I believe you will love these 6 marketing strategies for intellectual products. If you have taken the pains to learn about to produce them and you have actually produced them, then you need to learn how to market them. This is the focus of this post.
Why some books don’t go beyond the first print
So let us look at some marketing strategies for books and other intellectual properties in this section. Most books don’t go beyond the first print. This is because of the strategy adopted in the marketing of the intellectual properties.
However good your product is, if you don’t strive to get into the hand of the end-user, then it’s an exercise in futility.
No product on this earth is made for everyone. The same goes for your work, it cannot be for all and sundry. So based on your target audience, below are some marketing strategies for those who want to turn their books into bestsellers.
Launching
Launching a book serves two purposes which include creating awareness of the new book and making money from it. Anybody who argues that launching a book was primarily to create awareness is saying the truth. Some books don’t see the light of the day after their launching.
In launching, two groups play an important role – the media and your friends. The media is there to create awareness while your friends and associates are there to write the cheque.
If you have not built an extensive network, launchings are always suicidal. Why? You end up spending the little money you have to organize the program without getting anything in return.
Today, there is extremely valuable technologies and social media that can be used for this purpose. In a future post, we will look at how to use these platforms to launch your books.
Seminars
Seminars, conferences, workshops, and summits are other avenues to market your product. Such programs deal with specific topics and those who attend are people who think alike. Identify programs of this nature and then arrange with the organizers to market your books even at a fee or on a commission basis.
A writer can also organize his own seminars and sell his books at the venue. Such seminars can be paid for or free. You can organize a paid seminar and decide to give your books out for free; meanwhile, the cost of the book would’ve been built into the cost of the seminar.
You can also organize a free seminar to attract a large crowd and then sell your book with an attractive discount.
Bookshops
Bookshops are known to be the main medium through which intellectual properties like books are sold. But the truth is that it has increasingly become an unreliable source of marketing.
Before deciding on the bookshops, there are simple questions to answer. First, how many have the time to visit bookshops? Secondly, how many bookshops will accept to market your books? Thirdly, when they accept, how many pay up promptly? We have had a case where we spent more than the amount of money sold from our books while trying to get paid.
So the best decision in giving out your books to bookshops is to identify the trustworthy ones.
Today, a lot of bookstores are now having online presence. There are now many online bookstores in Nigeria like our own NowNowBooks bookstore.
It’s becoming easier to list books on these online bookstores. You only need to visit websites of these various bookstores to read about listing requirements.
Related: Find out how you can have your books listed on our own online bookstore.
Events
There are events like exhibitions, discount sales, religious programs etc going on in our environment on a regular basis. This can be an avenue to market your books. If you keep your ear on the ground, you are sure to know what is happening, where, and when.
Mastermind groups
Identify mastermind groups, associations, trade unions, and other organizations that may be in need of your book and go to them. If you strike a deal like giving a generous discount for bulk orders, some organization might encourage their members to purchase.
Religious bodies
This is one of the best-kept secrets in marketing. Knowing our environment and the mentality of our people, religious bodies can be the easiest way for an author to market his books. Imagine if one powerful leader of a sect presents or makes mention of your book to his congregation.
All you need to do is to give a complimentary copy to the man of God. If your work is good, he is sure to make reference to it one day.
I hope you lived this article. Please share your own views with us in this topic. Tell us what has worked for you in the past or what is working for you.
Related: You can enroll for Christian online courses at no cost to you here
