How
can authors or publishers get potential book buyers to test drive their books?
Over
the recent holiday break I took advantage of a mailer my local Mazda dealer
sent me. They had a coupon for an oil change that would save me some money and
they offered a $25 Amazon gift card if I test drove a car. I figured while I wait for my oil change,
I’ll take the new 2020 Mazda 3 model for a spin.
Granted,
my incentive to come to the dealer was money – a discounted oil change and money
for a test drive. I had zero interest in trading in my car or buying a new
one. So, in this case, the dealership
lost out but they have the right idea.
Get people and cars to the dealer.
If that oil change yielded a discovery of maintenance or repairs being
needed, they would likely get that business.
Thought I didn’t go from test-drive to new car buyer, someone will. It’s a numbers game. Let’s say at least 1 in 100 who do the test
drive buy a car. So it costs them $2500 but they’ll make it up on a new
car/financing deal.
Ok,
so you are not a car dealer, where tens of thousands or at least hundreds of
dollars can be netted from a repair, purchase, or lease, but you can learn from
them. You can still benefit from
offering discounts and test drives to your potential customer pool.
Authors
should begin by offering sample chapters of their book to potential customers.
One chapter, depending on its length and what percentage of the book content is
reflected, may not be enough of a test drive for readers. Give ‘em more – and a table of contents with chapter summaries.
Consider
giving out a certain amount of books or heavily discounting copies so that you
get the book in people’s hands who can post reviews and be word-of-mouth
spreaders.
Even
consider paying people to read your book if it means they will then share their
views on social media platforms.
Mazda
didn’t get me to buy anything -- and sometimes no matter what you offer as an
incentive, you too won’t register a book sale.
But you don’t have to win all of the time. Just some of the time.
If
you have other books, products, or services for sale on your site, you’ll
benefit more by getting people to test-drive one book. If the customer likes it and buys it, he or
she may look to see what else you are selling.
I
have to say, I did like the new Mazda 3.
Mine is six years old. But it only has 36,000 miles on it, so it’s not
worth doing anything today.
Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe tomorrow.
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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative
opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone
and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him
on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels
much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2020. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in
Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the best book
marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the
top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best
resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.
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