If you're an artist or entrepreneur or a nonprofit or anyone who is trying to build a foundation and following, this post is for you.
If you're reading this post, you may be long past believing in "if you build it, he will come."
More than likely, you have already put time and effort and heart into a project you know will impact the world, even in a small way, and then, when it's time to harvest some of that hard work, no one comes.
Unfortunately, I don't have any surefire tips or techniques to guarantee success or speed up the growth.
But I do have words to encourage you.
First of all, you are not alone. I'm sure you knew that.
And before I get to the real encouragement, here are some hard truths.
1) It takes more marketing than you can probably imagine right now to build a reliable, trustworthy brand.
You may know people who can SELL better than you. But to build a following for your product into one where customers seek you out is really, really hard to do, and even major brands (think Walt Disney and soda) had lean years where they lost money and still struggled to complete.
In 2012, when I did a book signing in Darien, the manager told me it was getting harder and harder to get people through the door for events.
Once upon a time, he said, he only needed to buy a small print ad in the local newspaper and hang up a flyer. That was seven years ago, and it's only become more challenging.
But the Darien store is still there. And thriving.
The methods must change with time. But being amazing should not.
Here's one small business that stuck it out during the building years (the first ten) and is now enjoying what the owner feels is success.
One book publisher even showed the pre-marketing efforts to create buzz for a book in this Goodreads case study.
2) It takes more time than you think.
In 2015, Time magazine reported on research that said the average business, no matter what the business, had a life expectancy of ten years.
In the same year, the Washington Post said more businesses die than are born.
Speaking of time, people today have more access to more information and more targeted information, along with less time to consume it.
You have a lot of competition for people's time. What are you doing to rise to the top?
3) Overnight success is a myth.
A few years ago, I read a lengthy post by Amanda Hocking (which I can't find now), which detailed all the marketing she put into her Kindle books at a time when Kindle was new, and books were easier to find.
In the post Hocking mentioned how a relative had provided the money for her to give away A LOT of free books (hundreds of dollars, perhaps $1,000, if memory serves me right), to people who might potentially review them.
Just so know.
Now for some encouragement:
1) Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small they may appear.
But don't stop there. Analyze it to see what worked and build from there.
Here's a recent and personal example.
Last week WriteOn Joliet held a pre-National Novel Writing Month at the request of a local library.
In addition to social media marketing, we sent out a news release (which the local Patch ran) and bought two print ads in The Herald-News.
We had ten authors prepare handouts to share tips for writing in particular genres to attendees.
We had four attendees who left very happy and satisfied. We had a few book sales.
Some people might call it a flop.
But one of the library's managers personally greeted every author present and shared some of the struggles of marketing events, even for the library, which has more resources than we do.
Sometimes, even the library has little to no attendance at an extremely well-publicized event. And to be fair, we were up against a major event at the Rialto Square Theatre, which gobbled up the limited parking in the downtown area, where we held the event.
One author that night shared how she, even though sales are often small at the events she attends, is finally seeing brand recognition. Potential customers now know her name and what she is selling. That is a huge accomplishment.
BTW, her name is Holly Coop. You can find her books here.
2) Play the long game.
This past year, WriteOn Joliet has held an Author of the Month program at The Book Market in Crest Hill.
We put some marketing behind the effort. Each author received a customer flyer, a local media blast complete with a customized news release, and some ideas for additional targeted marketing.
Every author sold (and some sold extremely well) and one author had The Bugle come out to write a story about him.
Since that link appears to be broken, here is Dale Hansen's Amazon author page.
The owner at The Book Market is very happy with us (partly because we are providing free monthly marketing on a small, but consistent, scale).
For example, the owner, Janet Staley (a very nice woman who believes in books and and reading), recently had an author call her saying, "I hear you do book signings. Can I do one, too?"
If our writers desire it, we may offer the program again in 2020.
A few related "by the ways:"
Our release party for our third anthology is from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at The Book Market. Stop out, grab a bite of chef-created refreshments, meet the authors, and flip through some books.
WriteOn Joliet also has a new partnership to help with marketing its authors. More on this later.
WriteOn Joliet is hosting James Finn Garner at 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Black Road Branch of the Joliet Public Library.
The event is free and open to the public
The overall message to this point is that most people give up way too soon. Don't be one of them.
3) Be confident in your goal.
It really isn't you. It's them. Most people have not heard of you or your brand.
Seriously. As much time and effort as you have put into marketing that brand, most people really have not heard of you. Or if they have, they don't remember you.
This isn't a call to be spammy.
It's a call to be persistent.
Grow in knowledge and truth.
Leave people feeling happy they met you. Let them feel the time they spent with you added value to their day. That feeling will stick with them more than hounding them to buy products.
In fact...
Be like Edison.
If you're reading this post, you may be long past believing in "if you build it, he will come."
More than likely, you have already put time and effort and heart into a project you know will impact the world, even in a small way, and then, when it's time to harvest some of that hard work, no one comes.
Unfortunately, I don't have any surefire tips or techniques to guarantee success or speed up the growth.
But I do have words to encourage you.
First of all, you are not alone. I'm sure you knew that.
And before I get to the real encouragement, here are some hard truths.
1) It takes more marketing than you can probably imagine right now to build a reliable, trustworthy brand.
You may know people who can SELL better than you. But to build a following for your product into one where customers seek you out is really, really hard to do, and even major brands (think Walt Disney and soda) had lean years where they lost money and still struggled to complete.
In 2012, when I did a book signing in Darien, the manager told me it was getting harder and harder to get people through the door for events.
Once upon a time, he said, he only needed to buy a small print ad in the local newspaper and hang up a flyer. That was seven years ago, and it's only become more challenging.
But the Darien store is still there. And thriving.
The methods must change with time. But being amazing should not.
Here's one small business that stuck it out during the building years (the first ten) and is now enjoying what the owner feels is success.
One book publisher even showed the pre-marketing efforts to create buzz for a book in this Goodreads case study.
2) It takes more time than you think.
In 2015, Time magazine reported on research that said the average business, no matter what the business, had a life expectancy of ten years.
In the same year, the Washington Post said more businesses die than are born.
Speaking of time, people today have more access to more information and more targeted information, along with less time to consume it.
You have a lot of competition for people's time. What are you doing to rise to the top?
3) Overnight success is a myth.
A few years ago, I read a lengthy post by Amanda Hocking (which I can't find now), which detailed all the marketing she put into her Kindle books at a time when Kindle was new, and books were easier to find.
In the post Hocking mentioned how a relative had provided the money for her to give away A LOT of free books (hundreds of dollars, perhaps $1,000, if memory serves me right), to people who might potentially review them.
Just so know.
Now for some encouragement:
1) Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small they may appear.
But don't stop there. Analyze it to see what worked and build from there.
Here's a recent and personal example.
Last week WriteOn Joliet held a pre-National Novel Writing Month at the request of a local library.
In addition to social media marketing, we sent out a news release (which the local Patch ran) and bought two print ads in The Herald-News.
We had ten authors prepare handouts to share tips for writing in particular genres to attendees.
We had four attendees who left very happy and satisfied. We had a few book sales.
Some people might call it a flop.
But one of the library's managers personally greeted every author present and shared some of the struggles of marketing events, even for the library, which has more resources than we do.
Sometimes, even the library has little to no attendance at an extremely well-publicized event. And to be fair, we were up against a major event at the Rialto Square Theatre, which gobbled up the limited parking in the downtown area, where we held the event.
One author that night shared how she, even though sales are often small at the events she attends, is finally seeing brand recognition. Potential customers now know her name and what she is selling. That is a huge accomplishment.
BTW, her name is Holly Coop. You can find her books here.
2) Play the long game.
This past year, WriteOn Joliet has held an Author of the Month program at The Book Market in Crest Hill.
We put some marketing behind the effort. Each author received a customer flyer, a local media blast complete with a customized news release, and some ideas for additional targeted marketing.
Every author sold (and some sold extremely well) and one author had The Bugle come out to write a story about him.
Since that link appears to be broken, here is Dale Hansen's Amazon author page.
The owner at The Book Market is very happy with us (partly because we are providing free monthly marketing on a small, but consistent, scale).
For example, the owner, Janet Staley (a very nice woman who believes in books and and reading), recently had an author call her saying, "I hear you do book signings. Can I do one, too?"
If our writers desire it, we may offer the program again in 2020.
A few related "by the ways:"
Our release party for our third anthology is from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at The Book Market. Stop out, grab a bite of chef-created refreshments, meet the authors, and flip through some books.
WriteOn Joliet also has a new partnership to help with marketing its authors. More on this later.
WriteOn Joliet is hosting James Finn Garner at 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Black Road Branch of the Joliet Public Library.
The event is free and open to the public
The overall message to this point is that most people give up way too soon. Don't be one of them.
3) Be confident in your goal.
It really isn't you. It's them. Most people have not heard of you or your brand.
Seriously. As much time and effort as you have put into marketing that brand, most people really have not heard of you. Or if they have, they don't remember you.
This isn't a call to be spammy.
It's a call to be persistent.
Grow in knowledge and truth.
Leave people feeling happy they met you. Let them feel the time they spent with you added value to their day. That feeling will stick with them more than hounding them to buy products.
In fact...
Be like Edison.
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