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Strategies: Your Roadmap to Success (Marketing Plan #6)
Originally published by ACFW Colorado’s The Inkwell Blog.
Last week, we began talking about the heart of your marketing plan: objectives, strategies, and tactics. Your objective is the destination of your road trip. Strategies are the maps that get you there.
If you think of objectives, strategies, and tactics as an online map, strategies are the next level of detail when you click the little magnifying glass. Instead of a bird’s eye view of the country, we’re now looking at cities and highways. Whereas objectives were very specific, strategies are more general, targeting particular areas of marketing effort.
Strategies can encompass all areas of marketing and product development, from packaging to pricing to promotion. As a traditionally-published author, you have little control over the first two (e.g. cover design, pricing, sales, etc.) In this case, your marketing strategies would be solely concerned with promotion. If you’re a self-published author, you have far more control (and responsibility) for all areas of marketing that relate to your novel.
Let’s choose an objective from last week and brainstorm some tactics. (At the end of this series, we’ll talk about some specific strategies you can put to use in your own marketing plan.)
Objective (traditionally published): Increase book sales by 10% by March 2013
- Strategy #1: Expand social media efforts
- Strategy #2: Acquire internet publicity
- Strategy #3: Explore live engagements
Objective (self-published): Increase book sales by 10% by March 2013
- Strategy #1: Adjust pricing strategy
- Strategy #2: Expand social media efforts
- Strategy #3: Expand distribution of print book
As you can see, we haven’t gotten into specific actions. This level of detail simply serves to focus our marketing efforts before we branch out within those specific marketing areas, in this case: social media, blog publicity, and live appearances for the traditionally published author; pricing, social media, and distribution for the self-published author.
Naturally, there will be some overlap, and for the most part, the traditionally-published and the self-published author will use the same strategies. The self-published author, however, will likely have more strategies for each objective simply because she does not have the benefit of her publisher’s sales and marketing departments. Often, one strategy might apply to more than one objective.
This week’s action items: Brainstorm three specific strategies for each of last weeks’ objectives.
Next week: Tactics: Planning and Implementation
Tags: author marketing, book marketing, marketing, marketing plan, objectives, promotion, self-publishing, strategies, tactics, traditional publishing
Objectives: Begin With the End in Mind (Marketing Plan #5)
Originally published in ACFW Colorado’s The Inkwell Blog.
The past several weeks, we’ve discussed the elements that form the framework of your marketing plan. Today we’ll begin the section that forms the meat of your plan: objectives, strategies, and tactics.
Starting a marketing plan without defining these three elements is like taking a road trip–without knowing where you’re going, how to get there, or what you’ll do when you arrive. Objectives are the overall goals you want to accomplish: your destination. Strategies are the overarching plans you use to reach those goals: your route. And tactics are the specific steps you’ll use within those strategies: your waypoints.
You’ve probably heard Stephen R. Covey’s Second Habit of Highly Effective People: “Begin with the end in mind.” There is no truer statement in marketing, and your objectives will define this end. Three things are required for a good objective.
- It must be specific
A good objective will lay out a specific goal within a finite time frame. Compare the objective “Increase book sales” to “Increase book sales by 20% by December 2013.” - It must be measurable
The objective above is measurable because you can clearly define how much of an increase in sales you achieve, either by sales figures or royalty statements. A bad objective: “Do better with online sales.” In this case, better is hard to define and will mean different things to different people. A good objective: “Achieve at least #2 ranking in my category on Amazon by December 2012.” - It must be achievable
Becoming a millionaire by Christmas might be measurable and specific, but for most writers, it’s not achievable. Choose something that you can reasonably make happen within a specific time frame.
Your overall marketing plan may take into account the long term, but objectives are most easily achieved when they’re 3-, 6-, 9-, or 12-month goals. The temptation to stray off course is higher the longer the time frame.
Not all objectives have to be sales related. If you’re a published author with books on the shelf, your goals may very well be financial. If you’re unpublished or pre-published, your objectives (and your whole marketing plan) might be focused on platform building.
Some examples of sales related objectives
- Increase book sales by 1000 units by February 2013.
- Increase ancillary sales (workbooks, audio products) by 15% percent by June 2013.
- Book 10 speaking engagements in 2013
Examples of platform-related objectives
- Achieve 400 followers on Twitter by March 2013
- Get 200 likes on Facebook author page by December 2012
- Compile 150 e-mail addresses on mailing list by June 2013
This week’s action items: Define at least two objectives for your marketing. Make sure they’re specific, measurable, and achievable.
Next week: Tactics, Your Road Map to Success
Taking Aim: Your Target Market (Marketing Plan #4)
Originally published by ACFW Colorado’s The Inkwell Blog.
I’ll admit it… in every marketing plan I’ve ever written, this is my least favorite section. Not because it’s not important. In fact, it could be one of the most important sections in your plan. But while we often know who our audience is, it can be incredibly difficult to define. It’s even trickier to get hard numbers. It is crucial, though, because having a good understanding of your readership will help you focus marketing efforts (social media, blog topics, promotions) into areas most appealing to your potential readers.
When discussing a market (and market share), there are three factors on which we normally focus.
- Market size
- Demographics
- Psychographics
Market size is a tricky thing to determine. A little internet research will turn up the year’s average sales in each genre, but it’s tough to know how many readers that really encompasses (or how many book sales the number equates to). For our purposes, it’s enough to know how your chosen genre stacks up in the overall book market. Typically, romance is at the top, followed by the generalized inspirational market (which do not get broken down into sub-genres), mystery, science fiction and fantasy, and literary fiction.
Demographics are the physical characteristics of the readership, and a question you’ll eventually need to answer in your book proposals. Most likely, as a reader of your genre, you have a pretty good sense of what type of people read your books. Take a moment to jot down who you think your readership might be. I’ll take Amish fiction as an example.
- Female
- Ages 16-80 (but primarily 35-55)
- Married
Psychographics on the other hand, are the attitudes, values, and lifestyles that determine the buying behavior of your audience. The psychographics for Amish fiction might look like this:
- Politically conservative
- Evangelical Christian
- Focused on family and home
- Yearn for a simpler lifestyle
- May live a very modern life, but likes the idea of slowing down
- Prefers gentler, inspirational storylines
- Likes to craft and cook
But what if you don’t know these details? Professional writers’ organizations such as RWA (Romance Writers of America) and SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America) conduct market research projects that can give you a very specific breakdown of readership. A little time with Google should turn up many of the studies available online.
Failing that, a little creativity might be in order. My favorite trick is to figure out what types of magazines would appeal to readers of my genre or my particular book– and then download their advertising/media kits. Magazines keep a close eye on both the demographic and psychographic profiles of their readership and provide detailed information to potential advertisers.
Another source of information would be enthusiast forums and reading groups for your genre. Lurk about (or engage participants in conversation). What other types of activities do they enjoy? What topics might interest them?
This week’s action items: Make a list of characteristics of your target market. Download press kits from magazines that are likely to have overlap with your readership. Identify three topics about which you can blog that might be of interest to your target market.
Next week: Defining your marketing objectives.
Stalking the Competition (Marketing Plan #3)
Originally published on ACFW Colorado’s The Inkwell Blog.
Last week, we discussed the importance of reading in your genre and determining both the similarities and differences of books already in the marketplace. Now that you know the books and authors against which you’re competing, it’s time to stalk–I mean, research–the competition.
First, let’s put that Google-fu into practice. Choose a book from last week’s list of comparable titles. Search the author’s name and make note of what comes up. Bookmark the search page.
1. Author website – Cruise on over and take a look. What do you like and what don’t you like? How do they connect with readers through message boards and mailing lists? What do you think is most effective? What doesn’t work as well?
2. Social media – With what social networks are they involved? Facebook? Twitter? Goodreads? Shelfari? LinkedIn? Pinterest?
3. Similar pages – Make a note of the little section at the bottom of the Google results page that says, “Pages similar to.” These will usually be other authors that have similar books, content, or are searched in conjunction with your target author. For example, when I search Denise Hunter, I come up with “Pages similar to” Colleen Coble, Sharon Hinck, Jamie Carie, and Christine Lynxwiler. These authors will most likely also be part of your competitive analysis.
Now, time to Google the book title PLUS the author name. Make a note of what comes up (or bookmark the search page.)
1. What bloggers have reviewed this book? These may be possible targets to review your book.
2. On what lists are they included on Shelfari, Amazon, and Goodreads?
3. How have the books been described in press releases?
4. What elements of the story do readers best identify with, as expressed in reviews and blog posts? These may be the elements in your own story (if present) that you will want to play up in your marketing.
Now cruise on over to Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com and see how the book ranks in its category. Amazon ranking has more to do with overall popularity, as indicated by book sales, inclusion on lists, and additions to wish lists. Barnes and Noble uses book sales as its sole criteria.
Do you think that the marketing techniques used for these books have been effective? If not, what would you do differently?
This week’s action item: Choose at least two books and research both the author and the book’s online web presence and sales rank from online booksellers. Make detailed notes. What books do you think are your main competition?
Next week: Determining your target audience
