Tag Archives: Marketing

Festival Fun: Jane Cable puzzles over how best to publicise a local event

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the-business-of-books-interviewswithjanecableI don’t know if it’s just me, but as a writer I’ve become so locked into digital marketing that asking me to promote something tangible and local leaves me scratching my head.

Although Chindi Authors were always going to run a series of events at this summer’s Festival of Chichester I hadn’t really envisaged joining in. For a start, I would be in the middle of a long distance house move. But since the arts’ editor of the local paper persuaded me to take part it has kind of become my Chichester swan song.

Chindi are running six events in all. We kick off with a crime writers’ panel on 20th June, the next night host a ghost walk around the city, followed by an indie publishing panel on the 22nd and on the 23rd I’m going to talk about how starting my writing career as an indie helped me to win my publishing deal. On Saturday 24th we have two events planned: a creative writing workshop during the day and a wine & words quiz in the evening. The latter came about because our festival home is the function room above Hennings, Chichester’s independent wine merchant.

As ever, children’s author Christopher Joyce is the moving force behind the project. As ever, I was two steps behind him, nodding enthusiastically. As a result of this enthusiasm I find myself taking part in the indie panel, hosting the editing table, and if numbers dictate helping him to run the creative writing workshop. But numbers are the thing – bookings for our events are starting to come in, but they are not all as popular as we hoped.

Some of this is to do with being part of a festival. The upside is being featured in their programme, on their website and across their social media (in theory – the last time they tweeted anything was two weeks ago). The downside is that there are so many great events for people to choose from, so how do we make ours stand out?

FESTIVAL FUN Jane Cable puzzles over how best to publicise a local event

We need to reach local readers and writers – mainly writers – and they are a limited audience. The local papers are being supportive but how else do we make sure they know about our events? Twitter is a massive stage for this sort of thing and although we have lovely Canva graphics to post we need to make sure we are using the correct hashtags. So perhaps social media isn’t the best approach.

Our email newsletter goes out next week and features the events so hopefully that will help increase the numbers. At least the audience is targeted locally and we know they love books.

As a group we decided against leaflets because everyone hates giving them out, but I think this could have been a mistake. We have a poster in the window of Hennings, and I have designed one for my own event which will go into the library and anywhere else I can persuade to take it. Although we are a group and we all promote each others’ events our biggest responsibility is to our own. And from my point of view, local promotion is something I’ve lost the knack for.

Actually, event or not, being visible in the locality of your book, or where you live, is an essential part of the author’s marketing toolkit. People are always so much more interested when they feel they may be able to recognise something of their own lives in your work it’s vital we don’t become so focused on the global horizon we forget our own back yards.

For more information about spoken word events at the Festival of Chichester look here: http://festivalofchichester.co.uk/spoken-word/

 

 

The Business of Books: Giving it all Away

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the-business-of-books-interviewswithjanecableJane Cable’s Another You goes on free download on Amazon…

Two weeks ago I wrote about trying to be empirical in judging the results of marketing – and also that Another You would be on free promotion. While an ideal opportunity to see if I could actually learn what worked and what didn’t, it felt a nerve-wracking and risky time, because if you can’t give your book away, what hope do you have of actually selling it?

Another You proved in spades that it could be given away. The entire week of the promotion it stayed in the Kindle UK top 200, most of that time in the top 100, rising to a highest position of number 20 and topping the free women’s historical fiction chart. Far, far, beyond my wildest dreams. So what did I do to achieve this?

First, the day before the promotion I sent round robin emails and used lead generation software for linkedin to all my friends and contacts who have shown an interest in my books. It was flattering that many of them had already bought it but I am sure there were a few who downloaded during offer week.

It was also a case of extending my network to people I used to know and I used Facebook and Linkedin to reach the alumni pages of both my secondary schools and the large accounting firm I trained with. From my former sixth form in particular the response was most enthusiastic, but then we always were a rather bookish lot.

I devised a number of campaign graphics on Canva, some with review quotes from other authors, another pushing reviews in aid of Words for the Wounded. I used a different one each day on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. I also did some paid advertising and post boosts on Facebook. This included a ‘shop now’ promotion with a link to the Kindle UK download page which received 42 click throughs and cost £18. I messed up another boost later in the week by not noticing I’d reach the spend limit on my account, but by that time the book was flying and it didn’t seem to matter very much.

publishing, Jane Cable, writing

I also spent a little money (around £10-£15 each) on three free book promotion sites. For the UK market I tried Book Bongo but I have to say I was disappointed with the amount of coverage on social media and the book didn’t appear in their newsletter until after the free period was over. There was also a free listing on Book Angel.

For the US market I tried Awesome Gang and Pretty Hot on different days. The jump up the free chart was far more impressive on Awesome Gang day when Another You rose to number 671. The main Amazon.com marketing came from my publisher, Endeavour Press, who sent out hourly promotional tweets with a link to the site throughout US book buying hours. I can only think this was hugely successful because at the end of the week the book reached the dizzy heights of number 68. Amazing – as a quintessentially British author I never expected to have such appeal in the USA.

Overall the key must have been to reach enough downloads early in the promotion for the Amazon algorithms to kick in. Endeavour advises getting as many people as possible to download on the first morning and I suspect this is the reason.

Although I wish I’d had more time to prepare for the free offer period I really couldn’t knock the results and in the week since it ended Another You has continued to sell well and remained in Kindle UK top 20 women’s historical fiction. Now I need to somehow launch it closer to number one and that coveted bestseller label.

 

 

Digital Marketing Tips

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digital marketing, marketing, tips, adviceDigital marketing, it’s a new ball game. As advertising, and, let’s face it, pretty much everything else, moves online, marketers are going to have to come up with a new set of skills. Do not worry however, Frost magazine is here with tips galore to help you use digital marketing to improve performance and your ROI.

Here are our digital marketing tips:

Find out all of the different rules of the various search engines. Google, Yahoo! and Bing all have different criteria and formats. Find out what they are and tweak your campaign for all of them and it will make a difference.

Make sure the URL in your ad is optimised. Make sure it is relevant to the product and service you are promoting.

Include a strong call to action. It helps to tell consumers what you want them to do. People will respond better and know what to do next. Including the word “now” in your ad is also a good idea. Including “free” will also give good results. “Call now for a free consultation” or “Call now to learn more” are both good call to actions.

Write your ad in title case. This means you capitalise the first letter of Every Word Over Three Characters. Do not use all capitals letters because it IS THE INTERNET VERSION OF YELLING AND JUST MAKES YOU LOOK ANGRY.

It sounds basic, but make sure you use the correct spelling and grammar.

Don’t use trademarks you do not own. It is not legal and opens you up to a whole host of problems.

Make sure you use the right, targeted keywords in your headline and copy.

Keep it simple. Do not use any abbreviations that are not widely known or long, complicated words. Never use a big word when a small one will do. Keep it punchy and concise. People have short attention spans and busy lives. Make your ad easy to understand.

Do you have any digital marketing tips?

 

 

The 6 Secrets to Starting a Business Whilst on Maternity Leave

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The 6 Secrets to Starting a Business Whilst on Maternity Leave

By Emma Walker

emmawalker

 

When you first get pregnant, you may think that you will go back to your current job without too many changes, and for some women this will happen.

 

But for others, when they’re holding their baby in their arms, they just know that things have changed forever and they might not want to go back to their job.

 

This is why using your maternity leave is a great opportunity to evaluate your career and decide what you want to do after your leave ends – return to your job, become a stay at home mum or start your own business.

 

Whatever direction you choose, just remember that you are doing what’s right for you and your family so please don’t feel like you have to follow ‘the rules’.

 

If you decide to take the plunge and start your own business, follow these 6 simple steps to make the transition easier:

 

  1. Decide on your business idea

Let me be very clear right from the start.  Running a business is hard work and definitely NOT a get rich quick scheme – if that’s what you’re after, you need to go elsewhere!

 

That’s why it’s really important to choose something that you’re going to enjoy doing a lot of.  Think about your past jobs, your hobbies, what your talents are – is there a business idea lurking there?  What can you do that you can get passionate about?

 

There are lots of business opportunities out there, whether you are selling your own products or services, or buying into a franchise or MLM business, you will find something that is a fit for your skills, experience and goals.

workingmother

 

  1. Get clear on the type of client you want to work with

You will spend a lot of time, and money if you’re not careful, on marketing so you need to make sure that what you do works.

 

This is where getting clear on who your ideal client is key and is something that you must take the time to do.

 

Really get to know the type of person you want to buy your product or service, this makes marketing so much easier.  By focusing on one type of person (instead of everyone), you can tailor all your marketing materials to speak to only those people – this is what will get results.

 

You want your ideal clients to see any of your marketing materials (your website, business card, leaflet, advert etc) and know that you are the person they need to work with as you obviously understand them, after all, you speak their language.

 

  1. Stand out from the crowd

The sign of a good product or service is if there’s already some competition, this means that people are already buying what you’re offering from competitors.

 

It is your job to make sure that you stand out from all your competitors in the eyes of your target market so that you are the only choice they should be making when they want to buy your product or service.

 

Think about what extras you can add that will really appeal to your customers and make them spend their money with your business.

 

The other thing you can do, that a lot of people don’t do, is make sure that you inject your personality into your marketing.  We all buy from people so be yourself as that will attract people to do business with you.

 

  1. Speak your customers language

If you’ve taken the time to really get to know your ideal customers, you should have discovered what their issues are and why they’d want to buy your product or service.

 

What is keeping them up at night, what are they prepared to pay anything to solve?

 

Knowing this can help you to create a marketing message that will show them that your product or service is the perfect solution they need.  You can turn their big problems into questions that will make them say yes to you.

 

  1. Manage your time

As a busy mum, we only have a limited time available to work on the business so you need to get focused so that you get all the important work done – instead of chatting to friends on Facebook.

 

Set up a schedule so that you know exactly what time you have available to work on the business and when you will be with your family – a great visual for everyone in the house to know when mummy is working so that there aren’t any interruptions.

 

Talk to your partner and get them on board to help you out – can they do some of the housework, help out with the kids more, do the cooking?  Anything that can free up your time to focus on the business.

 

Take the time to plan out what work you need to complete for the week so that you can get straight to work as soon as you’re in work mode – instead of wasting valuable time wondering what you should be doing.

 

  1. Plan for success 

Map out your goals for your business as well as the tasks you need to do to achieve that goal.  You then need to break those tasks down to 90 day chunks as this timescale is perfect to make you focus on what is important.

 

These tasks can be included on your weekly planning to make sure that you get them done and stay focused on achieving your goals.

 

If you’re struggling trying to fit everything in, ask yourself if the task to do on your list will move you one step closer to your goal.  If the answer is no, it can wait until a later date and you need to focus on something else that does move you closer to your goal.

 

Use your goals to keep you accountable so that you do achieve exactly what you want with your business.

 

There are lots of things to start and market a successful family friendly business but these are the 6 essential things you should focus on first whilst you’re still on maternity leave.

 

 

About the author

 

Emma Walker is the founder of The Mumpreneur’s Mentor and a busy mum of 2 little divas.  As a mums in business coach, she works with mums who want to start and market their own successful family friendly business as well as mums already in business who want to take their business to the next level without sacrificing time with their family.

 

Learn her ‘6 Success Secrets to Running a Family Friendly Business’ in a free training session. Get the details and register now at www.MumpreneurSuccess.com

 

 

The Saatchi & Saatchi Guide To Mobile Marketing By Tom Eslinger Review

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The Saatchi & Saatchi Guide To Mobile Marketing By Tom Eslinger is worth it’s weight in gold. It’s actual weight in gold, because it is basically free marketing advice from Saatchi & Saatchi. Mobile is the way forward: 50 per cent of all unique e-mail opens now occur on mobile devices, one half of all local searches are done on mobile devices and mobile commerce accounted for an estimated 15 per cent of total e-commerce sales in 2013. It is fair to say that if you are not utilising the mobile version of your site you are missing out, losing visitors and sales.

mobilemarketing

This book is useful and practical. It is not text-heavy and full of jargon, it is easy to read and navigate. Above all, this book leaves you educated instead of adrift. The mobile market is no longer a strange place, this book demystifies everything and leaves you with the knowledge to make the most out of your business. Essential reading.

 

Mobile phones and tablets aren’t like computers or TV or any other media channel or hardware technology that came before them. They’re personal—your mobile device is yours alone, the place where you go from work to play to socializing with the swipe of a finger. They’re portable—your mobile device goes wherever you go, and can connect you to almost anything, anywhere. Put together, these features come together to make mobile powerful—the most potent communication and marketing channel available to marketers today. How do you get onto your audience’s mobile, deeply engage them and have the privilege of staying there? Mobile Magic, by mobile marketing expert and Saatchi & Saatchi’s Worldwide Director of Digital & Social Tom Eslinger, takes you from the practical points of development and through to production, content strategy, content management and how to market your digital and social campaigns. You’ll learn how to understand your audience and how to maintain your mobile initiatives. This book will guide you in executing winning mobile strategies for your business. Written especially with marketers new to mobile in mind, Mobile Magic is your key to the wide world of apps, mobile websites, integrated campaigns, social media and cross-platform thinking and strategies that every marketer needs to know.

 

Mobile Magic: The Saatchi and Saatchi Guide to Mobile Marketing and Design is available here.

 

 

The Importance Of Branding

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Having a strong brand is important. It doblog_angle-brand-imageesn’t matter if you are an author working from home or a huge marketing consultancy with hundreds of staff. How you present yourself to your customers, clients, and staff, as well as online is always important.

Brand Guidelines

You’ll probably find that when you started your business you already had an idea of how you were going to conduct yourself and show off your company.

You should take these ideas and write them down. These are your brand guidelines. They could be as simple as using your logo on all correspondence or you could go into more detail with the fonts you use, the way you speak and the clothes you and your staff wear.

Ask Your Customers

If you are unsure as to what you brand is, or should be, then ask your customers as they’ll be able to give you a less-biased opinion than your friends and family. Market research like this gives you a good idea of where you stand in the market, how your customers perceive you and if your actions are portraying the right image.

Instantly Recognisable

The great thing about building a brand is that you can create something that is instantly recognisable, even when your brand name isn’t visible. For example, if people know your logo well, they’re likely to think of you when an envelope arrives on their desk in those colours.

Expectations

Your branding can also tell customers what to expect. Elegant, swirling fonts and colours such as gold and deep red just scream opulence. You must live up to these expectations though, if your branding doesn’t match what you sell or the service you offer then you’ll either end up disappointing your customers or attracting the wrong ones.

Cut Through The Noise

If you do something controversial, different or exciting with your brand then you are likely to get noticed. This might be an amazing advertising campaign, an unlikely mascot (meerkats, anyone?) or a very honest approach to the business and customers.

This is how people will remember you and there’s always the likelihood that something you do might go viral and sky rocket the brand to fame.

Brand Advocates

If you can get a high profile figure on board with your brand then people are going to start to take note. It’s no good asking a footballer to be the face of your new chocolate bar as the two don’t really fit together. However, a celeb chef known for her love of chocolate would work brilliantly.

Stick To It

Once you have some your branding sorted, stick to it. People will come to recognise the brand and that’s only useful if you continue to use it. This might be on promotional material, uniforms, stationary, or on your website.

There might come a time when you want to rebrand but this should be done carefully and only when your current brand is so out-of-date that it no longer represents you and your company.

Take a look at this article on Richard Schaeffer Liquid Holdings to give you an idea of how to brand yourself as an individual.

 

Idea To iPhone: The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPad

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Idea To iPhone- The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPadApps are big business and the media is full of stories of app millionaires. The internet has made becoming rich easier than ever, or has it? How easy is it to make an app? Or more importantly, how easy is it to sell it?

17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio hit the headlines by selling his app, Summly, to Yahoo for an estimated £18m, making him a tech superstar. But what about the rest of us who are not teenage whiz kids? I reviewed new book, Idea to iPhone to find out. Read on….

Idea to iPhone: The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPad by Carla White talks you through building an app from idea to iPhone, iPad, iPad mini or iPod Touch. Chapter 1 kicks off with your app adventure. It lists the excuses you may have not to make an app and dismantles them. I immediately liked this book when I was flicking through it for the first time. It is 294 pages of hard to find knowledge that you would not get anywhere else. Well, maybe if you trawled the internet for days, but even then I am not sure.

The graphs and pictures are great. The book is easy to understand anyway, but they add to the information getting into your brain. I learned that making an app is not as hard as you think and nor is it as expensive.

The other great information in this book is on Apple. How to grab their attention and how to work with them. Carla goes through everything you need to know about working with Apple and how iTunes can help or hurt sales. For instance, did you know that Apple take a 30% cut? They also pay you once a month after a four-week delay. There is also a step-by-step guide on becoming an Apple developer. Each chapter ends with a handy table of key points.

Chapter 2 is Shaping Ideas into Apps People Want. An essential chapter as there is no point in making apps that no one wants. This brilliant chapter lets you know how to find your audience. It also tells you how to integrate your app with Facebook and which device will be right for you.

Another thing I liked about the book is the quotes doted throughout. Perfect for inspiration.

Teaching you about finding an audience and building an app is one thing but marketing is also paramount. This book also covers that. You don’t need to hire an expensive PR company (at least not at first) you just need some hard work and imagination. There is also a checklist on building a press kit and information on how people scan iTunes. Essential for marketing your app.

It also has tips on finding a great designer, or designing yourself. And also a lot of information on finding and working with a developer. Tech tips on Xcode are also incredibly useful.

Further tips on making a profit, keeping track of money and getting the press interested make this book essential for anyone who wants to create their own app and become successful.

Idea to IPhone: The Essential Guide to Creating Your First App for the IPhone and IPad

 

Why Your Business Needs Car Bumper Stickers

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When you run your own business getting your message across is an important factor. If you are offering the best service or goods then you’ll want to shout from the rooftops about it. Most people have exhausted all of the usual marketing tools at their disposal, but if you don’t use car bumper stickers then you are definitely missing a trick.

 

Car bumper stickers are a great way to advertise your business or get your point across without the hard sell aspect of some other marketing options. Compared with other outdoor marketing tools, bumper stickers are relatively cost effective considering their reach. You can fork out huge amounts of cash for perfectly placed billboards advertising your company and offers but a bumper sticker can often be seen by many more potential customers as they are a form of mobile advertising.

 

If you decide that car bumper sticker advertising is for you then ensure your feature all the necessary information – whether you are advertising a business or an offer you must give people a way of contacting you or taking up the offer. The easiest way to do this is with a phone number or email address. Your sticker should also feature your company logo. Bumper stickers are well received if they are humorous in nature, have you ever laughed at a political bumper sticker and made a mental note to get one for your car?

 

Your bumper stickers aren’t just for people who work for you, give them out to satisfied customers to extend your advertising reach even further. You can even offer a discount to customers who have one of your bumper stickers on their car.

 

Bumper stickers are also a great way to keep an eye on your employees. Many commercial vehicles now feature stickers that ask fellow road users ‘How’s my driving?’ offering you valuable feedback.

 

Grab the very best car bumper stickers for your business from harris screen print, they offer a full range of screen-printed stickers that they print in-house.