Diversify Your Marketing Campaigns

Sometimes, I think “marketing” is a bad word. It’s one of those things that we as authors (and business owners) have to do, but it’s hard to do. I certainly don’t market myself and my works as much as I should. I’m pretty good about talking about marketing and marketing for other people, however.

I think the reason marketing is so hard is because we have to talk about ourselves, and most of us were taught that it’s not polite to talk about ourselves. When we market, we’re supposed to talk about how wonderful our product is and how great we are for developing it. It can be difficult to do that, especially if we don’t want to come off as bragging or being self-centered.

It’s also incredibly difficult to be heard and seen in a sea of others who are marketing their products. Consumers are so desensitized to calls of “Buy My Stuff!” or “Check This Out!” that they don’t notice the calls anymore. I’m exactly the same way. I get so irritated with ads, I tune them out. When I watch TV, I even go so far as to mute the commercials.

That’s why it’s so important to find a way to market your product but do it in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re selling something. That’s where branding comes into play. It’s a unique way of showing off you and your product without actually shouting “Buy My Stuff!” to the consumer.

There are a variety of different ways to brand yourself, and I’m not going to get into them in this post. What I want to focus on instead are the different venues you can use to market yourself and your product.

We’ve all been told that the best way to get your stuff out there is to be online. You have to have a blog. You have to be on social media. You have to send newsletters. You have to belong to discussion groups.

The list of “have tos” goes on and on. And while you’re being told you have to do all these things, millions of others just like you are being told the same thing. If all of us are going to be on the sites we have to be on, how do we stand out from the crowd? Of course, that’s the real challenge.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be on these sites, you should.  It still gives you a chance to be heard and seen, even if it’s by a small percentage of people. And who knows, maybe you enjoy being on social sites, so by all means, do something you enjoy.

What you need to keep in mind is that while social media has its benefits, it also has its downside, the most prominent being that it doesn’t reach a large percentage of your intended audience. There are so many people on Facebook and Twitter, they have to limit the amount of people who see your feed. If they didn’t, mass chaos would ensue. Either that or our heads would explode from the sheer amount of information in our feeds.

When marketing your product, it’s important to keep in mind that using different mediums targets different audiences. There may be some overlap from the different mediums, but for the most part, you are probably reaching new audiences. That’s why it’s important to diversify your marketing campaigns.

When I worked as an ad rep for my local paper, one of the biggest reasons people didn’t want to advertise in the paper was because it cost money. Why would you spend money when you could get free advertisement through social media? It’s a totally fair question.

It’s hard to justify spending money on something that may or may not get you a return on that investment. It’s much easier to take the low-risk alternative. But, as I mentioned earlier, you might not be reaching all the potential clients through social media posts. Technically, you might not reach them through a newspaper either, but you would at least be expanding your potential customer base.

What makes marketing successful is having a variety of people see your campaign. You can only reach so many people through social media or through a local paper or even on the radio. But when you develop a plan that incorporates all of these mediums, you increase your chances of being seen.

Marketing is tough. It’s hard to know what is going to work and what isn’t going to work. It’s challenging to invest money in something that may or may not see a return on that investment. However, if you run a business—even if that business is being an author—it’s worth it to develop a marketing budget and expand your reach to different mediums.

Branding, Marketing, and Trying to Sell Things

For the past month or so, I have been working at my local paper as an ad rep. In essence, my job is to sell ad space in the newspaper to local businesses. It’s one of the most challenging jobs I’ve ever done.

On average, I would say more than half of the people I talk to would rather stick white hot needles in their eye. I’m not a pushy person; in fact, most days I question my ability to do this job at all. I’m not shy, but I’m not going to make anyone buy ads from the paper. But to watch how business owners act, you’d think I had devil horns and a pitch fork.

I try not to let it deter me. After all, my goal is to help these businesses be successful, but to do that, I have to get them to part with their money—and no one wants to part with their money unless they know that it’s going to be worth it. They want to know that they are going to get a return on their investment.

I don’t blame the business owners for wanting a return on their investment. That’s the name of the game: spend money to make money. And it’s their money, so they can do with it what they see fit.

When it comes to marketing, I can talk the talk. I’ve been marketing my books for a long time, and I’m always looking for ways to improve. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert in marketing—far from it—and I know there’s always more that I can do. Like the business owners I deal with, I’m pretty shrewd when it comes to spending money. I don’t have a lot of it, so I have to be careful where I invest.

When it comes to marketing, there are so many different options out there—and it’s hard to know which one is going to be successful and which one isn’t. When it comes right down to it, what works at one point in time might not in the future and vice versa, and there’s no way to know—unless you take a chance.

If you read any kind of marketing articles out there (and there are tons), they all have advice on what you should be doing. Write a blog. Get a Twitter account. Have a Facebook page. Get on Instagram. If you’re like me, you’ve done all that (with the exception of Instagram. I have a Pinterest page, but I’m terrible at posting on there).

The nice thing about these sites is that their free. At one time, I think they were novel and really helped businesses and authors get their message into the world. But like everything, they’ve grown—to the point where it’s super easy to get lost in all the other posts and messages that people put on these sites.

And let’s not even get started on Facebook and their analytics. If you have a business or author page, you are aware the FB limits the amount of people who view your posts—and it’s because they want you to pay for people to view them. If you pay, then they expect you to pay all the time, so there’s no way you can win.

Twitter is so busy. I refrained for a long time before posting on Twitter because I was afraid of getting lost. And I’m sure I do, along with thousands of others who are Tweeting. It’s chaos in 140 characters.

Blogging can be just as difficult. Once you write a blog, you have to get people to read it. Which brings you back to the marketing conundrum.

Advertising in print media can be expensive. But at the same time, people expect ads to be in papers.

There’s no magic bullet when it comes to marketing, and each medium has its share of pros and cons. However, if there’s one truth when it comes to advertising it’s this: if we are trying to sell something, we have to advertise.

Social media and print media get your information in front of different audiences. While there may be some overlap of who sees your posts in both places, more often than not you’re targeting different demographics, but how can you tell if you’re actually reaching an audience?

That’s where the marketing game gets tough. You can’t. Unless someone specifically tells you they saw your advertisement, you have no idea if your plan is working. On Facebook and Twitter you have analytics so you can see if people are interacting with your posts, but you have no idea if that interaction turns into sales.

Marketing is an incredibly frustrating pursuit. And marketing is different from branding, and advertising is a tool of marketing. The whole thing gets convoluted and confusing. It’s no wonder most business owners/authors don’t want to mess with marketing.

But we have to. If we want an attempt at being successful, we have to put ourselves out there. And just because there is no clear-cut way for us to know if Twitter or Facebook or blogging or ads in a newspaper are working, we still have to try. In the long run, it’s better than doing nothing.

My new job has forced me to look at my own marketing methods and scrutinize what I’m doing. I think a lot about how I am viewed and treated when I go in to a business to sell ads, and I can’t help but think the consumers out there feel the same way. I imagine they’re thinking, “Oh, great. Here she comes again trying to sell me one of her books.” And then they try to hide or act busy—anything so they don’t have to interact with me.

It’s hard. We want people to know how wonderful our books are and get readers to read them, but consumers, like business owners, don’t want to part with their money unless they know they’re getting something of value in return.

I wish I had an easy answer for a way to fix the problem, but I don’t. It’s like shooting in the dark and hoping to hit something. Every so often, we get lucky. The one thing I can offer is to not give up. Keep trying new things, revisit some old attempts and see if they make an impact now.

Another thing I can tell you is this: make a connection. It’s not always about selling things, it’s about forming relationships. Don’t always talk about your books or whatever it is you’re trying to sell, talk about other things—your passions, things that make you happy or ask your consumers what they’re passionate about and what makes them happy.

The hardest thing I do as a writer is marketing. I’m trying to get better and looking for different ways to get my name out there, but I’ll be honest, it’s exhausting. Still, if I keep at it, I’m sure my efforts will eventually pay off.

Putting in the Time, Effort, and Miles

At the beginning of July, Dale (my grandfather-in-law who I’m writing the biography about) visited us and helped me with the chapters I’d already finished. While he was here, we discussed the need to go to the town he was born in and visit his ranch so I could get photos. Since he lives in Arizona, we had to figure out details of when he could come back. We decided the best time would be September.

Since I didn’t have my calendar with me (I always leave it at work), I had to take a photo of it to send to my husband so he could figure out what weekend was going to work the best. His first remark after seeing my schedule was, “Wow! You’re gone a lot in September.”

And I had to do my best to hold back my snicker. September is nowhere near as busy as July has been.

But he did have a point: I have been traveling a lot—more than I have in the past—and I have several more trips coming up before the end of the year. I even have some scheduled for next year already. Some of them in Wyoming, some across the country.

I’m looking forward to all of my engagements. I always have so much fun when I get out, but it does get tiring. It means I have to take time away from my job, which pays my bills. I’m away from my family and my dogs.

So why do I do it?

There’s several reasons why. Part of it is to increase book sales, but this is a small part. For most of my appearances, the only books I bring are my own that I use for display purposes. I’ve missed out on a few sales because I didn’t have any to sell, but the point of me doing my workshops and presentations isn’t solely to make sales. It’s to get me out there. It’s to give me a chance to talk about what I’m passionate about. Sales are just the cream on top.

And not every workshop/presentation ends with a chance to sell my books. However, some of the best words I’ve heard after giving my speech are, “I’ll have to check out your books.”

In fact, I heard this exact phrase after doing my presentation in Basin. It was said by some parents who attended the workshop with their kids, and it totally made my day.

The biggest reason why I travel and do these appearances is for branding. As an author, you’ve probably heard this about a million times. You brand yourself, not your work. By being an expert in certain subjects and sharing my knowledge with audiences, I’m branding myself. In most instances, I’m branding myself as a zombie or slasher film expert, and I love every minute of it.

Doing these presentations gives me a chance to talk about so much more than the book. I’m not limited to the words I’ve put on the page, but I get to talk about my passions and obsessions. I get to geek out. I get to express my excitement over research or gush about what I learned while writing. I get to network with people who share my passions. I get to be inspired by those at the workshops.

The travel can be difficult. Unfortunately, I live in the least populated state in the nation, so the distance between my town and where I give presentations can be vast. I’ve driven 6 hours before to do a 1-hour presentation. For the conferences I’m attending, I have to drive 2 hours to the airport, then fly for however long it takes me to get to my destination. Again, all of this for a short presentation.

But it’s worth it. It’s worth putting in the time and miles for people to know who I am. Even if they don’t buy my books, hopefully they’ll remember what I talked about. Hopefully I’ll inspire them to go out and find their own answers or write their own books. Hopefully I’ll teach them something new.

The world isn’t going to come to me, I have to go to the world. It’s scary putting myself out there, especially because that means I open myself up to criticism. But there’s also a chance something wonderful and amazing can happen, and I’m willing to take a risk to see what that is.