In today's post, I want to share 3 surprises that you might experience when you execute your marketing plan; not the good surprises, but the ones we dread. Having these in mind now will make dealing with them much easier than if they catch us off-guard.
1. Garner Negative Reactions- Rarely do we launch a marketing plan with the anticipation of receiving negative reactions from our activities. But from time-to-time, that may happen. Sometimes, people will read what we do and, for whatever reasons, it will push their buttons.
Perhaps, we made an allusion to something political or religious that we assumed everyone agreed with. Maybe we asserted a value proposition that someone does not adhere to. And yes, some people can even take offense that we are "selling" when they feel that the medium is not conducive to sales communications.
Many times, those who have the negative reactions are right. Our marketing communications is unintentionally offensive, but offensive none-the-less. Maybe we launched a marketing plan in a venue, like a member forum for example, that is traditionally free from marketing messages.
Other times, it's just a poor soul who got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. Something got under their skin that would never bother the vast majority of people. Yet, it still garners harsh and vocal criticism, which often catches us off guard.
We can minimize the fallout from this surprise by following these tips:
* Take time to think before we act. Often, we just need to step back and carefully go through our message before we launch it.
* Look for value statements. While I believe that value statements (religious, political, ethical, etc...) do have a place in our marketing messages, we need to realize that those statements may offend some who come across them. Some professional decide never to use anything that could be considered controversial, but if you do, be prepared that it could create resistance.
* Make sure we perform due-diligence to be certain that our marketing message is appropriate to the medium we choose. A middle school book fair might not be the best location to rent a booth to sign our best selling erotica.
* Be quick to acknowledge and apologize for any offense. Even if someone is just being a pain in the behind, it's often easier to let them know that it wasn't our intentions to offend anyone and move on. Taking on someone who is hell-bent on paying us a piece of their mind is rarely productive.
2. Using Inaccurate Copy- There are few things that will make your gut sink more than waking up to see your live marketing message with inaccurate or missing information. Perhaps you see glaring editing errors or when you click a link that's supposed to go to your book, it goes to the dreaded 404 error.
Fortunately, the fixes for this surprise are fairly straight forward:
* Read, revise, read, revise, read and revise some more. Just like your book, you'll want to put in the time to edit your marketing message.
* Borrow a second set of eyes. Again, just like your book, having someone else proof your marketing message will increase the chances of a clean copy.
* Always, always, always check your hyperlinks. All it takes is one character in the wrong place to send you to the 404 page.
3. Missing A Deadline- It's not fun to get that voice mail or email from someone who is asking, "Where is your marketing piece? It was supposed to run this morning." And if you have joint venture partners who are counting on you, you can put others in a bind for missing your deadline.
Often, a missed deadline is not easy to reschedule; and if you can reschedule, it often cost more money. I admit, I have missed my share of deadlines, but here's what I've done to minimize this surprise:
* Google Calendar (or your favorite planner/calendar) is a must. I have mine scheduled to send me reminders at various times, depending on the event. But the only thing that will make this work for you is remembering to schedule the events and tasks to begin with.
* Sync with your smartphone. For your most important appointments, such as your marketing schedule, syncing with your smartphone means that you'll minimize the chances of missing the scheduled event.
* Invite others to your event. In many electronic calendars, you can invite "attendees" to the events you schedule. By inviting others to be part of the scheduled event, you'll have another set of eyes on the deadline.
Unfortunately, there are a lot more than three dreaded surprises that can jump out at you when you execute your book marketing plan. However, these are three of the most common, and three that you can minimize with a little planning on your part.
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-------- Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect, an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests.
10 comments:
These tips can help avoid headaches down the road. Thanks a bunch!
Good post, and so true! It's also possible to innocently post something that incites readers - we did that once when reporting on some publishing news. The personalities mentioned in the piece were more polarizing than we realized, and it generated complaints that we were biased! So we parse content a little more now :)
I completely agree about editing. It's better to wait and have someone proofread than to put out something with errors. Same with hyperlinks - check them and you won't receive a barrage of emails saying the link doesn't work.
Karen, thanks for the comment. I still reach for the aspirin every now and then :)
Paula, I can't tell you how many times an innocent action on my part led to a real stink. Sometimes, I close my laptop, drive to Starbucks to get a tall cafe mocha, and then come back to try to put out the fires :)
And here's a tip on hyperlinks that I actually see a lot: If you are sending someone the link to your blog post, make sure you are not sending the link you're using while you are previewing the post before it goes live. We can't see your unpublished preview :)
Thank you so much for your workshop on "How to Market Your Book and You." I learned so much. This is all new to me. I know that people think if you have an agent or a publisher that you do not have to do your own marketing. But that is not true. You still have to market your own books. "No one loves your book more than you," you told us. And you are right. I love my characters and feel that it is my responsibility to promote them. I have already implemented many of the ideas you have given us. It is amazing how many things you can do without spending a dime. Some of your ideas even make us money. Excellent workshop, I highly recommend it. I will keep my eyes open for more workshops in the future.
Judy, you are very kind! I had a blast at the workshop. Book marketing and helping authors is a passion of mine. I know that ever author has a special place in their heart for their book and it's a mission of mine to help authors learn ways to channel that passion to others.
Thanks again for your kind words!
Great advice. I think the biggest is "take it in stride."
Thank you for the great advice this is something I try to keep in mind as much as possible thank you.
Google calendar is a great idea for keeping track of approaching guest blog posts, interviews, etc. I'm still working out my systems now that I'm published.
If you're an active member on the internet I think unintended offence is inevitable. Whatever you say there's bound to be someone who will take it the wrong way.
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