Times have changed. When I was a young girl advertising had a different approach and the markets themselves were also different. To me, since I am an author, this is more noticeable in the book industry. Indie authors were still a concept, but they could only be printed through very expensive “vanity press”, and e-books were not even on the market, hard to believe now isn’t it? Over the last 20 years we have seen a change. With the introduction of services like Amazon KDP, Lulu, and countless others, it is now easier than ever to tell your story and turn it to print or e-book. The problem now is not getting printed, it is getting noticed. Hopefully, over the course of my posts, I will help you to understand the vast ocean that is marketing, and since it is something I am currently studying, we can learn together.
In today’s post I am simply going to explain the two main types of marketing. This will allow you to think where best you want to focus your time and resources in a manner that best suits your product.
Types of marketing
For me, there are really only two types of marketing, Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing. These of course can be broken down into subcategories and even combined strategies, but let us stay away from that for the time being.
Traditional Marketing
Traditional Marketing focuses on attracting customers from your a specific
demographic. It utilises things like adverts in the local paper, billboards, and local awareness. This manner of advertising isn’t ideal for most indie authors. Unless you write a book specific to an area, you really need to be focusing your vision on a wider market. Traditional Marketing is more suited to those whose customer base is local to their setting, things like repair services, shops, etc. That’s not to say you can’t benefit from this approach, but before coming to a decision working out your reach and return is essential. Another problem with this type of advertising for many people is, unlike Digital Marketing where you can drill into stats and see what is working, you don’t get much in the way of feedback. Your impressions can only be estimated based on your research about who will be seeing your advert, and you can’t see how many people noticed or found you based on it, or even how many of those made a purchase.
Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing has brought sales and reach to a whole other level. The world becomes your playground, but it can equally be a vast labyrinth with jargon such as PPL, PPA, PPC, and PPM thrown around. We will
discuss the jargon in another post, along with some of the tools available to help you track, streamline, and refine your strategy. With the world of digital marketing being so immense it is essential you know who your customer is. We all like to think what we write or produce will appeal to everyone, but the truth is you have a target audience, even if you are unsure who they are at this time. If you try to reach everyone you will waste money on bringing people who are not interested to your content. You need to focus on those most likely to make a purchase, people interested in the topic or genre you have written. Digital marketing is a precise yet evolving art. The market is in flux, fads and trends alter all the time, but your main customer profile doesn’t. It will, however, evolve into more refined profiles as you get more information, but this only helps you streamline your strategy. Your first campaign will be sailing on assumptions, only when you have gathered data can you refine your process. It requires time, but can offer a good return. After all, you could have a brilliant book, but if no one knows about it then it will never be read.
Summary
To continue with my earlier analogy Traditional Marketing is like a stream, and Digital Marketing an ocean. The difference in reach and impression is astounding, but it is also easy to be set adrift and lost in the vast tides. This is why you need to focus on one very important thing. Who your customer is, when you know this, you have a strong foundation for starting your marketing strategy.
If you are looking to attract a local audience then Traditional Marketing is a good investment, You can place ads where people in the relevant area will see them, and hopefully gain some product/brand awareness. If, however, your product has a larger market, then Digital Marketing needs to be the focal point of your marketing strategy. There is no reason you can’t combine the two (Integrated Marketing) but understanding who and where your customer is will be the first step to making your decision.
Call to action:
As part of these articles I intend to create a baseline for current reading trends. To do this I need your help. I have created a short survey to gather data on current reading habits. It only takes a few minutes and will aid in my future article, who is your customer, and maybe even give you a better picture of the current market. I do have access to outdated information, but I thought it would be a fun experiment to see what information I can gather. So go on, full the survey in, share, reblog, and spread the word. The more people who participate the more accurately the data I will later present will reflect the current market and trends.
To take the survey, click here
Before you go:
I wanted to brighten the post up with a few pictures, I credited the sources in the caption, but I also wanted to take a moment to say a big thank you to
Ana Paula Nardini from Pexels for the free photo I used to illustrate Traditional marketing
and to Canstockphoto for the one I used for Digital marketing.
I hope to see you next time
Article by K.J. Simmill (KS the Dreamer)
Since I still have your attention, and this is a marketing post, it must be time for some shameless self-promotion – check out my award winning books here, and have a great week x
K.J's Athenaeum 