Promotion...what is it good for?
In the digital age one thing is certain; as consumers we are continuously bombarded with advertising messages and requests for our ever important dollars. It's become so ubiquitous that most of us don't even notice most of them anymore. How many of us notice that product placement in our favourite shows or realize that the nicely landscaped corporate logo on the side of the highway is just another form of advertising. It is quite literally all around us!
Show of hands, how many of you pay any kind of attention to traditional advertising? How many actually watch commercials on television anymore? How many notice the banner ads on websites as anything more than a mild annoyance?
I'm going to go ahead here and assume (since I obviously can't see you) that not that many hands are raised. Speaking from my own perspective I can tell you I don't remember the last time I paid any attention to commercials or took a book suggestion from a banner ad.
So then, given all this, does it not lend itself to concluding that promotion is good for absolutely nothing? If the known quantities can't use the massive marketing machine at their disposal to gain the consumer's attention then what possible chance does an unknown Indie author have?
There is certainly no end of options afforded to us from internet ads, to Facebook ads, to free promotions, to countdown deals, to God knows what else but you get the point. We can utilize plenty of options...but do they work?
At the end of the day, promoting for the sake of promoting is a waste. If we're going to spend time and money on promotion then we obviously expect to see that reflected on our bottom line - we expect sales from the effort.
I've written here before that sales should not be the goal and I stand by that. For those that seek sales though (and to some extent that's all of us!) how can promotion be used effectively?
Examining the landscape of modern day marketing reminds me of a line from Moneyball by Michael Lewis. To paraphrase "If we try to play like [The Big 5] in here, we will lose to [The Big 5] out there."
What this means simply is that as Indie authors we have nowhere near the means or capital at our disposal to market in the same ways that the established publishing houses do. Sure we can pay for an internet ad and post it out there but when the thousands of ads that they run barely receive our notice, why would our one little ad make a difference?
But despair not my fellow Indie scribes; we have something The Big 5 (or Evil Empire if you prefer!) doesn't have. We have approachability and a proven, yes I said proven, method that works.
Think of any big name author that you admire and who has had tremendous success. What do they all have in common? There was a time when no one had ever heard of them. No matter who they are or what they've accomplished this is true of them all. At one point or another they were where we stand.
So how do we get to where they are? How do we follow them? I'm going to say emphatically that it isn't with advertising. Does anyone remember a Stephen King ad before Stephen King was famous? I think not.
The way I see it, the path we should follow is to use our accessibility to readers and begin to network. Sure, this is a long road but whoever said there was a shortcut to success?
The best promotion is the kind that works. We've all read books because they were recommended to us by people we know. That's promotion that works!
So run countdown deals or free promotions; the more eyeballs you get on your book - if it's good - the more recommendations you'll get and the greater chance you'll have of racking up those sales numbers you dream about.
If you want to spend money on ads and the like, do that too, but be realistic about it. I'm not saying they can't produce sales for you; I'm merely saying that the odds are not in your favour.
For me, I'm going to continue meeting people and enjoying getting to know them while we discuss the words. I'm going to go after that elusive word of mouth. I want people to read my books because someone else they know read it, enjoyed it, and told them about it.
I want people reading my work not because it sounds good, but because they know it's good.
Show of hands, how many of you pay any kind of attention to traditional advertising? How many actually watch commercials on television anymore? How many notice the banner ads on websites as anything more than a mild annoyance?
I'm going to go ahead here and assume (since I obviously can't see you) that not that many hands are raised. Speaking from my own perspective I can tell you I don't remember the last time I paid any attention to commercials or took a book suggestion from a banner ad.
So then, given all this, does it not lend itself to concluding that promotion is good for absolutely nothing? If the known quantities can't use the massive marketing machine at their disposal to gain the consumer's attention then what possible chance does an unknown Indie author have?
There is certainly no end of options afforded to us from internet ads, to Facebook ads, to free promotions, to countdown deals, to God knows what else but you get the point. We can utilize plenty of options...but do they work?
At the end of the day, promoting for the sake of promoting is a waste. If we're going to spend time and money on promotion then we obviously expect to see that reflected on our bottom line - we expect sales from the effort.
I've written here before that sales should not be the goal and I stand by that. For those that seek sales though (and to some extent that's all of us!) how can promotion be used effectively?
Examining the landscape of modern day marketing reminds me of a line from Moneyball by Michael Lewis. To paraphrase "If we try to play like [The Big 5] in here, we will lose to [The Big 5] out there."
What this means simply is that as Indie authors we have nowhere near the means or capital at our disposal to market in the same ways that the established publishing houses do. Sure we can pay for an internet ad and post it out there but when the thousands of ads that they run barely receive our notice, why would our one little ad make a difference?
But despair not my fellow Indie scribes; we have something The Big 5 (or Evil Empire if you prefer!) doesn't have. We have approachability and a proven, yes I said proven, method that works.
Think of any big name author that you admire and who has had tremendous success. What do they all have in common? There was a time when no one had ever heard of them. No matter who they are or what they've accomplished this is true of them all. At one point or another they were where we stand.
So how do we get to where they are? How do we follow them? I'm going to say emphatically that it isn't with advertising. Does anyone remember a Stephen King ad before Stephen King was famous? I think not.
The way I see it, the path we should follow is to use our accessibility to readers and begin to network. Sure, this is a long road but whoever said there was a shortcut to success?
The best promotion is the kind that works. We've all read books because they were recommended to us by people we know. That's promotion that works!
So run countdown deals or free promotions; the more eyeballs you get on your book - if it's good - the more recommendations you'll get and the greater chance you'll have of racking up those sales numbers you dream about.
If you want to spend money on ads and the like, do that too, but be realistic about it. I'm not saying they can't produce sales for you; I'm merely saying that the odds are not in your favour.
For me, I'm going to continue meeting people and enjoying getting to know them while we discuss the words. I'm going to go after that elusive word of mouth. I want people to read my books because someone else they know read it, enjoyed it, and told them about it.
I want people reading my work not because it sounds good, but because they know it's good.
No comments have been added yet.
