How to Avoid the #1 Marketing Mistake
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday Morning Marketing Tip - March 28, 2011
For something a little different, I thought I'd share my new Marketing Minute Video Tip...more to come in the future.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Monday Morning Marketing Tip - March 21, 2011
Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip
is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations
spread their message like wildfire.
This week's focus:
Last week, I received a promotional postcard from a well-known author advertising a new novel. One side of the card featured a large picture of the book cover, while the back side listed typical marketing text about the plot and a couple of endorsements. Aside from the publication date and a website address, that was all that appeared.
After looking over this promotional piece, I thought to myself, "This postcard may have been adequate ten years ago, but we live in 2011. How could this author fail to take advantage of all the modern marketing options that are now available? That boring postcard could have been much more powerful." For example, the author could have sent the postcard with these features on it:
· An enticing coupon with a 15 - 20% pre-order discount.
· A QR code that linked to a compelling video for the book.
· A link to a free resource that pertained to the book.
· An invitation to join her Facebook page or follow on Twitter.
I see this same problem with other direct mail promotions that fill my mailbox, such as store announcements, restaurant mailers, newsletters, magazines, etc. If you're going to promote your book or business, you can't just tell people that it exists. You have to give them an attractive to purchase or take the next step to building a relationship with you. Some people think direct mail is old-school, but there are plenty of new-school tools you can use to boost success.
Question:
What new ideas have you used to make your direct mail marketing efforts more powerful using today's new technology? Leave a comment below.
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© Rob Eagar 2011. All rights reserved.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Please help the survivors in Japan
In wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that has affected the people of Japan, please join me in making a financial donation along with your thoughts and prayers. Below are two organizations that are working diligently to provide aid and support:
Monday Morning Marketing Tip - March 14, 2011
Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip
is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations
spread their message like wildfire.
This week's focus:
A big I may be a marketing expert, but I learned a valuable lesson last week. After announcing my "Forward to a Friend" contest, I received a copy of an email that was forwarded by a subscriber which said:
"I am not one who usually forwards, but Rob's newsletter is one I've been receiving faithfully for 6 months, and I've found every single one to offer value. I'm sorry it took a contest to get me thinking about who else could benefit from what he's got to offer. Take a look!"
Here's what got my attention. I've been doing these Monday Morning Marketing Tips for over 40 straight weeks, and I've sent out monthly email newsletters for over four years. Yet, until last week, I had never offered a contest that encouraged people to share my value with their contacts.
The comments in the email above reminded me of a foundational marketing principle: "You can't expect your customers to do your marketing for you." Yes, a great product and excellent service can help generate repeat business and word-of-mouth. But, sometimes, people still need a little incentive to get them to take action.
This principle explains why promotional tactics, such as contests, coupons, sweepstakes, quizzes, back stage passes, and freebies can be so productive. Occasionally, even your best customers will lose passion for your message. Therefore, what are you doing to wake up your book readers or business customers? Learn from my mistake, and look for ways to regularly give your audience the incentive they might need to help spread the word for you.
Question:
What activities have you found to be most helpful in getting your readers or customers to take action promoting your message? Leave a comment below.
Your Feedback Requested - Author Workshop Survey
Based on the success of the one-day author workshop I conducted in Atlanta last November, I'm planning to schedule another one in the coming months. However, I'd like to include your feedback and preferences in the planning process. I plan to send out a brief survey to solicit your comments in the next week or two. Please be on the lookout for this survey, and I hope you'll take a few minutes to share your thoughts with me. Thank you.
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To receive Rob's Monday Morning Marketing Tip directly to your email inbox,
© Rob Eagar 2011. All rights reserved.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Monday Morning Marketing Tip - March 7, 2011
Rob Eagar's Monday Morning Marketing Tip
is written to help authors, publishers, and organizations
spread their message like wildfire.
This week's focus:
A big complaint among published authors is the torture of waiting up to six months to get royalty statements from publishers to determine their actual book sales. Imagine if a chef had to wait six months to find out how much food his restaurant sold, or an artist waiting six months to find out if a gallery ever sold one of her paintings. This ridiculous delay hinders authors from gauging the effects of their promotional efforts - and keeps publishers in control.
Fortunately, those dark days are over, and the solution appeared from an unlikely hero...Amazon. In an incredibly generous gesture, Amazon started offering the official Neilsen Book Scan retail bookstore sales data to all authors - for free!! Yes, I said this information is free!
Starting a few months ago, Amazon began to provide the Nielsen BookScan sales information, which includes the actual nationwide book sales information from major retailers, such as Barnes & Noble, Target, Borders, Waldenbooks, Deseret Book Company, Hastings, Follett College stores, Buy.com, Amazon.com, and some independent booksellers. Stores currently not included are WalMart, Costco, and religious chains, such as Family Christian Stores, Parable, and LifeWay. Nielsen estimates that their BookScan data captures around 75% of the total print book sales in the U.S. retail market. However, their numbers only reflect printed book sales, not the e-book versions.
In addition to the Book Scan sales data, Amazon also provides each author with a national map that displays where their books sold during the past 30-day window, with a lag time of about a week. You can see a list of the top cities across America where books are selling the most. Plus, you can view a graph of the Amazon sales ranking history for each of your books.
The benefit of this data is you can now see if your book sales peaked or dropped over time based on your promotional efforts. This free service from Amazon is the closest thing to real-time aggregate sales data available to publishers, and it's not cheap information. Major publishers can pay over $100,000 per year for this same data. So, the fact that Amazon lets author gain access at no cost is truly amazing.
To review the sales data for your books, go to: https://AuthorCentral.Amazon.com and setup a free author account. You will be asked to prove that you're the author of your books and create a bibliography of all your titles. Once you're account is setup, you can log-in and find a tab at the top of the main page that says "Sale Info." Click on that tab and see your actual sales history for the past 30 days, which may be exhilarating or depressing. However, it's better to know the truth from Book Scan than obsess over Amazon's the faulty sales ranking system.
Enjoy this new feature from Amazon. They may be the enemy to some people, but they've just proven that they're a friend to authors.
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To receive Rob's Monday Morning Marketing Tip directly to your email inbox,
© Rob Eagar 2011. All rights reserved.
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