For years, many of us have viewed marketing as some kind of mystic science which only the initiated can understand and master.

If you’ve studied the discipline long enough, you can work your magic and get complete strangers to buy your stuff. But if you’re an emerging writer who has been beavering away constructing beautiful sentences, how are you supposed to master this skill too? You have a BA, not an MBA. You don’t know your CTA from your CTR. It’s enough to make you want to give up.

Let me say two things.

Number one: If you think you can ignore marketing because you’re a writer, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. If you’re unconvinced, read my post Why writers can’t ignore marketing.

Number two: Marketing isn’t rocket science.

Why? Because at the core it is spelled E-M-P-A-T-H-Y.

Talking heads with words and emojis

Retail vs. Relationship

Marketing is all about RELATIONSHIP. Some sales, like sales of grocery products, are transactional, but even grocery stores have come to see the value of relationship. Look no further than the loyalty card.

When it comes to marketing, the most common mistake people make is to fail to take the time to think about their target audience. To really think about them.

Here’s the scenario: You’ve just completed your great masterpiece. Congratulations. Now all you have to do is get it out there.

Pause! Why would a complete stranger buy it from you? It would have to be ground-breaking, incredible value for money or a household name for that to happen. Let’s be honest, that’s probably not the case for you or me. Think about how you feel when a telemarketer calls you. Maybe you’re one of the rare individuals who entertains a polite conversation with the stranger. It’s more likely you feel put out. On the flipside, what’s your reaction when a friend emails you an invitation to a party? Even if you can’t go, you will open the invitation and reply.

So, back to our scenario. You are the telemarketer. Your target reader is the stranger. You have something to offer – your manuscript (or blog, article etc). Great, but have you thought about the stranger at the other end of the line? This has to be the first step if any marketing you do is going to be effective. And when I say think, I actually mean EMPATHISE.

Five steps to empathising with your potential reader

  1. WHO is your potential reader? You might think a certain group will like your work, but are you sure? Start by researching your genre. Who reads it, what are the most popular titles/writers/bloggers/journalists, where are these readers, how could you reach them?Something you can do here is TEST MARKETING. This is when you ask beta readers (readers from your target audience) to read your work and give you feedback. Does your writing actually do what it says on the tin? How does it compare? In which genre would they place it? Belinda Pollard at Small Blue Dog has a great series of posts about beta readers.Hearing the answers to these questions can be painful and may mean we have to go back to the drawing board. I think this is one reason we avoid it; we don’t want someone to tell us it’s not working. However, if we want our work to get in the hands of our target readers, we can’t skip this step.
  2. What are your readers actually LIKE? What are their interests, desires, challenges? Their age. How do they find out about books? If it’s through social media, I’m sorry, you’re going to have to take a deep breath and open that Twitter account. If I can do it, you can.How much time do they have on their hands?What sort of language do they use? This is an interesting one. Psychologists have noticed that when people are interested in each other (e.g. on a date) they mirror the other person’s body language. You can do the same with your readers by mirroring their language. I don’t mean you need to go back and re-write your manuscript in text speak. But, when it comes to your marketing – your social media posts, your About page – you can use the kind of language your audience will relate to.
  3. Use your IMAGINATION. Try and figure out what your readers are looking for. If you’re writing for kids for example, try and remember what was important to you at the age of your target reader.
  4. ASK your target audience. With the internet and social media, it really should be possible for you to engage in conversation with your target audience. Ask friends, teachers, librarians, borrow your niece or nephew, gatecrash a community group.
  5. Offer something for FREE. This doesn’t have to be your book. It could be a short story, a poem, an excerpt, a book reading/event, an exclusive email list. You can use this to solicit commentary from your target readers. If you have a blog, invite comments.

To be effective in marketing you don’t need to know the latest technique to make people click. But you do need to know what makes your readers tick. So, ask them.