the sale of each book. When calculating costs, factor in direct costs, such as the cost of printing one book, as well as indirect, such as the cost of the cover design, and overhead, such as advertising, membership dues, etc.

You also must realize that each distribution channel you choose wants a piece of your pie. That amount comes off the top of your list price. Some channels want as little as 40% and others up to 55%. So, taking Promise, for example, the first 40-55% of the $15.99 list price goes to Amazon and other retailers. That leaves $7.20-$9.60 to cover those other costs above (printing, cover designer, someone to format the book, ISBN, copyright and other legal issues, advertising, conferences, trade shows, signing tours, etc.).

Once you have all those numbers, then you must compare that total to the price of other comparable books: your genre, about the same size, same format, etc., and by authors with your publication background. Don't be surprised if you find your desired price to be $28 and the market value to be half that.

So now you must make more decisions, such as how you can reduce your costs, which distribution channels you want to use and which are too expensive and if your desired profit is too much (remember that $1 figure above?). The most important decision you must make is your goal for your book.

• Do you desire to make as much money off each book as you can, even if it means fewer sales, because you're really happy that at least a handful of people want to read it?
• Or do you desire to get your book into as many people's hands as possible, even if it means you pocket 75 cents or even less per book?

Obviously, the more expensive a book is, the fewer people who will buy it and vice versa.

As you're considering your goal, keep this in mind: Once the book is produced, you have a Product. You can sell as many of those products as you possibly can. It's not like your time, which is limited to the amount you can sell. So, you may lose money on the first 100 or even 1,000 books. But then your cover design and formatting is paid off, word-of-mouth is spreading so marketing costs can be reduced and, eventually, distribution channels may be willing to renegotiate because they're selling so many of your books. 75 cents per book at 100 sales doesn't seem like much. But at 100,000 sales? More? Compare that to $3 per book at 100 or even 1,000 sales - and you likely won't sell more than that if you're book is priced too high!

Sorry this is so long-winded, but I've noticed pricing by indies is all over the place in the market. I also know most people have no idea the costs involved in producing a book (yes, even an ebook!) and why a book's cost (from a customer's perspective) might seem high. Armed with knowledge and smart decisions, you can now figure out how to price your book to meet your goals. And for those of you who aren't writers or indie authors, I hope you can better understand that pricing a book is difficult, profit margins are low for everyone and authors only make good money if they sell tons of books.

Monday Marketing - Part 7: Price

I don't know about you, but I think we've covered Product enough in these Monday Marketing posts. LOL Check the sidebar for archives if you need to get caught up. ;-) And feel free to ask questions in the comments if I didn't cover something you're confused about or would like to know more about.

Let's move on to the next "P" or "C" in the Marketing Mix: "Price" (from the marketer's perspective) or "Cost" (from the customer's perspective).

Price refers to what the marketer needs to charge to cover costs (direct and overhead) and to make the desired profit. Cost refers to how much the customer must pay to purchase this Product that will solve their problem. Obviously, if the marketer's costs are $75 and they want to make a $25 profit, the customer must be willing to pay a cost of at least $100 for this solution.

What makes a customer willing to pay the cost the marketer wants?

• Value to the customer - Is the solution to their problem worth at least the price? For example, if it's a stain on a fairly new carpet and replacing the carpet costs $1,000, removing that stain for $100 provides value. On the other hand, if the carpet is old, worn and ugly, and the customer was planning to replace it anyway, removing the stain might not be worth $100.
• Options available to the customer - Do other solutions cost more or less to the customer? If the cost of all other solutions are close to or more than this solution, then what the customer is willing to pay matters less. If all of their options are at least $75 and they must solve this problem, then they'll have to get over their desire to pay $25.
• Value & Options combined - If other solutions cost less, does this solution offer more value? In the carpet stain example, the customer has other options, such as store-bought carpet cleaning sprays or even placing a big potted plant over the stain. We all know, however, that carpet cleaning sprays don't always work, meaning a waste of money and effort for the customer. They often leave residues that attract more dirt, so, in the long run, the carpet is worse off. And, obviously, hiding the spot isn't really a solution - unless it's for that crappy rug that's getting replaced soon anyway. So paying a professional cleaner to clean the carpet for $100 has more value than the cheaper alternatives.

What does this all mean to you? The Price you set for your Product is influenced by many factors:

• Your costs and desired profit margin.
• What the customer is willing to pay.
• The market - the price of other products that solve the same problems as yours.

So you can't just arbitrarily set a Price for your Product, especially based on what you need and want...at least, not if you want to sell your Product. You must consider the value you're adding to a customer's life, the problem your solving, the other solutions available and the pricing of those other solutions.

This is not to say you must have the lowest priced solution. That's nonsense. You can even have the highest priced solution. If your Product provides more value than the rest, there's no reason you can't price it higher. But by considering all of those factors above, you have set your Price with a purpose, rather than because that's how much you want to make.

So there's your little lesson on the philosophy of how Price, in general, should be set. Next week, we'll get more specific about your products.

Does this make any sense? Has there ever been a time that you've seen a price on something and wondered what on earth made the company or store set it so high or low? Has there been a time you would have gladly paid more for something because it meant so much to you? How about a time when you had no choice but to pay higher than what you wanted? Do you know how to get nail-polish out of carpet - the inspiration for my examples? :-)

Monday Marketing - Part 6: Product

Last time, we discussed why Product is important to us as writers, bloggers and job seekers - because we actually have control over the Product. We don't get this luxury very often, in other work and life situations. Control is empowering, but it is also a responsibility. We have to be sure to create and produce the highest quality Product we possibly can.

Part of Product is packaging. When it comes to your actual book, if your goal is to be published traditionally, you won't have much, if any, say-so in your Product's packaging. Of course, by then, it is no longer your Product - it belongs to the Publisher.

If you go indie, however, you have all kinds of control over the packaging, from cover design and colors to interior font and layout. Do your research. Don't make these decisions just because they look pretty or it's what you personally like. You want to be sure your packaging stands out and also serves the needs of the customer - your reader.

A cover image may be beautiful, but if it doesn't pop from the shelf, it does you no good. Your customers won't notice your book among the thousands of others. As for usability, make sure your interior font is a serif font and fairly standard. Make it easy on the eyes to read so your readers aren't forced to put your book down because of eye strain. Most importantly, make it look professional.

Professional is the keyword for packaging for any of us - writers, bloggers, job seekers, employees, etc. In all of these roles, we are the Product and our packaging must be professional. Our blogs should be organized, easy to read, attractive and well written. Our websites should be the same. We should present ourselves, whether to agents/editors, readers, current and potential employers, as professionals.

Fortunately, professional does not equal boring or stuffy. At least not for what most of us do. You can still be yourself, you can still let your humor and personality show through. Because this helps you make a personal connection to your customer or audience. Just be sure to make it clear that you care about what you do. You care about getting this job, so you show up prepared, clean and wearing appropriate clothes. You care about the impression you make on customers, so you behave politely. You care about your followers, so you keep your blog attractive, organized and, if appropriate, fun.

Packaging plays all kinds of roles for different types of products. For example, lunch meat that now comes in those reusable plastic containers makes the customer feel as though they're getting two products in one. And often, the packaging is the product, or at least part of it, such as a potted plant or jar-candle...or a book, for that matter.

For us peeps here, however, packaging is mostly about how we present ourselves - our clothes, our appearance, the design of our blogs, our attitudes, our behaviors, etc. Show you care and be professional. One more way for you to control the quality of your Product.

Is there anything you can do to improve the packaging of your product? Maybe polish your resume? Clean up your website? Remove the buttons from your blog for contests that ended last May? (Hmm...I think I better go check on that last one myself.)

Monday Marketing - Part 5: Product

Back to our discussion on Product, after last week's marketing hiatus for Mockingjay. 

Last time, we discussed how Products are ideally developed to provide a new way to meet customers' needs - filling the gap between their problems and lack of good solutions. Today we'll talk about why Product is important to you - the writer, the reader, the job seeker, etc. And this is simple: Because, of the entire Marketing Mix depicted above, Product is where you have the most control.

This isn't usually true in our day jobs, where people in the Buying department choose the Products our companies sell or the Research & Development (R&D) team creates them. We usually don't have that much say in the Products. But, most of you are writers or book bloggers or just readers who at some point or another will have control over whatever "Product" you find yourself marketing (which is often yourself).

For writers working on a novel, your book is your Product. Right now, you have all the power over how good it is and how well it serves the customer. You are the creator, the decision-maker and the final say in it (until it's bought by a publisher, but first you have to get there). This is your chance to make the Product yours and to make it the. Best. Freakin'. Product. you can produce. The rest of the Marketing Mix will come in time and it will fall in place (whether it's you or your publisher doing it) when you have a frawesome Product - a mesmerizing, unforgettable book.

And very important: If you are seeking to be published the traditional way, this is the only time you have so much control over any of it. Once you sign on with an agent, you lose a lot of control, because it's now also the agent's Product. And once you sell your rights, you have to let go completely - the publisher now owns your Product. It's no longer just yours. So maximize the control you have now, while you can.

For book and other bloggers, your blog is your Product. **Aside: You may wonder why you should worry about marketing your blog. Because marketing gets followers. The more followers you have, the more influence you have. The more influence you have, the more free books and ARCs publishers will send you. Or the more connections you make in the industry. And the more connections you have, the more likely you'll meet that one person who can change your life.** Anyway...back to your Product. You also have entire control over your blog - its appearance, its organization and cleanliness, the topics you cover, your "voice" or attitude, etc.

And then, we are always our own Product. If you're looking for a job, you are the Product you're marketing. You can make your Product better by updating any skills, adding new abilities, gaining additional experience. You make yourself appear professional and sound desirable at your interviews. You have the control of how you present yourself as your Product.

If you're seeking out an agent, you are also the Product, as well as your book. After all, agents and publishers want someone who can produce more than one book. They want to launch your career so that all the time they devote to you as a debut author will be paid back for years down the road. They want to make sure you aren't difficult to work with, overly demanding or insecure, etc. You must market yourself as well as your book to land that agent.

We don't always get to control the Products we're responsible for in our day jobs. So when it comes to ourselves, our books, our blogs, etc., we need to take pride in our Product and embrace the control we have over how great it can be.

Next week we'll talk about one specific part of Product - packaging. In the meantime, please feel free to ask any questions. Or answer this one: What is one thing you can do this week to make your Product better?

Monday Marketing - Part 4: Product

Now that we've discussed the Target Customer here and here, it's time to move on to the first P in the Marketing Mix - the Product. Or, for the customer, the first C - Customer's wants and needs. For the most success, we should develop a Product that specifically meets our Target Customer's needs and wants. We identify the gap between what they need/want (their problem) and the products (solutions) that are currently available. Then, ideally, we develop a product that fills that gap.

*Aside: In marketing, a service is considered a product - there is no distinction between the two. So when I say "product," that includes any service, as well. And often, actual tangible products include some kind of service, as well, which we'll get into a little bit later.

So, say you are really good at organizing spaces and time management. Your friends, family and neighbors frequently confess to you that they wish they were as organized as you are. You know there are such things as professional organizers, but apparently there is a reason the people you know have not used one. If you identify that reason - that gap in what is available and what these people you know want - you can develop a Product that better meets their needs and desires. Voila! You have a new Product and business that should be successful (if all else goes well) because you know you're filling an identified gap.

But many of you are writers and your Products are your books and we get to the question that many of us face, especially if unpublished. Do we find out what agents, publishers and readers are looking for, what they're not finding in all the other stories out there, and then write that book? Do we write for them or for ourselves?

The advice is conflicting. Agents may say a book is not marketable, meaning that they will have a hard time shopping it to publishers because publishers don't think readers will be interested enough to spend the money publishers need to recoup their investments. So, to increase your likelihood of being sold, it's better to find out what's already out there (including what's not yet published but will be in the next couple years), recognize what's been overdone and underdone and identify what publishers wish for, then write that book.

Of course, no one has any idea what readers really want, especially in a couple years, when your book will finally be available if you publish through traditional routes. So it's still a crap shoot. But at least it's an educated crap shoot. If you can write a book based on what others, the "experts," want, then you may have more success doing it this way.

But what if that's not the book you want to write? Do you force yourself to write it anyway? To me, it's just not worth it. There's just not enough money in this career to write for these experts, if it's not something I want to write. I honestly believe the best books are those written with intense passion. The ones the writer felt compelled to write, that they can't not write. If we're forcing ourselves to write something else, it comes through in the story and the writing. And then you have a poor Product and poor products are not marketable.

So there is the other side of the coin of advice: write what you want, the story you want to read. Write for yourself, not the money. If it gets published and you make money, so much the better. But at least in the meantime, you have loved what you're doing. And here's my take: if you love it enough, if you've put enough into it, even if it takes a lot more work and time than you expected, your passion will shine through. Your story will be excellent. And if you enjoy it, chances are, there are others out there who will, too. After all, you know there are other readers out there who like the same books you do. You do have a Target Customer you're writing for, starting with yourself.

By the way, the same applies to book bloggers/reviewers. If you're looking to get paid to write reviews, then you'll probably have to read books you have little interest in, especially in the beginning. So just like the novelist, decide if your goal is to have fun and if more comes out of it, great...or if your goal is money.

If your goal is to enjoy reading and sharing your thoughts with others, don't worry about what genre is hot right now or that there may be hundreds of book blogs focusing on your favorite type of read. Your Product - your blog - will be successful because it displays the passion you feel for reading. You are unique, so your blog will be unique. Don't try to fit your square self into a round hole or vice versa.

There is much more to say about Product, so we'll continue with it next week. It's especially important because for writers - whether novelists or bloggers - Product is the one P we have the most control over.

In the meantime, what do you think about what I said about writers/bloggers and their Products? Is your goal to be published (paid), even if that means writing (reading) something others want but you don't love? Or do you write (read) what you want, because you love it, and hope that others will, too?

Monday Marketing - Part 3: The Target Customer

It's been a while since we've done a Monday Marketing. Last time, we talked about the Marketing Mix - the 4 P's & 4 C's of marketing, which all revolve around the Target Customer.

I said we'd get into the first P - Product today, but I lied. After reading that post, I realized that we needed to spend a little more time on the Target Customer. It's the most important part of the Marketing Mix, after all, because without a customer - a reader, a buyer, a spouse or child or employer - there's no reason for the rest. You need a Customer but, more specifically, you need to identify a Target Customer. (Yes, seriously think about your customer having a target on their head because you really are aiming for it. Well, actually, the heart. Put the target on the heart because you want your customer to lllluuuuurrrrvvvveee you.)

For just about anything you're trying to market - your book, your blog, your need for a raise, household chores - you have more than one type of customer. The rest of your Marketing Mix changes, depending on which customer you're targeting. For example, if you'd like your husband to take out the trash, the "price" and promotional message are going to be different than if you ask your kid to do the same thing.

Or perhaps your book is a mystery with paranormal and romantic elements. Your readers (and possibly potential agents) could prefer any of those genres. But when you're marketing - querying or deciding which websites to advertise on - you have to pick your Target Customer and aim the rest of the Marketing Mix at that particular customer. So your query letter discusses the Big Murder Mystery when targeting an agent who represents mysteries. You know romance readers will love your book, so you put an ad on the I Love Fabio forum that emphasizes the romance (I have no idea if that forum exists, so please don't ask where, no matter how much you're dying to know).

Sometimes your product even changes. Perhaps you get this great idea for a paranormal story and you decide it would be most enjoyed by Young Adult readers, but you've always written adult mainstream. You have to make adjustments to your style, your choice of words, sentence structures, pacing, etc., to meet the needs and desires of this new audience. If you've already started writing before you realize it would be better as YA, then you may even need to make changes to the character and some of the plot.

Book bloggers often start additional blogs to create a new product for a different Target Customer (or target market - same thing, different word). On one blog, they review YA novels, on another they emphasize adult reading and perhaps even on another they do erotica or noir thriller. They probably don't want their YA audience on that last one. The looks of each blog are probably going to be very different and the style of writing may be as well.

If you have experience in both retail sales and computer programming and you really just. Need. A. Job., you'll probably apply for both types. You're not going to use the same resume, though. One will emphasize your sales experience and the other your techno-geek stuff. When you go in for an interview at Hoity-Toity Boutique, you're not going to tell them all about how you can write  video-gaming software. You're targeting your Marketing Mix to the customer.

The point is, you must know your Target Customer and their needs and desires, and then create a Marketing Mix specifically for them. And yes, that may mean you have multiple Marketing Mixes for the same product or for the same customer.

Your customers all tune into WIIFM - What's In It For Me. This applies to potential employers, spouses, kids, readers, buyers - anyone. It's just human nature. They want to know what they're going to get from you. Not what some other person with different likes and interests will get. What they will get. So you target everything toward them specifically.

All that to stress to you that you must know your customers and then you must really know your Target Customer. Know their needs, desires, what keeps them up at night, what they dream about, what they fear, what their biggest problems are, what makes them happiest, etc. Know everything, or at least as much as possible. Think of someone you know who is your Target Customer and study them. When you know your Target Customer, then you can tailor the rest of the Marketing Mix to them and see success.

Questions? Shoot 'em at me!

Monday Marketing - Part 2: The Mix

The Mix...no, we're not talking about drinks. Or even cupcake or brownie batter. Sorry. But if you hang in there, I'll serve brownies at the end. As for the drinks...geez, peeps, it's only Monday! And not even noon! Well, maybe by the time you're reading this, in which case I hope you are enjoying your drink, whether mixed or not.

Today's mix is The Marketing Mix. Yes, with caps. Because it's that important. The Marketing Mix is the foundation of marketing. And what we'll be primarily focused on for this series of tutorials. It's what you, as a writer or blogger or businessperson or just a person who barters, really need to know. If you want to learn more after that...well, let's just start here and you can decide what you want later.

The Marketing Mix consists of five ingredients with the main ingredient - the flour or vodka or what-have-you - at the center being the Customer. Surrounding the Customer are the "4 Ps" (from the marketer's perspective) or "4 Cs" (from the customer's perspective). As you can see in my handy-dandy graphic, the 4 Ps/4 Cs revolve around the Customer, like planets in a star system. (Their orbits overlap because they often overlap. But if it's not done well, they'll crash, which I don't think is good in a star system.)

Because the Customer is the focus - the sun (if you don't like the mix analogies [or you do like mixed analogies, hahaha]).

I'll say it again, a little differently:

The World Revolves Around the Customer

The marketing world, that is. Without the customer, there is no point to anything. You MUST have a customer. You must have a reader (even if it's only your mom or bff or even yourself) or a buyer or someone you're trying to get to do something. And it's that person you're trying to make happy - you're trying to serve their desires or needs or both in exchange for something for you (money, time, brownies...).

Everything else in the mix (those little orbiting balls up there) serves the customer. And this is why marketers must look at the 4 Ps from the customer's perspective, creating the matching 4 Cs:

• Product / Customer's Needs & Wants - This is your book or your blog or your service or widget or whatever it is you're providing to meet someone's needs and wants. It is often YOU, yourself. As the marketer, you see it as a product - a thing or action that you're offering. The customer sees it as something that will meet their needs and satisfy their desires.
• Price / Cost - This is pretty obvious. As the marketer, you decide what price you need to charge to cover your investment and make a profit (if you so desire - in business, you desire, trust me, something has to pay the bills). The customer wants to know what it's going to cost them to have their needs and desires met by your product.
• Place / Convenience - This is not only where your product is offered, but also where you're going to reach the customer. For the customer, it's all about how convenient it is to find (and buy) your product.
• Promotions / Communications - This is what most people think of when they think of marketing - the ads, public relations, online marketing, social media, etc. (But you're going to be smart enough to know now that marketing is oh, so much more). If Place is where you reach customers, Promotions is how you reach customers. For customers, it's all about the communication - how they find out about your product, who tells them, how they can receive updates and additional information after they buy, customer service, etc.

So let's say you want to go see the new bloody vamp movie out, but your date (spouse, girl/boyfriend, best friend, kid, dude who hangs out at the laundromat, whatever) is not so much into fangs. But you really, really want to see this one and your date really, really wants to spend time with you. So you have a customer (your date) and a marketing mix:

• Product -  You (not the vamp movie with that sexy hunk of meat, because that's your desire, not your customer's) / Customer's Needs & Desires - Special time with you
• Price - Time with you / Cost - Having to see that annoying star with all that fake-looking make-up all over the screen again
• Place - Theater / Convenience - It's at least playing in the one close-by with the wide seats
• Promotions - You convince your date to see your movie by appealing to his/her desires. You identify all the benefits your date will get, whether real or perceived (because, really, how special is time together in a dark theater???). You reach out to your date, communicating how this product actually meets his/her needs and will exceed his/her desires. (And you do it differently than if your customer was, say, your mom or grandma.) Communication - Your date hears all the good things that are worth the exchange, you continue making your date happy with popcorn and excellent service and you follow-up by asking how he/she enjoyed the movie. If you did a good job, they won't respond by saying, "You are never picking the movie again." or "Next time, I'll go see my own movie. Alone."

I bet you've done that before, right? Convinced someone to see the movie you wanted to see? And you never knew you were marketing - using The Marketing Mix - did you? And it's all kind of common sense, isn't it?

Next time*, we'll delve into Product, which is, next to the Customer, the most important ingredient. Because if you have a crappy product, you won't get very far. And for most of you, the product is what you have the most control over.

Thanks for coming! Brownies for everyone! If you have any questions, please ask. If you're utterly confused, please let me know. Because it all makes sense to me, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

*Note: Next time will be in 2 weeks because next week is Virtual Release Party and Blog Tour!!! Woohoo!!!

Monday Marketing - Part 1: But I Just Want to Write!

Many moons ago, I wrote about the many steps and tasks it takes to publish a book (read it here, if you care to). These were all the boring technical parts, like obtaining ISBNs, registering with Books in Print and the Library of Congress, copyrighting, selecting a printer, blah blah blah. Most (if not all) of which a publisher does for the author. When you publish yourself, then you have to do it.

I had also promised another post about the many steps and tasks it takes to market a book. And now I'm finally getting to it. But not exactly as I had expected. I know hearing the words "marketing your book" causes some of you to break out into hives. I hear from so many writers, "I would publish this myself if I had any idea how to do sales and marketing."


Guess what? You'll have to learn how anyway. So this is not about trying to convince you that you should jump on the self-publishing or indie-press bandwagon. It's about helping you sell your book (or anything else).

See...although a mainstream/traditional publisher might do some of these things for you, most require that the author takes on a good part of the marketing. In fact, many publishers invest very few dollars into debut novels, because they are unwilling to take the risk on something that might be a flop. So they leave it up to the authors to make it a win.

And what do most authors say?

"But I just want to write!"

Sorry, lovelies, but even if one of the Big Six publishing houses picks up your book, you'll still have to do most of the marketing.

Hey, hey, stop the fretting! Calm down before those ugly hives start popping up. It's really not as bad as you think. In fact, you've marketed more products than you realize.

• Have you ever used a cleaning product that finally worked on a stubborn stain and you told everyone you know about how great it is?
• Have you ever convinced someone to see a movie, tailoring your argument to all the reasons that particular person would like it?
• Have you ever held a garage sale and had to determine how to price something? Where to post signs? Which newspapers you should run an ad in?
• Have you ever recommended a book because you love it so much and convinced someone else to read it?
• Do you, uh, ever make written contact with anyone? Verbal contact? (If you say "no" to these two, you must live under a rock, in a very dark cave, by yourself...and you wouldn't be reading this!)

Those are all parts of marketing. See! You do it all the time! And what better product can you market than your own book?!? If you can't get behind your own book and passionately talk it up, then you will have serious problems ever getting anyone to read it...including an agent.

Of course, marketing is more than this and we will get into details of the marketing machine over the next several weeks. You'll find that there are some things you realize you can do, some things you won't want to do (but you'll have to anyway) and, if you have a publisher, some things you won't have to do. But, regardless of who does it, knowledge is power and the more power you have going into a contract, the better for you. So I'm going to arm you.


For the next several weeks or months (until I run out of ideas), I'll do a Marketing Monday post. Knowing the basics of marketing is beneficial for anyone who needs anything. So please don't tune out every Monday just because you're not a writer. You might glean something you can use for that next promotion...or even the new dishwasher you need to convince hubby to buy...or...you get the picture. 

*In case you're wondering or even care...my background is marketing. Marketing degree and 15+ years in the business. For a long time, I thought I was given the talent of writing to write marketing stuff. It still pays the bills...for now.

So next week I'll tell you all about the 4 P's and C's - the building blocks of marketing. Bonus points for anyone who posts any guesses in the Comments below.