The
average man, woman, and child will receive about 100 robocalls this year. Last year a record number of such calls were
made in 2017: 30.5 billion robocalls, up
another 1.2 billion from 2016. As the
marketing stage for companies, charity solicitors, and politicians moved
towards non-human contact, will book publishing take to such tactics?
You
may not get a robocall urging you to buy a book or to attend a local author
appearance, but authors and publishers are turning to automated ways to push
books out.
Amazon
will recommend books to those who browse the page of a book one contemplates
buying, encouraging the purchase of similar books.
Barnes
& Noble will automatically send emails to its members, pushing generic
discounts or calling attention to new best-sellers.
Authors
will blast lists of emails with uncustomized content, asking for book sales,
clicks to a website, reviews -- or making pleas to read a blog post.
Social
media sites are filled with ways one can send out the same message to many
people, blindly shouting a statement that is not personal and possibly
not even relevant.
But
authors, publishers and bookstores can’t help themselves. They need to be discovered, heard, and
seen. There’s heavy competition out
there for the attention and wallet of consumers. Many people can choose to do something other
than buy or read a book. Will it be your book that they seek?
Robocalls
may not be cost-effective for the book industry, but I wouldn’t rule them out
as a viable, alternative way to gain traction with a developing readership.
The
truth is, as things become automated and easy to click a button to share with
the masses, the art of customized messages to targeted outreach will continue
to fall by the wasteside.
Authors
and publishers need a quick fix and an easy score. They can’t afford to put too
much money, time, or resources into marketing a specific book. This is where the allure for mass outreach on
the cheap comes into play.
But
what’s truly effective for authors is not SPAM or robocalls or even viral
videos. What still works is writing a
great book, promoting it creatively and tirelessly, with a message that appeals
to whom you believe is your core readership and targeted fan base. By focusing on fewer people and sharing less
effort to reach a huge number of phones, in-boxes or doorsteps, the publisher
and author shall succeed.
Authors
are best-served not with an advertisement, but with media coverage, especially
media consumed by book buyers of your genre and message.
Authors
will see more results from a bookstore signing than to spend all day tweeting
into the wind.
Publishers
will move more books by marketing directly to organizations with memberships
that match a book’s demographics than to solicit all bookstores to carry a
book.
There
may be tens of billions of robocalls and trillions of tweets, FB posts, and You
Tube likes taking place in 2018 and in future years, but nothing is more powerful
than taking steps to reach your targeted reader, one at a time.
Customize, don't mass produce.
Customize, don't mass produce.
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
Do Authors Need A Digital Diet?
15 Ways to Promote all Books
The Fast Book Marketing Start To 2018
Which pros - -not prose -- will you need
to succeed this year?
How can all authors blog with impact?
Big Marketing Lessons From My All-Time
Top 10 Blog Posts
25.
Enjoy New 2018 Author Book Marketing
& PR Toolkit -- 7th annual edition just released
Here are best
author-publisher-publishing pro interviews of 2017
Study this exclusive author media
training video from T J Walker
How do authors get on TV?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.