AdSense

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Can Old Fashioned Barn Storming Win Over Customers

Back in the day, when someone had something to sell, everyone in town knew about it. No matter what you were selling from snake oil to lightening rods, a sells person coming to town was a big event.  Although this no longer holds true, you can still exploit their ways and use them today to help you succeed in selling and promoting your books.
Back in the day, when someone had something to sell, everyone in town knew about it. No matter what you were selling from snake oil to lightening rods, a sells person coming to town was a big event.
 
When the circus came to town via railroad all of the towns people would welcome theses strangers with open arms, assist in setting up and pay real money to see the attraction.  As a writer and book seller, you have to make a huge commotion when coming to town.  You can achieve this via free public relations.  From getting on your local news, to having book signings at the local library or hangout spot, you have to put your name out there to be seen.

And when a sells person came to town, they would visit every residence and shop in town, and you should do the same.  Although it is no longer free to walk door to door in most places, you can build a huge hometown following without using Twitter and Facebook.
 
In today's world, you have to not only expand your mind but also your way of thinking when it comes to marketing yourself and your product.  The further outside of the box you can get, the better for your bottom line.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

How to Get Customers to Buy Instead of Window Shopping

Customers can be very fickle, always wanting things for free or wanting a sample before making a decision to purchase or not.  As book writers and sellers, we want customers to buy, buy, buy; but how do you entice them to buy when they don't want to.

Everyday you go through the experience of window shopping, in fact since the early 1900's customers have been window shopping and deciding if they want to purchase items of interest or not.   One of the most used ways of determining the shopping habits of people is by doing or completing a survey before or after a purchase. Both retail and online chains still use employ this method to learn about everything from customers experience to product quality to their personal wants, needs, and demographics.

The Urban Dictionary defines 'Window Shopping' as a term referring to the browsing of goods by a consumer with no intent to purchase, either as a recreational activity or to plan a later purchase.

Retails chains ensure repeat purchases by offering coupons usually printed on the receipt its self such as CVS, Walgreen's, Dollar General and Family Dollar.  The real idea is to find out why these types of customers don't make a purchase.

Customers only like to purchase things that make them feel good or products and services that solve a problem.  You can use surveys to hone in on the problem and solutions very, very well, to assist you in creating that 'it' product.

Another way to get inside of your customers head is by looking through your customers eyes.  Is the information that you create or write about relevant to them.  Is the price something that you would pay?

Remember that perception is everything.  If your customers feel threatened or cheated, they will not visit your store or purchase your products.  If you can give your customers what they want, fulfill their needs and answer there questions, then you will have a customer for life.

Yes, converting window shoppers into real customers can be both tricky and rewarding, but finding out what your customers like and don't like will always ensure that you'll always have a  steady stream of eager buyers waiting at your door.

 
Keep Customers by:

  • Do what you say you are going to do
  • Do it when you say you’re going to do it
  • Do it right the first time
  • Get it done on time
 For the Author or Book Publisher:

  • Look for Trends before they happen, then write about them
  • Look at what you are doing before leaping.  Ask yourself how much is it going to cost you?
  • Move quickly on an idea.  Trends are literally over with in the blink of an eye.  Move to slow, and you'll miss the boat.

 
Resources:

Can Online Window Shoppers Be Your Key to Growth? By Morgan Brown
How To Win Customers & Keep Them For Life, By Michael LeBoeuf, Ph.D.

 

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Multiple Income Streams From the Next Book You Write

The normal aspirations you have for the books you toil over is to write it, market and advertise it, and sell, sell, sell!  What if you could get multiple income streams from the same book, would you want to?

These ideas involve selling space within your next book and the income you receive can be used to further your marketing dollars.

First Income Stream Idea - Sell Advertising Space

You can sell pages in the front of your book so others can advertise there now available and up comming books.

If you can predict how many sales and/or downloads in advance you'll have, you can offer a potential advertisers a quarenteed number of page views they can accept. 

Page one after the title page could sell for $300.00 or more with the perfect pitch on E-bay.

Second Income Stream Idea - Sell Review Space

Selling ten or more pages so a writer can include a full excerpt of an upcomming book can also net you some real cash.  

In Closing

Use these ideas to build your case for receiving multiple income streams.  If you are planning to give away your books for free, having cash up front for the space you've sold can go a long way in helping the bottom line.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

It Pays To Get Creative

Sometimes, the only way to get customers to look at your work is by going left field on them.  You can only give away so many  titles, use the same old pitches to your social media crowd, and keep on doing the same song and dance routine to continue to beg for sales and attention.

Successful Marketing For Your Books by BD Manus, Manus Publishing, gives you an outlet for some of the best, unique, and outlandish marketing and advertising schemes that you can use to get both the sales and customers. 

Successful Marketing For Your Books is also the name of my newest blog, where every Saturday, I will write about what I have been doing to get and keep sales up. 

You won’t know what works, unless you try it.  Successful Marketing exposes the reader to low and zero cost marketing and advertising solutions that fit in today’s world.  From standard advertising (TV, Radio, Newspapers), Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest, Linked In), digital advertising solutions and more.

This week’s post (1/11/14): How to Start Your Own Home Based Ad Agency (part 2), will walk you through how one would go about starting an Ad Agency and in (part 3), how to use it to not only create revenue for yourself, but how to help others market and advertise their works.


$1.49
Kindle Book
#B00HNYSE40