WildFire Marketing consulted with Wanda to reposition her as the go-to author in the competitive genre of Amish fiction by developing a captivating new brand and building her a powerful new website (see case study with before-and-after pictures). In the first 30 days, Wanda’s new website received the highest amount of traffic in her author history. Since that time, Wanda’s website visitors and newsletter subscribers have grown by over 60%. Rob Eagar, president of WildFire Marketing, stated, “Wanda is a great example of how quickly an author can grow by investing in innovative marketing principles and continuously engaging with readers. I’m thrilled to see her hit the bestseller lists six times in a row.”

Barbour Publishing supported Wanda’s growth by amplifying her media appearances, sponsoring fun contests, scheduling author book-signings in popular areas, and generating support among the key bookstore retailers. To date, over 6,000,000 copies of Wanda’s books have been sold. Mary Burns, vice president of marketing, said, ”We enjoy working with Wanda and helping her connect with her fan base. With social media becoming so prominent in marketing fiction today, developing those connection points is so important. Wanda is one example of how do this right.”

Wanda’s novels are popular because they accurately portray the Amish way of life, which the author researches extensively to create her stories. She travels throughout the year, visiting Amish friends. She’s grateful that her books are well-read and trusted by the Amish, who credit her for giving readers a deeper understanding of the people and their customs. Whenever she visits Amish communities, Wanda says she’s drawn to their peaceful lifestyle, sincerity, and close family ties. Their way of life is a stark contrast to the chaos and stressful way that most modern families seem to live today.

Each year, thousands of authors publish hundreds of thousands of new books. However, very few of those titles are fortunate enough to make the bestseller lists. Wanda’s success of writing six consecutive bestsellers in less than two years makes her stand out even more. Her dedication to the craft of writing and the selection of a strong support team displays an example that helps rewrite what’s possible for authors in the future.

The post WildFire Marketing Congratulates Wanda Brunstetter on Six Consecutive New York Times Bestsellers appeared first on Rob Eagar.

Whether you’re an author, business owner, or non-profit director, you’ve probably set up an event to market your books, goods, or services. For example, authors offer paid seminars, businesses invest in events to attract new prospects, and non-profit organizations host fundraising campaigns. In each of these situations, the goal is to draw as many attendees as possible.

How do you get people to attend your event, especially if there’s a ticket price involved? Common methods include direct mail invitations, email blasts, online and offline advertising, social media postings, etc. But, let’s imagine that your event is only four weeks away, and your sign-up rate is way behind expectations. What’s the best way to drum up registrations in a hurry?

Let your fingers do the walking. Pick up the phone and personally call people who haven’t registered yet. I know three organizations who say this tactic works better than anything else. While they use the Internet to gather contact information, they reach out in-person to invite people to attend.

To the skeptic, making a bunch of phone calls may sound time-consuming. But, it’s an inexpensive activity that can be delegated to an intern or junior level employee who has a professional phone voice. Give them a simple script to read and a list of people to call. Tell them to extend a pleasant invitation, answer questions, take registrations on the spot, or leave a message as a reminder of your upcoming event. One of my clients used this approach to sign up 100 people in a matter of days – at a ticket price over $300 per person!

In our electronic world, we can forget the power that a personal phone call can have on people. Hearing another voice say, “We’d love to have you join us,” makes an impact. When it comes to promoting an event, don’t underestimate the human touch and let your fingers do the marketing.

The post Let Your Fingers Do the Marketing appeared first on Rob Eagar.

As an author, you can use this same dynamic to your advantage. When readers hear you speak in public or meet you at a booksigning, they’re able to feel an emotional connection to you as the author. And, if they’re fans of your material, that connection can run incredibly deep. For instance, look at the intense followings of bestsellers, such as J.K. Rowling, Malcolm Gladwell, or Stephenie Meyer.

When you sell books in public, remember that emotion can work in your favor. When fans buy a signed copy of your book, it can feel like a personal treasure to them. Therefore, price isn’t top priority when most people visit your book table. So, take these steps:

1. Charge the full retail amount for individual copies of your book or other products, especially if you sign them in-person.

2. Offer a premium package where people can buy one of everything you sell, such as your entire book library or all of your book, video, and audio products combined. Not many people will purchase, but no one will purchase if you don’t make the option available.

Let positive emotions from your audience help you create positive cash flow for your book sales.

Space is Almost Full:
Only a few seats remain…I’ve been invited to conduct an exclusive Book Marketing Boot Camp at the Write-to-Publish Conference in Chicago, IL on June 5 – 8, 2013. For only $149, you’ll get 8 hours of intensive instruction with me and a small group of fellow authors. I’ll teach in the morning, and conduct exercises in the afternoon. By the time you leave, you’ll already have finished important steps towards increasing your book sales. At $149, this is the lowest price I’ve ever provided for such an advanced level of teaching.

Register today.

The post Use Emotion to Maximize Your Prices appeared first on Rob Eagar.

I’m proud to say that clients of WildFire Marketing have racked up eight New York Times bestsellers in the past two years (six consecutive novels for Wanda Brunstetter and two non-fiction titles for Lysa TerKeurst). These are amazing accomplishments, and the authors deserve a ton of credit for their hard work, talent, and dedication.

However, when other authors hear about this success, some approach me and ask, “What was the secret to getting on the bestseller lists? Did the author get lucky and land a TV interview on The Today Show?” Or, I get a more sinister question, “Did the author buy a bunch of their own books and spike their way onto the list?”

I want to state for the record that I never advise my clients to manipulate their way onto the bestseller lists. Furthermore, I am completely against those unsavory tactics. Instead, I teach my clients how to build their author platform large enough to make the bestseller lists in a legitimate manner – and do it more than once.

Yet, there are people within publishing and marketing circles who don’t seem to value integrity and feel no reservations about misleading the public. They use shadowy promotional tricks designed to spike a book onto a bestseller list that doesn’t technically belong there. The approach usually centers on the author buying 3,000 – 9,000 copies of his or her own book through a behind-the-scenes agent who places the sales through retailers that report to the bestseller lists.

It’s ironic that authors in the business leadership, how-to, and advice categories tend to use this devious practice more than others. Isn’t integrity supposed to be central to the idea of leadership and giving other people helpful advice?

These authors justify their actions by claiming that the books are legitimately sold later at their speaking events or given out to attendees in lieu of a speaking fee. The problem is that creating this type of “bulk sale” to a captive audience of 3,000 isn’t the same as 3,000 different people purchasing the same book using their own free will.

When the average consumer sees a bestseller list, they usually think a lot of individual readers separately purchased a book from a major retailer or independent bookstore. Nobody thinks that they’re looking a list that is rigged by an author who pays $50,000 – $150,000 to buy thousands of copies of their own book. Yet, this situation occurs more often than you might think.

I’m a marketer, not a journalist. So, I’ll let the reporters reveal the facts about some of the games played in the publishing world. I think you’ll find these articles eye-opening and shocking:

Here’s How Your Buy Your Way onto the New York Times Bestsellers List
Forbes.com by Jeff Bercovici – February 22, 2013

The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike
Wall Street Journal by Jeffrey Trachtenberg – February 21, 2013

As an author or a reader, how do these articles make you feel?

The post How to Buy Your Way onto the Bestseller List appeared first on Rob Eagar.

1. According the New York Times, you can buy fake followers on Twitter for around $18 per 1,000. I’ve seen shady businesses on Ebay offer fake Facebook followers for a similar price.

2. My own experience with the popular ShareThis WordPress plug-in for bloggers revealed that anyone can easily run up the share counter that’s displayed without actually sharing the information from a blog post with anyone.

3. Facebook claims to offer an effective advertising medium, yet their average click-through rate is .0005 (5 in 10,000) In addition, a Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that 4 out of 5 Facebook users have never bought a product or service as a result of advertising or comments on the social network site. In addition, researchers at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute found that less than 1% of fans of the 200 biggest brands on Facebook actually engaged.

4. According to ConstantContact, the average open rate for email newsletters is around 19%. So, someone who claims to have 5,000 newsletter subscribers is probably reaching around 1,000 people.

5. I’ve seen bloggers (I don’t mean to bash, so they’ll remain nameless) promote an artificial number on their blog that combines all of their different social media followers and subscribers into one big number, which is designed to make you think their platform is larger than it really is.

When the human ego gets together with social media, there seems to be no limit to the level of nonsense that people will create. Numbers that are supposed to mean so much can actually mean very little. Be careful how much stock you put into building your own numbers and assessing someone else’s numbers online. We’d all be better off if we focused on the only numbers that really matter, which is how many units sold, how many customers added, and how many dollars deposited into the bank.

The post Numbers Never Lie – Unless You’re Online appeared first on Rob Eagar.

Burt’s story depicts a man who persistently followed his dream. But, the end of the movie displays an interesting scene. After Burt has broken the land speed record and achieved his dream, the screen fades to black and says, “…And Burt never stopped trying to go faster and faster…” He continued returning to Bonneville to attempt more records.

How does Burt’s story apply to you and me? All too often, we tend to let up once we reach a goal or an important milestone. For example, an author finally gets a publishing contract or hits the bestseller list. Afterwards, they stop working on their craft and their writing gets stale. (We’ve all read books where you can tell the author “phoned it in.”) A non-profit reaches their goal for donation pledges, but then the organization stops marketing and loses touch with the community. A business reaches its sales goals, but then stops innovating or creating new products.

Beware of the success trap. When you reach a big goal that expends a lot of energy, there can be a tendency to let up and take your foot off the pedal. Celebrating a victory and recharging yourself is crucial. But, if you stop trying to grow, you can become stale. Just because you become a bestselling author doesn’t mean there’s no more to learn about writing. The beauty of art and business is that there is always more to explore. You can always become a better writer, a better marketer, or a better organization.

People used to ask Burt Munro why he kept trying to go faster on his old, beat-up motorcycle. His response, “I guess the reward is in the doing of it.”

Only a Few Spaces Remaining:
I’ve been invited to conduct an exclusive Book Marketing Boot Camp at the Write-to-Publish Conference in Chicago, IL on June 5 – 8, 2013. For only $149, you’ll get 8 hours of intensive instruction with me and a small group of fellow authors. I’ll teach in the morning, and conduct exercises in the afternoon. By the time you leave, you’ll already have finished important steps towards increasing your book sales. At $149, this is the lowest price I’ve ever provided for such an advanced level of teaching. Register today

The post Marketing Lessons from the World’s Fastest Indian appeared first on Rob Eagar.

1. Don’t push your book.
Media producers don’t care about your book. They care about audience ratings. So, provide producers with good ideas for an interview topic, rather than a plug for your book. Show how your expertise, and the message of your book, relates to current events, such as national headlines, holidays, and recent trends. For example, if you’ve got a new book about reducing stress, don’t write a press release that promotes your book. Instead, write a press release that explains a little-known fact about stress. Then, offer yourself as an expert who can help.

2. Share interesting statistics.
Producers love interesting statistics, because they give a radio or TV host the ability to grab an audience’s attention by saying, “Did you know…?” In addition, providing interesting stats helps define you as an expert and enhances your credibility. But, make sure your data relates to the average listener. For example, an appealing statistic might be “Over 110 million Americans take medication for stress-related causes each week.” If you write fiction or don’t have statistics available, consider starting your release with a fascinating, real-life story, such as “Boston woman has a nervous break-down while Christmas shopping.”

3. Provide attention-grabbing ideas for interview topics.
Media producers appreciate authors who do some of the work for them. So, create a press release based on a clever topic that would appeal to their audience. Give the producer a mental image of what your interview would sound like. Using our previous example about stress, you could offer topics, such as “How to Beat Holiday Stress and Shopping Madness” or “Don’t Let the Grinch Steal Your Christmas.” Providing good topic ideas helps media producers take the guesswork out of booking you for an interview.

4. Concisely explain your expertise and value.
After you capture a media producer’s attention, explain how you’re expertise will enhance their program. Producers want guests who can entertain and provide good advice. So, describe how you help other people overcome similar problems mentioned in your opening statistics. Then, mention the title of your related book, and list 3 – 4 bulleted statements explaining the type of results you create for people. For instance, one of your statements might say, “Learn how to create a plan to prevent and cope with holiday stress.” This information helps a media producer feel like you’ll be a worthwhile guest.

5. Send a catchy press release.
Combine the previous four steps into a press release that starts with a memorable title. Just like a book gets judged by the cover, your press release will get judged by the title. So, give yourself time to come up with several creative ideas. Shoot for phrases with 7 words or less. Then, show a few title ideas to some friends, and ask which one is the easiest to remember. Also, if you email your press release to producers, use the title in the subject line. For example, you could say, “Interview Topic: Holiday Stress Busters.”

Before you finish your press release, be sure to include your contact information. Then, send it via email to media producers whose programs fit your book’s target audience. To grow your database, combine your media contacts with other authors you know and create a shared master list. And, don’t be afraid to follow-up with a personal phone call. Remind the producer of your value to their audience, and focus on the results that you can provide.

The post 5 Ways to Get More Media Interviews appeared first on Rob Eagar.

In contrast, I have client named Tim Elmore who recently wrote a terrific blog post entitled, 3 Huge Mistakes We Make Leading Kids – and How to Correct Them. He wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and take on a controversial topic. To date, his article has been shared on Facebook over 500,000 times and forwarded on Twitter over 5,000 times! It’s become a viral marketing sensation, and publishers want Tim to expand his article into a new book.

The more you’re willing to say what you really believe, the stronger your voice becomes. In today’s crowded marketplace, your marketing must be able to cut through the noise and get people’s attention. But, if you’re too afraid to offend someone, then you risk watering down your voice to the point that nobody hears it. If you want to grab people’s attention, take these steps:

• Say what you think about an issue without worrying about what other people think.
• Take on people who you think are wrong.
• Rebut bad ideas or trends with sound logic, case studies, or examples.

Marketing isn’t for wimps. Power is drawn to power, which means you’ve got to display a powerful voice in order to get people to listen. Otherwise, your lips may be moving, but nobody will hear what you say.

The post Marketing Isn’t for Wimps appeared first on Rob Eagar.

Consider attending at least 3 – 5 of these events per year as networking opportunities. Contact the event organizer, and ask if you could teach a workshop or participate on one of the discussion panels. Your goal is to get your name and expertise in front of the attendees. If those efforts fail, you can still meet a lot of leaders by attending the event’s sessions, dinners, or extracurricular activities. Don’t hide in your hotel room. Walk around and engage people with confidence knowing that you have real value to offer.

Action step: Make a list of 3 conferences you should attend this year, and contact the organizer about a speaking, panel discussion, or exhibiting opportunity.

Upcoming Event Announcement:
I’ve been invited to conduct an exclusive Book Marketing Boot Camp at the Write-to-Publish Conference in Chicago, IL on June 5 – 8, 2013. For only $149, you’ll get 8 hours of intensive instruction with me and a small group of fellow authors. I’ll teach in the morning, and conduct exercises in the afternoon. By the time you leave, you’ll already have finished important steps towards increasing your book sales. At $149, this is the lowest price I’ve ever provided for such an advanced level of teaching.  Register today.

The post Marketing Through Networking appeared first on Rob Eagar.

Are your best marketing materials buried too deep? Unearth those valuable tools and bring them to light where they can make a difference. For example:

1. Display your strongest testimonials, video samples, and success stories on the home page of your website. Don’t put that information on other pages within your site and expect people to make extra clicks in order to find that information.

2. Don’t force people to register their email or mailing address in order to receive your marketing materials, such as a free DVD, book, ebook, or special article. Give away your best stuff for free with no strings attached. There are plenty of other ways to build your contact list.

3. Setup a page of free resources or “freebies” page on your website and load it with your most convincing content, such as articles, research, book excerpts, sample stories, background details, etc. Use the power of free to convince people that your products are worth purchasing.

Avoid burying your best marketing materials where they can’t see the light of day. Put them front and center in your promotional campaign. Your marketing efforts will never go dark if you highlight the best reasons why people should buy your book, product, or service.

The post Don’t Bury Your Best Marketing appeared first on Rob Eagar.