The first rule in marketing is surely to establish whether there’s a market for your product or if you can create one?
A chap I know pretty well dropped me a line today bemoaning the fact that the new book he’d written on marketing wasn’t selling well. True, the first people who had read it waxed lyrical about it, but the poor chap has a mountain of the blooming things in his lounge and wonders both how he’s ever going to move them, why he can’t sell them and whether his marriage will survive the family having to eat supper off the boxes.
Well I feel like saying “the World is awash with books on marketing” is it any wonder? And if you are that good at marketing, then why didn’t you figure who your market was and how you were going to sell them before you wrote it?
I admire him enormously for writing it, I really do and he must surely be proud of the achievement, but it seems ironic that someone talented enough to write a book about marketing can’t possibly have followed the basics of marketing if his aim was to sell lots of copies.
How would I do it differently? Well I would remind myself of the basics and heres a short check list for those of you interested enough to read my pro’s…
- As with any other product, who am I creating it for? What is my target market or reader?
- What is so different about my product or book that people will want to buy it in preference to the plethora of others available? (What is my unique selling proposition?)
- Having identified my USP and target market – how will I promote it to my prospects?
