Good Marketing is Not About One Thing, It’s About Everything.

An Inbound Marketing group discussion on LinkedIn asked what is the single most important thing about a blog.  I felt compelled to respond and say that this question is exemplary of why so many companies and marketers are struggling in today’s economy.  It’s not about any one thing.  Good sales and marketing is a complex series of integrated actions and events that help buyers find you, build trust and ultimately purchase or go away if appropriate.

So many companies focus on finding the single thing that is going to save them, the current panacea is social media, hence the reason for so much money spent on social media seminars and best selling books by Brian Halligan, Chris Brogan and David Meerman Scott.   Companies put so much effort into looking for this magical home run they have few resources left to hit singles and doubles that can manufacture runs and help them win the game. (What can I say, I am a baseball fan.) In their hope for the big quick cure, they miss small opportunities that can have big impact for little cost.

Here is a direct example from my own efforts.  My publisher Wiley generously printed up 2 chapter previews of ROAR! which have been useful for giving out at speeches and events.  The thought occurred to me to hand these out for a few days on Wall Street near my home. The demographic is right for the book and the action could start a small buzz.  I noticed a Borders Books a block away and thought, ‘Why not direct traffic to the store?’  I contacted Borders and reached their head of events who said he would consider a signing at the store.

When I alerted my publisher the response was initially less than enthusiastic.  “Kevin why would you want to spend all that time passing out previews just to get a few people to a signing.  You might sell 30 books but so what.”  Note that this was a similar reaction to most ideas I bring to the table.  I am often considered to be a bit overly aggressive and unconventional as a marketer.

That being said, the belief at most publishers these days seems to be that nothing works in selling business books except having a big mailing list, speaking to big crowds 2 -3 times a week and spending lots of money on airport bookstore placement.  I pointed out to my editor that Borders has a large window facing Broadway near Wall Street.  Thousands of people pass this window every day. The window is used to highlight a poster and books from the upcoming signing for 3 to 4 weeks.

The relative value of this 1-month window billboard as compared with a bus-stop sign is roughly $5,000.  I continued to meet some resistance from the publisher as I worked to insure we had an appealing window to market the book.  Finally Wiley supported the effort with posters and shipping 70 books for the signing on May 19^th at 5:30PM. The manager at Borders said they usually only reserve signings for national celebrities so it seems I have landed big league play with some minor league actions.

Many traditional marketers would stop there and decide this was an OK accomplishment.  The ending result of the particular window, signing and Wall Street promotion might result in 30 – 50 books sold, respectable but not a big score.  Of course we can’t directly track how many people will buy the book from the preview or from seeing the window.

So, I decided to manufacture some more runs.  I connected with O’Hara’s Bar down the street. As a neighborhood bar they love to support the locals.  In conversations with the owners Mike, Jimmy and Paul, they offered to support the effort with a party after the signing.  They are passing out more previews to their customers over the next three weeks and offering a special ROAR! cocktail (Rumplemintze, Orange juice, Absolut-Rasberry on the signing night for anyone who shows a receipt for buying a copy of ROAR!  They even asked me to sell books on site for those who couldn’t get them at Borders.  I used the O’Hara’s offer to rally local groups of friends and contacts who are supporting the book and celebrate the success.  Several have assured me there will be no books left at Borders.

I get to blog about the incident, show off the window on Facebook and Twitter which gains credibility and makes for another interesting marketing lesson to share. A number of other authors Like Amilya Antonetti have already asked how I got this window and are sharing the marketing approach with their tribes.

All in all this one effort which some thought folly, brings the following:

4 weeks exposure on Broadway near Wall Street.

Direct exposure to 1000+ Wall Street employees

Direct exposure and recommendation to 300 – 500 O’Hara’s customers (Mostly Wall Streeters)

70+ books sold directly.

Dozens of new customers for O’hara’s

Exposure to 100,000+ thousand Twitter & Facebook Followers with Borders branded credibility.

By themselves each result is not a home run but all together they do a good job of upping the score in sales and exposure.  The goal with any good marketing is to create multiple impressions that engage the loyal followers and attract and encourage new fans to buy the product.  Stringing together a series of hits and looking for ways to add to each opportunity is the best way to do that consistently.  In case you would like to join us on May 19^th.  Here is the info below.  Come get your book signed and have a cocktail.

Borders  5:30 – 7:00 PM

100 Broadway (Btwn Wall and Pine)

O’Hara’s  7:00 PM until we stumble home.

120 Cedar Street (At Greenwich)